Vickipedia

AMLETH, or HAMLETH, Prince of Jutland, is said to have lived in the 2d c. B.C. According to Saxo-Grammaticus, he was the son of Horvendill and Gerutha; and after the murder of his father by his uncle Fengo, who married Gerutha, he feigned himself a fool, to save his own life. Saxo relates a number of little things regarding A., which are a curious medley of sharp and lively observation, and apparent madness. We are told that, on one occasion, when he visited his mother, suspecting that he was watched, he commenced to crow like a cock and dance idiotically about the apartment, until he discovered, hidden in a heap of straw, spy, in the person of one of Fengo’s courtiers, whom he immediately stabbed; he then so terrified his mother by his reproaches, that she promised to aid him in his intended revenge on his father’s murderer, and, according to the old chronicler, really did so. Scandinavian traditions confirm the existence of a prince of this name. A field is still pointed out in J�tland with a tomb bearing the name of A. In. the vicinity of Elsinore is shown the spot where the father of A. was assassinated. Saxo himself does not mention the manner or circumstances of his death; but his French translator says that he was murdered at a banquet. Most of the recent historians of Denmark consider the history of A. fabulous, but M�ller thinks there is a substratum of fact in the old myth. It is the source of Shakspeare’s tragedy of Hamlet and thus possesses a perennial interest for all the civilized world.