'Irish Hamlet' Mystery Solved?
Was Hamlet, Shakespeare's Prince of Denmark, actually Irish? That is the question, according to a paper published in the latest edition of the journal Review of English Studies.
Scholars have long agreed that William Shakespeare based his Hamlet on Amlethus, a legendary figure found in the "History of the Danes," a saga written around 1200.
The name Amlethus was then traced back to the word Amlothi, which appears in a 10th or 11th century poem by the Icelandic poet Snow Bear.
But according to Lisa Collinson, of the Centre for Scandinavian Studies at the University of Aberdeen, the roots for Hamlet are even deeper and can be traced to a little known Irish tale called the "Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel."....
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Scholars have long agreed that William Shakespeare based his Hamlet on Amlethus, a legendary figure found in the "History of the Danes," a saga written around 1200.
The name Amlethus was then traced back to the word Amlothi, which appears in a 10th or 11th century poem by the Icelandic poet Snow Bear.
But according to Lisa Collinson, of the Centre for Scandinavian Studies at the University of Aberdeen, the roots for Hamlet are even deeper and can be traced to a little known Irish tale called the "Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel."....