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The story of ''King Canute and the waves'' is a possibly apocryphal anecdote illustrating the piety or humility of king Canute the Great, recorded in the 12th century by Henry of Huntingdon. In the narrative, Canute demonstrates to his flattering courtiers that he has no control over the elements (the incoming tide), explaining that secular power is vain compared to the supreme power of God. The episode is frequently alluded to in contexts where the futility of "trying to stop the tide" of an inexorable event is pointed out, but usually misrepresenting Canute as believing he had supernatural powers, when Huntingdon's story in fact relates the opposite. ==The episode== Henry of Huntingdon tells the story as one of three examples of Canute's "graceful and magnificent" behaviour (outside of his bravery in warfare),〔''Enimvero extra numerum bellorum, quibus maxime splenduit, tria gessit eleganter & magnifice''〕 the other two being his arrangement of the marriage of his daughter to the later Holy Roman Emperor, and the negotiation of a reduction in tolls on the roads across Gaul to Rome at the imperial coronation of 1027. In Huntingdon's account, Cnut set his throne by the sea shore and commanded the incoming tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes. Yet "continuing to rise as usual (tide ) dashed over his feet and legs without respect to his royal person. Then the king leapt backwards, saying: 'Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws.'" He then hung his gold crown on a crucifix, and never wore it again "to the honour of God the almighty King".〔Henry of Hntdn., ''The Chronicle'', p. 199.〕 Later historians repeated the story, most of them adjusting it to have Cnut more clearly aware that the tides would not obey him, and staging the scene to rebuke the flattery of his courtiers. There are also earlier parallels in Celtic stories of men who commanded the tides, namely Saint Illtud, Maelgwn, king of Gwynedd, and Tuirbe, of Tuirbe's Strand in Brittany.〔Lord Raglan: "(Cnut and the Waves )": ''Man'', Vol. 60, (Jan., 1960), pp. 7–8.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「King Canute and the waves」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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