1936 - Andersen, Knud - High Tide at Dover (7)
Allusion | |
---|---|
Date | 1936 |
Author | Andersen, Knud |
Title | Højvande ved Dover [High Tide at Dover] |
Mentions | Air gun named Robin Hood at the 1935 Corpus Christi fair in Penzance |
By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-09-19. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-11-20.
Allusion
Her var Forhindringsløb og Gallopløb på kulørte Træheste, Verdens største omrejsende zoologiske Have, Skydebaner, Rutschebaner, Gynger og Vægte, hvor man blev vejet gratis, hvis Ejeren ikke kunde gætte, hvor tung man var. Gyngerne bar navne som "Aquitania", "Majestic", "Queen Mary" og andre af de store Oceanflyvere, mens Luftbøsserne hed "Lange Tom", "Tykke Bertha" og "Robin Hood". Her var Astrologer og Spaakvinder, som med Garanti stillede Horoskoper af forskellig Kvalitet helt op til 5 Sh. pr. Stk. Her var Karuseller, trukket med Haandkraft, mens man red paa "Pegasus", "Windsor Lad", "Golden Miller" eller andre af de berømte Væddeløbsheste, hvis Navne hver Englænder kender bedre end Navnene paa de store Profeter.
[IRHB translation:]
There were steeplechases, horse-races on colourful wooden horses, the world's largest travelling zoo, shooting galleries, switchbacks, swings, and weighing scales where weighing was free if the owner could not guess your weight. The swings carried names like "Aquitania", "Queen Mary" and other such great ocean flyers, while the pellet guns were named "Long Tom", "Fat Bertha" and "Robin Hood". There were astrologers and fortune-tellers who drew up horoscopes, warranted to be of varying quality and set you back up to 5s. apiece. There were hand-drawn carousels where one rode the "Pegasus", "Windsor Lad", "Golden Miller" or one of the other famous race-horses, whose names every Englishman knows better than the names of the great prophets.[1]
Source notes
The approximate date of the author's visit to the fair must be 20 June 1935. The book, published in 1936, includes a reference to the author's circmumnavigation during which he made a stop in England in June of 1932.[2] There are several references to a royal jubilee, which must be the 25th anniversary of George V's succession to the throne (on 6 May 1910; he was crowned on 22 June 1911).[3] The king's abdication on 20 January 1936 is not mentioned, which it probably would have been in connection with one of the references to the jubilee, had it occurred at the time the book was written. There are references to autumn, Christmas and mid-January.[4] In view of this, the trip must have taken place from about October 1934 to June or possibly early July 1935. In the latter year, Corpus Christi Day fell on June 20.[5]
IRHB comments
The passage cited is part of a much longer account of the Corpus Christi fair, which is not free from examples of the author's tendency to melodramatic and morose moralising. I have spared the reader any of these. The Corpus Christi fair is still held.[6] The coordinates indicated on the Google map are those of the Market Place. I am not sure if the fair is in fact held there.
Lists
- Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 315-19.
- Outside scope of Sussex, Lucy, compil. 'References to Robin Hood up to 1600', in: Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 262-88.
Editions
- Andersen, Knud. Højvande ved Dover (København, 1936); see p. 188.
Background
- Calendar-13.com: 1935
- Penzance Town Council: Town Charter Information
- Wikipedia: Corpus Christi (feast)
- Wikipedia: Knud Andersen (forfatter) (in Danish)
- Wikipedia: Penzance.
Also see
Notes
- ↑ Andersen, Knud. Højvande ved Dover (København, 1936), p. 288.
- ↑ Andersen, Knud. Højvande ved Dover (København, 1936), p. 37.
- ↑ Andersen, Knud. Højvande ved Dover (København, 1936); see for instance pp. 181-82.
- ↑ Andersen, Knud. Højvande ved Dover (København, 1936), pp. 28, 75, 133.
- ↑ Calendar-13.com: 1935.
- ↑ Penzance Town Council: Town Charter Information.