Amleth (; Latinized as ) is a figure in a medieval Scandinavian legend.
He is the direct inspiration of the character of Prince Hamlet, the hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
The chief authority for the legend of Amleth 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. Saxo's version is supplemented by Latin and vernacular compilations from a much later date. In all versions, prince Amleth (Amblothæ) is the son of Horvendill (Orwendel), king of the Jutes. It has often been assumed that the story is ultimately derived from an Old Icelandic poem, but no such poem has been found; the extant Icelandic versions, known as the Ambales-saga or Amloda-saga, are considerably later than Saxo.
Amleth's name is not mentioned in Old-Icelandic regnal lists before Saxo.Anthony Faulkes, 'The Earliest Icelandic Genealogies and Regnal Lists', in: Saga-Book 29 (2005), p. 115-119. Only the 15th-century Sagnkrønike from Stockholm may contain some older elements.
Name The Old Icelandic form Amlóði is recorded twice in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda. According to the section Skaldskaparmal, the expression Amlóða mólu ('Amlóði's quern-stone') is a kenning for the sea, which similarly grinds the skerries to sand.. See also vol. 2: Glossary and Index of Names, p. 346.Cf. Skáldskaparmál, ed. Guðni Jónsson (1935), section 33. Sjávarkenningar (sea-kennings), no. 94.Cf. the older translation by I. Gollancz, Hamlet in Iceland, London, Northern Library, vol. 3., 1898, p. xi: "Tis said, sang Snaebjorn, that far out, off yonder ness, the Nine Maids of the Island Mill stir amain the host-cruel skerry-quern—they who in ages past ground Hamlet's meal. The good chieftain furrows the hull's lair with his ship's beaked prow. Here the sea is called Amlodhi's Mill." In a poem by the 10th-century skald Snæbjörn the name of the legendary hero Amlóði is intrinsically connected to the word líðmeldr ('ale-flower'), leading to the conclusion that the nine mermaids, who operated the "hand-mill of the sea", "long ago ground the ale-flour of Amlóði".Edith Marold (ed.), 'Snæbjǫrn, Lausavísur 1', in: Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds.), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, vol. 3, Turnhout: Brepols, 2017, p. 377. The association with flour milling and beer brewing, the gold carried around, the net used to catch people and the association with the nine female waves place Amleth on a par with the deity Aegir and his wife Rán.
The late 12th-century Amlethus, Amblothæ may easily be latinizations of the Old Norse name. The etymology of the name is unknown, but there are various suggestions.
Icelandic Amlóði is recorded as a term for a fool or simpleton in reference to the simulated madness of the legendary Danish prince.Henry Harrison, Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary vol. 1 (1912), p. 184. One suggestionFerdinand Holthausen, Vergleichendes und Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altwestnordischen, 1948. is based on the "fool" or "trickster" interpretation of the name, composing the name from Old Norse ama "to vex, annoy, molest" and óðr "fierceness, madness" (also in the theonym Odin). The Irish and Scottish word amhlair, which in contemporary vernacular denotes a dull, stupid person, is handed down from the ancient name for a court jester or fool, who entertained the king but also surreptitiously advised him through riddles and antics.
A more recent suggestion is based on the Eddaic kenning associating Amlóði with the mythological mill grótti, and derives it from the Old Irish name Admlithi "great-grinding", attested in Togail Bruidne Dá Derga.
Attention has also been drawn to the similarity of Amleth to the Irish name Amhladh (variously Amhlaidh, Amhlaigh, Amhlaide), itself a Gaelic adaptation of the Norse name Olaf..
In a stanza from the Irish Annals of the Four Masters, compiled in the 1600s, the Irish Queen Gormflaith laments the death of her husband, Niall Glundubh, at the hands of one Amhlaide at the battle of Ath-Cliath (919). The identity of the killer of Niall Glundubh is otherwise recorded as Sigtrygg Caech, the father of that Olaf Cuaran (i.e. Anlaf, gaelicized Amhlaide) who was the prototype of the English Havelok.
In a controversial suggestion going back to 1937, the sequence æmluþ contained in the 8th-century Old Frisian runic inscription on the Westeremden yew-stick has been interpreted as a reference to "Amleth". Contemporary runic research does not support this conclusion.N. Kapteyn, 'Zwei Runeninschriften aus der Terp von Westeremden', Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 57 (1937), 160-226. H. Arntz, Handbuch der Runenkunde 2nd ed. 1944 ("Gegen das hohe Land stellte sich Hamlet. Vor seinen Eiben hat das Unwetter sich ducken müssen. Vor diesem Eibenstäbchen ducke sich die Flut"). "Eibe" in Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Volume 6 (1973), p. 527. ophamu gistadda amluþ : iwim ost ah þukn iwi os ust dukale "Auf (bez. gegen) Opheim nahm Stellung (nahm den kampf auf, constitit) Amluþ. Vor (seinen) eiben hat sich die brandung geduckt. Vor (dieser) eibe ducke sich die brandung"'; Arend Quak,'Runica Frisica', in: R.H. Bremmer et al. (eds.), Aspects of Old Frisian Philology. Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 31/32 (1990), 357-370, 365.
Scandinavian legend It has frequently been assumed that the Scandinavian legend ultimately goes back to an Old Norse (Old Icelandic) poem of about the 10th century. Nevertheless, no such poem has survived, and the late 12th-century Latin version of the story told by Saxo Grammaticus is the oldest source. There are, however, striking parallels with Gaimar's 12th-century Anglo-Norman Lay of Haveloc and the subsequent English romance of Havelok the Dane. Like the story of Amleth, that of Haveloc is set in Jutland in a more or less maritime context. Both protagonists fake madness. Still, Haveloc has special abilities that we do not find in Amleth, such as a fire coming from his mouth during sleep, an oversized stature, a birth-mark indicating his royal descent and the ability to blow a miraculous horn. Comparable motifs emerge in the romance of Bevis of Hampton. Saxo Grammaticus must also have been inspired by the classical story of Brutus (see below).
There was in addition an early modern (17th century) Icelandic version of the tale. Historian Thormodus Torfæus had asserted that a story of Amlodi was part of popular folklore in the mid-17th century, but it is unclear whether the early modern Icelandic tale is substantially influenced by Saxo's account, or if it represents an independent tradition derived from the unattested Old Icelandic source.
Saxo's version
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; they had a son, Amleth. However, Feng murdered Horvendill out of jealousy 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 who had hated her. Amleth, afraid of sharing his father's fate, pretended to be an imbecile. However, Feng's suspicions put him to various tests related in detail. Among other things, they sought to entangle him with a young girl, his foster-sister (the prototype of Ophelia), but his cunning saved him. However, when Amleth slew the eavesdropper hidden, like Polonius in Shakespeare's play, in his mother's room, and destroyed all trace of the deed, Feng was assured that the young man's madness was feigned. Accordingly, he dispatched him to Britain in company with two attendants, who bore a letter urging the country's king to put him to death. Amleth surmised the purport of their instructions and secretly altered the message on their wooden tablets to instead direct the king to kill the attendants and give Amleth his daughter in marriage.
After marrying the princess, Amleth returned to Denmark at the end of a year. Of the wealth he had accumulated, he took with him only certain hollow sticks filled with gold. He arrived in time for a funeral feast to celebrate his supposed death. During the feast, he plied the courtiers with wine. He executed his vengeance during their drunken sleep by fastening down over them the woolen hangings of the hall with pegs he had sharpened during his feigned madness, then setting fire to the palace. He slew Feng with his own sword. After a long harangue to the people, he was proclaimed king. Returning to Britain for his wife, he found that his father-in-law and Feng had pledged each to avenge the other's death. The English king, unwilling to personally carry out his pledge, sent Amleth as proxy wooer for the hand of a terrible Scottish queen, Hermuthruda, who had put all former wooers to death but fell in love with Amleth. On his return to Britain, his first wife, whose love proved stronger than her resentment, told him of her father's intended revenge. In the ensuing battle, Amleth won the day by setting up the fallen dead from the day before on stakes, thereby terrifying the enemy.
He then returned with his two wives to Jutland, where he encountered the enmity of Wiglek, Rørik's successor. He was slain in a battle against Wiglek. Although she had promised to die with him, Hermuthruda instead married the victor. Saxo states that Amleth was buried on a plain (or "heath") in Jutland, famous for his name and burial place. Wiglek later died of illness and was the father of Wermund, from whom the royal line of Kings of Mercia descended.
Gesta Danorum pa Danskæ and Sagnkrønike Late compilations such as the Gesta Danorum pa danskæ (dating around 1300) and the Compendium Saxonis (mid-14th century) summarize the story.'Gesta Danorum pa danskæ. cod. Holm. B 77 og C 67', in: Gammeldanske Krøniker, ed. Marcus Lorenzen, Copenhagen, Samfund til udgivelse af Gammel Nordisk Litteratur, 1887-1913, part 1, p. 1-60, 17. On the dating of the chronicle: Anders Leegaard Knudsen, Saxostudier og rigshistorie på Valdemar Atterdags tid, Kopenhagen 1994, p. 17-19. References can also be found in the Annales Ryenses, the Annales Slesvicensis, the Runekrønike (Runic Chronicle) section of the Codex Runicus, and other manuscripts summarizing the Danish kings. None of these, however, precedes Saxo Grammaticus. According to Marijane Osborn the 15th-century Sagnkrønike from Stockholm contains several elements that may have been derived from an older story.'Sagnkrønike i Stockholm, Efter Cod. Holm. K 46 4', in: Gammeldanske Krøniker, ed. Marcus Lorenzen, Copenhagen, Samfund til udgivelse af Gammel Nordisk Litteratur, 1887-1913, part. 3, p. 193-219, 204-205.Translation and commentary: Marijane Osborn & Janice Hawes, 'Afterword: Amlæd (Hamlet)', in: ANQ 20 (2007), nr. 3, p. 74-77 (Special Issue, Part II: Beyond the Mere: Other Versions of Beowulfian Stories).
According to the Danish Gesta the legendary King Rorik Slengeborre of Denmark made Orwendel and Feng rulers in Jutland, and gave his daughter to Orwendel as a reward for his good service. Orwendel and the daughter had a son, Amblothæ. The jealous Feng killed Orwendel and took his wife. Amblothæ understood that his life was in danger and tried to survive by pretending to be insane. Feng sent Amblothæ to the king of Britain with two servants, who carried a message directing the British king to kill Amblothæ. While the servants slept, Amblothæ carved off the (probably runic) message and wrote that the servants were to be killed and that he should be married to the king's daughter. The British king did what the message said.