Arthurian Wastelands and rotten Denmark under Claudias (Part 3, Claudius)

In Hamlet 1.4, Marcellus says, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” [1].
The rottenness in Denmark involves not only the lies of the murderous usurper Claudius and his “incestuous marriage,” but perhaps also the animosity between Denmark and Norway resulting from King Hamlet having killed Old Fortinbras in single combat decades earlier.[2]

Denmark’s rottenness may feel related to the wastelands referenced in the Arthurian legends:  

Uther Pendragon had attacked parts of what is now France and laid waste to it, where Claudas was later king and sometimes an enemy of Arthur and the knights of the Round Table.

Like King Hamlet, Uther died by poison, leaving a son (Arthur).

King Pellas is also a wasteland king: Pellas’ brother had been killed by Sir Balin while at a feast in Pellas’ castle. Pellas wanted revenge. Merlin had prophesied that Sir Balin would make a “dolorous stroke” whose harm would be exceeded only by that of the spear that pierced the side of Christ. Balin unknowingly grabs a lance, the Spear of Longinus, the spear used to pierce the side of Jesus on the cross. Balin pierced both of King Pellas’ thighs,[3] which turned the kingdom to a wasteland and created a wound that would not heal until later in the Grail quest.

The wastelands and the rottenness of Claudius’ Denmark seem related:
- to the wasteland created by Arthur’s father, Uther Pendragon, over which King Claudas later ruled [4];
- and to the wasteland caused by revenge, when King Pellas sought to avenge the death of his brother, and Sir Balin used the holy “Spear of Longinus” to pierce his thighs, revealing perhaps the hypocrisy of Christian kings and soldiers who resort to violence and revenge.[5]

If the Arthurian legend asks, “Shall we use the spear that pierced the side of Christ to kill one another in revenge?” then it would seem Shakespeare’s Hamlet asks, “Shall we use the chalice (like the chalice of the Mass) to poison one another?

These wastelands of revenge are related to what is near the heart of the mystery of Shakespeare’s Hamlet [6].

FOR INDEX AND INTRODUCTION TO THIS SERIES, SEE THE FOLLOWING LINK:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/11/index-why-claudius-not-feng-whats-in.html

NOTES: All references to Hamlet (and other Shakespeare plays) are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/

[1] 1.4.100. This rottenness is, of course, not only caused by Claudius (and his murder of his brother) and “incestuous” marriage to Gertrude, but is also the rottenness of sin, with Laertes running back to France like a prodigal and “libertine,” with Polonius and Claudius engineering opportunities to spy, Hamlet’s former friends selling out their friend the prince in hope of royal favors, and Hamlet himself, corrupted (and made at least figuratively “mad” by his quest for revenge.

[2] The text of Hamlet claims King Hamlet was “pricked on by a most emulate pride” (1.1.95), and as pride was considered the worst of the seven deadly sins, this was not very Christian for a supposedly Christian king, now complaining on a brief break from purgatory that he was sent there only on a technicality, for not having received the sacraments before his brother poisoned him.

[3] Joseph Campbell has said that “thighs” is a euphemism for testicles, which makes the land barren, with no heir.  https://thefirstgates.com/2011/12/15/the-wasteland/
In some of the Arthurian legend texts, sexual licentiousness and/or marital infidelity can affect whether a knight is successful in the grail quest.

[4] The wasteland created by Uther Pendragon also seems similar to the impending wasteland to be created by Norway’s invasion of Poland, for a plot of land which a captain describes as worthless, and for which thousands will go to their deaths (4.4.16-30, 50-56, 62-68):
Hamlet describes this as “th’ impostume (tumor or cyst) of much wealth and peace,
That inward breaks and shows no cause without
Why the man dies” - implying that too much wealth and peace (as for the Rich Man and Lazarus) creates a wasteland, a fatal disease. See 26-30 and 62-68:

“Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
Will not debate the question of this straw.
This is th’ impostume of much wealth and peace,
That inward breaks and shows no cause without
Why the man dies.[...]” (4.4.26-30).

“...while to my shame I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men
That for a fantasy and trick of fame
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain?” (4.4.62-68).

[5] The idea that King Pellas would have the Spear of Longinus in his castle, and that Pellas and Ballin would resort quickly to violent revenge, seems not only a hypocritical and superficial form of Christianity, but also similar to the superficial faith of the ghost in Hamlet, who believes that he was sent to purgatory instead of heaven on a mere technicality, because his brother Claudius poisoned him before he could receive the Last Rites.  

[6] 3.1.65-68:
“Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them.”
(What is nobler: Patient suffering, or vengeful action?)


IMAGES clockwise from upper left:

Upper left:
Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526/1530–1569)
The Triumph of Death
circa 1562
Museo del Prado
Public domain via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/The_Triumph_of_Death_by_Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder.jpg

Upper right:
Sir Edward Burne-Jones; William Morris; John Henry Dearle.
The Arming and Departure of the Knights. Number 2 of the Holy Grail tapestries woven by Morris & Co. 1891-94 for Stanmore Hall. This version woven by Morris & Co. for Lawrence Hodson of Compton Hall 1895-96. Wool and silk on cotton warp. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Date     1890s
Scanned from Christopher Wood, Burne-Jones, Phoenix, 1997.
Public domain via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Holy_Grail_Tapestry_-The_Arming_and_Departure_of_the_Kniights.jpg

Lower right:
Artist unknown.  Perceval arrives at the Grail Castle, to be greeted by the Fisher King. From a 1330 manuscript of Perceval ou Le Conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes, 1330.
Source     BnF: http://expositions.bnf.fr/arthur/grand/fr_12577_018v.htm
Public domain via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Perceval-arrives-at-grail-castle-bnf-fr-12577-f18v-1330-detail.jpg

Lower left: Artist unknown.
King Arthur's knights, gathered at the Round Table to celebrate Pentecost, see a vision of the Holy Grail. The Grail appears as a veiled ciborium, made of gold and decorated with jewels, held by two angels. From BnF, Manuscrits, Français 120 fol. 524v.
Early 15th century.
Public domain, via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Holy-grail-round-table-bnf-ms-120-f524v-14th.jpg