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Canute the Great

I'm a bit of a trivia hoarder and enjoy a good quiz... I tend to avoid those where people are going after huge amounts of money... for some reason that takes the edge off it for me. I like quizzes where I don't know most of the answers, but not because they are all about Hollyoaks and the Kardashians (yes I'm a cultural snob), but am astounded at times how variable knowledge is... I have long since stopped being appalled at the general ignorance of all things Biblical in the Great British public (years ago when I was a regular part of a winning Irish Methodist Association Youth Club quiz team that then went over to compete against teams from across the UK we regarded the Bible round as free points...), but even once commonly known stories from history seem to have passed from general knowledge (and this is not me on a Michael Gove-like campaign for teaching British children "facts" about their history... that's a whole other issue). But one example of that was this week when I was escaping the news by watching a quiz where the assembled brains clearly had never heard of King Canute and his encounter with the waves. I was reduced to shouting at the TV in the way I had sought not to do by avoiding watching the news... So I decided it was time to stop watching TV and screens altogether for a while... And I then went away to read a piece about said Canute in an actual book... before scribbling this...

Great Canute, or Cnut the Cunning 
Defying the encroaching tide, 
Or demonstrating the foolishness 
Of his fawning followers, or both?

Neither Canute, or Cnut, nor any 
Other fabled King or Queen 
Or revered ruler of great nation 
Can truly command the waves.

Great Canute, or Cnut the uniter 
One King of two kingdoms 
Connected by common cause 
Or bound together by brutality?

Great Canute, or Cnut, the complex 
Reduced to mere myth or quiz question 
Whilst we are reduced to 
Impotently watching the airwaves.
Selah
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