Apparently, Saxo the Grammarian wrote History of the Danes, which is 16 volumes long! In books 3 and 4 appears the legend of Amleth (Hamlet if you move the H to the beginning of the word). As the legend goes – Orvendil and Fengi were chosen by the King of the Danes to rule over an area called Jutland. Orvendil was married to Geruth and their marriage produced one child, Amleth. Fengi, who was jealous of his brother in every way, kills him and subsequently marries Geruth. Amleth pretends to be “mad” in order to exact revenge on his uncle for his father’s murder.2 Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
This book, translated in French, as well as ur-Hamlet would have been available at the time that Shakespeare wrote his most famous tragedy.
I will leave you with this hilariously funny animation summary of the play.
Sources:
1 Garber, Marjorie. “Hamlet”. Shakespeare After All. New York: Anchor Books, 2008. Kindle E-book.
2 Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespeare's Sources for Hamlet. Shakespeare Online. 6 Feb. 2011. <>.
Copyright © 2011 by The Maiden’s Court
Wow, I had no idea about Hamlet's origins! That's highly interesting, thanks for doing the research and sharing what you found!
ReplyDeleteHaha, the animation is so hilarious!
Irena - I didn't know that there was anything behind it either. And I only stumbled upon that one sentence. How funny it is that one little thing can lead to something. Isn't the animation cute?
ReplyDeletehamlet was great guy and love the histroy book the video was out right funny
ReplyDeleteI had heard about this background but never learned anything about it. Thanks for passing along all that information. BTW, I do that "typical exercise" too, sometimes I can't wait and do it in the middle of reading. I am afraid it would turn into habit if I ever got an I-Pad - Yikes!
ReplyDeleteDawn - I try so hard not to during a book, because I am afraid it will give something away.
ReplyDelete