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The Conundrums in Saxo's Hamlet Episode

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Hans Sperber
Hans Sperber*
Affiliation:
Ohio State University, Columbus 10, Ohio
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Extract

Perhaps the most significant link between Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Saxo Grammaticus story about Amlethus is to be found in that part of the tale which describes the hero's feigned madness. Although the plot of the story follows a rather common pattern and even the characters, as presented by Saxo, are mostly well-known types that may be found in any number of legends, the picture of the suppressed youth who hides his superiority over his enemies behind double-talk and disguised meaning is certainly food for a poet's imagination. However, what gives the Danish story its strange attraction is precisely what makes it so difficult to understand its details. Puns and ambiguities in a foreign language are notoriously hard to understand, and even if we had the Danish original of Saxo's tale, we would probably find ourselves baffled by more than one of its word plays. Translated into flowery Latin by a man who can be shown to have misunderstood at least part of what his source offered, its real meaning has revealed itself to modern interpretation only gradually, and by no means completely.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 64 , Issue 4 , September 1949 , pp. 864 - 870
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1949

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References

1 The First Nine Books of Saxo Grammaticus (Folklore Society Publications 33), p. 109 ff.

2 Axel Olrik, Kilderne til Sakses Oldhistorie, ii, 160.

3 “Der Name Hamlet”, Indogermanische Porschungen, xxv, 370 ff.

4 Germanische Heldensage, ii, 225 ff.

5 Beitrdge mr Geschichte der deutschen Sprache uni Lileratur, LVII, 188.

6 Festskrifl til Feilberg (Svenska Landsmål, 1911), p. 98 ff.

7 See Holmbäck and Wessén, Svenska Landskapslagar, esp. Upplandslagen, p. 129.

8 Meißner, p. 389.

9 Schneider, n, 229.

10 Cp. Erik Neumann, Ett Latinskl—Svenskt Glossarium, i, 399 (Svenska Fornskrift-sällskapets Samlingar, 45).

11 Ordbog till det Uldre Danske Sprog, s.v.

12 Jfirgen Olrik, p. 99.

13 Fritzner, Ordbog over del garnie norske sprog, s.v.

14 Quoted from Bugge's Edda edition, which follows Codex Arnamagnaeanus. Codex Regius has qngli instead of agni.

15 Kristnis Saga, ed. Kahle, p. 24.

16 Schneider, ii, 234.

17 Gammeldansk Grammalik, 338.

18 Ibid., 341.

19 E. A. Kock, Nolationes Norronae, 572, 573, 1791, and 3221.

20 Op. cit., p. 375.

21 Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage, vii, 206.

22 Op. cit., ii, 228.

23 Saemundar Edda, ed. Detter and Heinzel, i, 116, 123, and ii, 118.