ORGANISERS of the Jorvik Viking Festival have outlined plans to rewrite the history books as the 100-day countdown to the launch of the 2016 event starts today.

Next year marks 1,000 years since the Viking Canute, also known as Cnut, took the English throne, uniting the nation and creating a North Sea empire between England, Denmark, Norway and Sweden which lasted for 50 years before William The Conqueror seized the throne, wiping Cnut's achievement from history.

Danielle Daglan, director of the festival, which next year takes place between February 15 and 21, said: "The records that did survive paint an incredibly powerful picture of Canute – both a strong, charismatic soldier and an adept leader and politician who managed to unite a country previously divided into several different realms.

"His Viking roots meant that he had the support of the Norse North, including York, which enabled him to concentrate his efforts on the rest of the country, basing his court and growing support in the South safe in the knowledge that he would see no rebellion from the North."

The most famous depiction of Cnut is as the king who tried and failed to command the waves, but Danielle said this was a misunderstanding which had persisted throughout history.

She said: "It is little wonder that Canute was recently voted the second least popular English monarch of all time, behind Henry VIII, when one of his greatest strengths is misinterpreted as conceit and arrogance.

"The original legend tells a story of a humble Canute who knew that, despite being the most powerful man in the country, only God himself had the power to control the waves. He wanted to show his subjects that secular power is vain compared to the supreme power of God, and that trying to stop a tide of inexorable events is pointless."

Throughout the festival, re-enactors, historians, authors and storytellers will speak to the public about Cnut, in the lead up to a grand finale on Saturday, February 20, with a visual celebration in the heart of the city.

There will also be encampments in Coppergate and Parliament Street, a feast in the Merchant Taylor’s Hall, the annual Brawl at the Guildhall, and a number of other free events.

Full details are available at www.jorvik-viking-festival.co.uk