Page 30 - Horley Carnival Programme 2019
P. 30

The Myth
Carrots make you see in the dark
The Truth
It’s true that carrots are full of vitamin A, which is good for eye health, but that doesn’t mean they give you night vision! The rumour was started by the British Ministry of Information during WWII to hide the fact that they had invented radar. Their new technology meant they could spot German planes coming over the channel sooner, but to keep the secret they started an advertising campaign encouraging the public to eat lots of carrots so they could see during blackouts!
Myths vs The Truth!
Nero fiddled while Rome burned
In 64 AD, when the Great Fire of Rome broke out, Emperor Nero was 30 miles away in the city of Antium. When news reached him he rushed back to Rome to help: he paid for the relief e ort, personally helped the search and rescue for victims, opened parks and palaces to provide shelter and arranged for food supplies to be delivered to survivors.
Fiddles wouldn’t be invented for another thousand years, but Nero was proficient at playing the cithara (a type of string instrument, like a cross between a guitar and a harp).
Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic ocean four times, but he never once set foot on mainland America. His voyages explored coastlines of Central and South America, and he spent a lot of time around Caribbean islands – but Columbus remained convinced that what he’d actually found was a new route to South Asia!
He wasn’t even the first European to reach the American continent: Leif Erikson, an explorer from Iceland, got there 500 years before Columbus sailed by.
Despite them being associated with Nordic raiders in popular culture, the Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets into battle. The 9th century Oseburg tapestry shows someone in a horned helmet, but either it’s someone performing a ritual or it’s supposed to be a god.
This myth comes from the 19th century revival of all things Norse, when horned Viking warriors were put into epic paintings and productions of Wagner. In fact the whole thing may be the fault of Prof. Cale Emil Doepler, Wagner’s costume designer.
Columbus was the first person to reach America.
Vikings wore horned helmets
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