Hamley Hammad Ar-Rawiya
HAMLEY HAMMAD AR-RAWIYA parallels are afforded by Thrytho, the terrible bride of Offa I., who figures in Beowulf, and by Brunhilda in the Nibelungenlied.
The story of Hamlet was known to the Elizabethans in Francois de Belleforest's Histoires tragiques (1559), and found its supreme expression in Shakespeare's tragedy. That as early as 1587 or 1589 Hamlet had appeared on the English stage is shown by Nash's preface to Greene's Menaphon: " He will afford you whole Hamlets, I should say, handfulls of tragical speeches." The Shakespearian Hamlet owes, however, little but the outline of his story to Saxo. In character he is diametrically opposed to his prototype. Amleth's madness was certainly altogether feigned; he prepared his vengeance a year beforehand, and carried it out deliberately and ruthlessly at every point. His riddling speech has little more than an outward similarity to the words of Hamlet, who resembles him, however, in his disconcerting penetration into his enemies' plans. For a discussion of Shakespeare's play and its immediate sources see SHAKESPEARE.
See an appendix to Elton's trans, of Saxo Grammaticus; I. Gollancz, Hamlet in Iceland (London, 1898) ; H. L. Ward, Catalogue of Romances, under " Havelok," vol. i. pp. 423 seq.; English Historical Review, x. (1895); F. Detter, " Die Hamletsage," Zeitschr. f. deut. Alter, vol. 36 (Berlin, 1892); O. L. Jiriczek, " Die Amlethsage auf Island," in Germanistische Abhandlungen, vol. xii. (Breslau), and " Hamlet in Iran," in Zeitschr. des Vereins fur Volkskunde, x. (Berlin, 1900) ; A. Olrik, Kilderne til Sakses Oldhistorie (Copenhagen, 2 vols., 1892-1894).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
