Hamlet

Hamlet

>> to do proper format for Lilt

Historical background

excerpt from Kevin W. Stroud on the origins of the play, Hamlet, in Danish history:

The expansion of the Danes into Jutland is reflected in a story which is recorded in slightly
different versions in a couple of Danish texts which were composed many years later in the
twelfth century. The story involved an early Danish king whose power extended to Jutland. This
king designated two brothers as his rulers there. The Danish king was so impressed with one of
the brothers, that he gave his daughter to the brother in marriage. And the two of them had a son
named ‘Amleth.’ But the other brother named Feng became jealous. And he killed the first
brother and took his wife. But the young son Amleth later avenged his father’s death by killing
his murderous uncle Feng. Now if that story sounds vaguely familiar to you, imagine the young
Amleth wrestling with the decision of whether or not to kill his uncle. Imagine him pondering this
27dilemma with the line ‘to be or not to be.’ Because Amleth was the original Hamlet. His story
was the inspiration for Shakespeare’s famous play.