Forn Sed

Often known under the name Asatru.

This blog will focus on historical accuracy and reconstructionism but also on the contemporary religion and sometimes wander into other heathenry, like Anglo - Saxon faith, Odinism, Theodism and so on.
There will however never be any bigotry, homophobia, anti Semitism or stupid ideas of a "pure" Germanic race. hello! theme by cissysaurus
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Hamlet (The Legend)

Hamlet is a figure in Scandinavian romance and the hero of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

The chief authority for the legend of Hamlet is Saxo Grammaticus, who devotes to it parts of the third and fourth books of his Gesta Danorum, completed at the beginning of the 13th century. There are no means of determining whether Saxo derived his information in this case from oral or written sources.

17th-century manuscript illustration showing Amblett, on whom Shakespeare’s Hamlet is based
According to Saxo, Hamlet’s history is briefly as follows. Gervendill, governor of Jutland, was succeeded by his sons Horvendill and Feng. Horvendill, on his return from a Viking expedition in which he had slain Koll, king of Norway, married Gerutha, daughter of Rørik Slyngebond, king of Denmark; she bore him a son, Amleth. But Feng, out of jealousy, murdered Horvendill, and persuaded Gerutha to become his wife, on the plea that he had committed the crime for no other reason than to avenge her of a husband by whom she had been hated. Amleth, afraid of sharing his father’s fate, pretended to be an imbecile.

Hjörvarðr
The even earlier source Chronicon Lethrense (and the included Annales Lundenses) tells that the Danish king Rorik Slengeborre put Orwendel and Feng as his rulers in Jutland, and gave his daughter to Orwendel as a reward for his good services. Orwendel and the daughter had the son Amblothe. The jealous Feng killed Orwendel and took his wife. Amblothe understood that his life was in danger and tried to survive by playing insane. Feng sent Amblothe to the king of Britain with two servants carrying a message that the British king should kill Amblothe. While the servants slept, Amblothe carved off the (probably runic) message and wrote that the servants should be killed and himself married to the king’s daughter. The British king did what the message said. Exactly one year later, Feng drank to Amblothe’s memory, but Amblothe appeared and killed him. He then burnt Feng’s men to death in a tent and became the ruler of Jutland. Then he went back to Britain to kill the British king who wanted to avenge Feng’s death, and married the queen of Scotland. Amblothe went back to Jutland and was killed in battle upon arrival.

In the Skáldskaparmál section of the Prose EddaSnorri Sturluson quotes a poem by the skald Snæbjörn, which could be considerably older than the version found in Gesta Danorumand Chronicon lethrense. The mysterious lines are quoted in Skáldskaparmál as an example of Amlóði’s churn as a kenning for the sea:

Sem Snæbjörn kvað:94.Hvatt kveða hræra Gróttahergrimmastan skerjaút fyrir jarðar skautieylúðrs níu brúðir,þær er, lungs, fyrir löngu,líðmeldr, skipa hlíðarbaugskerðir rístr barðiból, Amlóða mólu.Hér er kallat hafit Amlóða kvern.(Guðni Jónsson’s edition)As Snæbjorn sang:…They say nine brides of skerriesSwiftly move the Sea-ChurnOf Grótti’s Island-Flour-BinBeyond the Earth’s last outskirt –They who long the corny ale groundOf Amlódí; the GiverOf Rings now cuts with ship’s beakThe Abiding-Place of boat-sides.Here the sea is called Amlódi’s Churn.(Brodeur’s translation, 1916)

Prose translation:

It is said, sang Snæbjörn, that far out, off yonder headland, the Nine Maids of the Island Mill violently stir the host-cruel skerry-quern — they who in ages past ground Amlóði’s meal. The good chieftain furrows the hull’s lair with his ship’s beaked prow. Here the sea is called Amloði’s Mill.

The other Scandinavian versions of the tale are: the Hrólfs saga kraka, where the brothers Helgi (known as Halga in Beowulf) and Hroar (Hroðgar) take the place of the hero; the tale of Harald and Halfdan, as related in the 7th book of Saxo Grammaticus; the modern Icelandic Ambale’s Saga, a romantic tale the earliest manuscript of which dates from the 17th century; and the folk-tale of Brjam which was put in writing in 1707. Helgi and Hroar, like Harald and Halfdan, avenge their father’s death on their uncle by burning him in his palace. Harald and Halfdan escape after their father’s death by being brought up, with dogs’ names, in a hollow oak, and subsequently by feigned madness; and in the case of the other brothers there are traces of a similar motive, since the boys are called by dogs’ names. The methods of Hamlet’s madness, as related by Saxo, seem to point to cynanthropy. In the Ambale’s Saga, which perhaps is collateral to, rather than derived from, Saxo’s version, there are, besides romantic additions, some traits which point to an earlier version of the tale.

Hrólfr Kraki fighting alongside Bödvar Bjarki, who is in his bear fetch, in their last stand