Henry of Huntingdon (12th century) claimed that Harthacnut ordered for the dining tables of his court to be ""laid four times a day with royal sumptuousness"" which O'Brien says is likely a popular myth. Henry of Huntingdon viewed this detail in the context of the monarch sharing these meals with the members of his household, making Harthacnut more generous than his own contemporaries, who ""through avarice, or as they pretend through disgust, ...set but one meal a day before their dependents"". His account produced the image of Harthacnut as a ""very generous Bon viveur."" Ranulf Higden (14th century) viewed the same detail in a negative light. He claimed that Harthacnut insisted on having two dinners and two suppers per day. His example influenced the English people, who supposedly were to Higden's day gluttonous and extravagant. Higden so claimed that Harthacnut had a lasting effect on the English national character. The association of Harthacnut with gluttony was well known enough to appear in the novel Ivanhoe (1819) by Walter Scott. The character Cedric comments on his friend Athelstane, whose main character trait is a love for food and drink, that ""The soul of Hardicanute hath taken possession of him, and he hath no pleasure save to fill, to swill, and to call for more.""