1,001 years ago, King Cnut took a bath
November 20, 2024 10:54 PM Subscribe
He couldn’t even finish a bath? Of course he wouldn’t be able to stop the tide!
posted by TedW at 5:41 AM on November 21, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by TedW at 5:41 AM on November 21, 2024 [4 favorites]
"We heed not flatterers," he cried, "By our command, waters retreat, Show my power, halt at my feet"
posted by whatevernot at 6:18 AM on November 21, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by whatevernot at 6:18 AM on November 21, 2024 [2 favorites]
This is by no means the only instance of people stealing/moving/helping saints’ remains to another church or monastery during the Middle Ages. Some of them would make for excellent heist movies.
posted by bouvin at 7:09 AM on November 21, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by bouvin at 7:09 AM on November 21, 2024 [4 favorites]
Or D&D campaigns.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 7:16 AM on November 21, 2024 [5 favorites]
posted by I-Write-Essays at 7:16 AM on November 21, 2024 [5 favorites]
Man, they were always in the bath in Vikings, well before the season with Canute.
Gaslighting a thousand years before it was fashionable?
posted by biffa at 7:35 AM on November 21, 2024
Gaslighting a thousand years before it was fashionable?
posted by biffa at 7:35 AM on November 21, 2024
They did, but by using letters instead of numbers, the silly gooses.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:53 AM on November 21, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:53 AM on November 21, 2024 [1 favorite]
still John Bull’s— WH Auden, Thanksgiving for a Habitat, VII. Encomium Balnei
hip-bath it was
that made one carnal pleasure lawful
for the first time since we quarreled
over Faith and Works
[…]
a Roman though
bath addict
amphitheater fan
would be puzzled
seeing the caracallan acreage
compressed into a few square feet
I think he has another about the last Roman Briton to take a hot bath and the first post-Roman Briton to do so thinking about each other. Cnut lacuna!
(Auden is not online, I find, being apparently in a gap of his own; late enough to have people defending his copyright but too early to have fans publishing official copies.)
posted by clew at 10:12 AM on November 21, 2024 [2 favorites]
Ok, what date would that be using the modern calendar? I collect odd holidays and as it stands right now King Cnut bath day would be the same day our annual celebration of the dinosaurs going extinct.
posted by Gygesringtone at 7:03 PM on November 21, 2024
posted by Gygesringtone at 7:03 PM on November 21, 2024
Cnut's bath killed the dinosaurs!
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:40 PM on November 21, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:40 PM on November 21, 2024 [1 favorite]
They’re not saying this was the first bath in Britain, or even Cnut’s first, they’re suggesting this odd detail was included in Osbern’s account because the bath recalls baptism. Not convinced.
posted by Phanx at 7:56 AM on November 22, 2024
posted by Phanx at 7:56 AM on November 22, 2024
Seems typical that the first recorded bath is an interrupted one.
Apropos of bathing history, the earliest known bathing facility, AFAIK, is the The Great Bath at Mohenjo-Daro, a third-millennium BCE edifice developed by the Harappan (Indus Valley) Civilization. It was, for its time, an extraordinary engineering undertaking.
posted by jackbishop at 8:47 AM on November 24, 2024
Apropos of bathing history, the earliest known bathing facility, AFAIK, is the The Great Bath at Mohenjo-Daro, a third-millennium BCE edifice developed by the Harappan (Indus Valley) Civilization. It was, for its time, an extraordinary engineering undertaking.
posted by jackbishop at 8:47 AM on November 24, 2024
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posted by TheophileEscargot at 12:31 AM on November 21, 2024 [3 favorites]