THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 64, 27 December 1935, Page 6

THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

FORESEEN BY KING KANUTE. In London on November 12 many notable persons were to attend a dinner in honour of the 900th anniversary of tho death of King Canute. Most persons who have studied English history remember Canute only for one reputed incident in his career — an incident that has inspired many cartoonists, says the “New York Times.” The story is that, once while he was sitting on the seashore near Southampton, King Canute, to show the folly of his flatterers, commanded the sea to respect its sovereign, and, “the tides soon compelling him to retire, lie took the opportunity to read his flatterers a lecture on the weakness of earthly kings when compared with tho power of the Supreme Being Who rules tho elements.” This may or may not be a fable. But the Viking Society, which gave the commemoratory dinner, claims that Canute (who came from Denmark and conquered England in the lltli century), besides being the restorer of the old Saxon laws to .England, was the man who first conceived the idea of a British Empire. The object of his numerous wars was, they say, to found a great North European Empire, with England as its centre. He conquered Norway for this reason. The Viking'Society is tho only one of its kind in the world. It came into existence in 1892, William Morris, England’s great saga poet, being one of its founders. Its members to-day, although comparatively few in number, are all extremely learned—authorities on Scandinavian literature and antiques not only in Great Britain, but almost the world over. The anniversary was also to he honoured at Bosham, in Sussex, where, in the ancient church, is a statue, reputed to be that of Canute’s daughter.