Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

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 unk...

PRECEDENTS FOR HAMLET PLOT ELEMENTS—AND A VILLAIN NAMED CLAUDIUS— IN ARTHURIAN LEGENDS: One of the villains in the Arthurian legends is named Claudas, a variant of Claudius, the main villain in Shakespeare’s Hamlet . But in fact, the Arthurian legends contain many of the essential plot elements of Hamlet . Instead of “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” we could say, many of the things Shakespeare and Saxo Grammaticus needed to know to write Hamlet , they could have learned from the Arthurian legends: - The ghost of a parent [1] and warrior [2]; - a prince (or king) who relates to soldiers and close friends as equals [3]; - questions of marital infidelity [4] and of broken marriage promises [5]; - knightly codes of honor and violence that conflict at times with courtesy and Christian values [6] - suicidal, love-forsaken women [7]; - the living body or dead corpse of a heartbroken woman, floating in a river or stream [8]; - contrast between characters who interpret ...