Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

How old is the death letter motif in Hamlet, where did it come from, and is there anything special about the way Shakespeare uses it? In Hamlet, Shakespeare retains the motif of the death letter from the Danish source. Claudius sends a letter with Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet on their journey to England [4.3.67-77], but they don’t know that it orders Hamlet’s death. People in Shakespeare’s time knew this death letter motif by way of the biblical story of David’s affair with Bathsheba (circa 10c. BCE). King David sends Bathsheba’s husband Uriah to the battlefront with a letter that he is to be placed at the front of battle, and others should pull back. He is killed [1]. A later Greek version of the motif comes from the 8th century BCE myth of Bellerophon [2]. The reluctance of kings to violate rules of hospitality plays a key role in delaying fatal plans and helping Bellerophon prevail in the end. For anyone who is sad to hear of Uriah’s fate, a faithful soldier deceived b...

Many people who study Hamlet —if they dig into the history and sources at all—may only learn of the 12th century Amleth tale recorded in the 13th century by Saxo Grammaticus, and its later incarnation in Belleforest. They may also note the fact that James VI and I of Scotland and England married Anne of Denmark in 1589. For many readers of the play, that is sufficient historical background. An April 2020 story posted at Narratively by Anja Klemp Vilgaard tells of a Danish King Erik VII who turned to piracy to take back his throne, which sounds a bit like Hamlet returning from his sea voyage with the help of pirates. https://narratively.com/the-king-who-became-a-pirate/ Eric VII of Denmark (c.1381–1459) was also Eric III of Norway, and Eric XIII of Sweden, with a rule in all three countries that overlapped, and was known as Eric of Pomerania, as noted in various sources . Erik VII never got his thrones back. He had married Philippa of England, daughter of Henry IV ("Boll...