Last weekend , Americans spent$12 millionat the domestic boxful office to see Alexander Skarsgård play aViking .
Not justanyViking , mind you . In " The Northman , " a young historical fancy picture show from director Robert Eggers , Skarsgård render it his all as the legendary zep , Amleth .
For those unfamiliar with Amleth , here ’s a prompt innovation .
Though it is undecipherable whether Prince Amleth really live , legend has it that he was the son of aScandinavianruler . One day , Amleth ’s prosperous sire was shoot down by his own buddy . Adding vilification to hurt , the homicidal uncle went on to marry Amleth ’s new widowed female parent . The putsch set the leg for a fierce tale of fury and revenge .
Does any of that pack a bell ?
If your answer is " no , " then your high school drama teacher would like a word .
“Perchance to Dream”
The Amleth storyprobably helped inspireone of the most quoted turn ever write : " Hamlet " ( full title : " The Tragedy of Hamlet , Prince of Denmark " ) , byWilliam Shakespeare .
Even if you ’ve never seen this play perform onstage , you ’ve been hearing the computer address all your life history . " Hamlet " is packed withsome of the Bard ’s great phone line , like " Brevity is the mortal of card , " " Neither a borrower nor a loaner be"and " To thine own ego be true . "
Also , there’sa certain monologuethat every theater major in the public eventually has to memorize .
Many of Shakespeare ’s plays were inspired by real historical figures — see " Julius Caesar " and " Richard III . " Yet there ’s no proof the Viking Amlethever existed .
We ca n’t talk about Amleth without name Saxo Grammaticus ( " Saxo " for short ) . Sometime in the former 1200s C.E. , this Danish scholarfinished writinga patriotic history of Denmark under the title " Gesta Danorum . "
Included in the text is a retelling of the story of Amleth . This legend had been a part of Scandinavia ’s rich oral custom for quite some prison term , a tale passed between generation by word of oral cavity .
Man On a Mission
Saxo’sversionof the narrative commence inJutland , a realm of Denmark .
Once upon a time , there were two brothers named Horwendil and Fengo . Under the Danish King Rørik , they governed Jutland together as co - swayer . finally , Fengo slay Horwendil , giving him full ascendance over the region . His next move was to we d Gerutha , the wife of his dead sib .
This outraged Horwendil ’s surviving son , Amleth . But the tiddler was smart enough to realize that his own days might be numbered because Fengo saw him as a political terror . So , to stay alive , Amleth feign insanity .
After killing one of Fengo ’s spies , Amleth was sent to England where he foiled an attempt on his life . He then return home to retaliate his father , execution Fengo and become Jutland ’s new ruler .
From Saxo to Skarsgård
Prince Hamlet did n’t get a happy ending in the Shakespeare play . And neither does the Amleth of Saxo ’s retelling .
The " Gesta Danorum " say Amlethmarried two brideson a getting even head trip to the British Isles . Then he went back to Denmark , where he was kill in a conflict against Rørik ’s successor . Tough break .
Amleth ’s level remained a staple of Scandinavian culture in the hundred after Saxo . Icelandic historiographer Thormodus Torfæus ( 1636 - 1719)wrotethat he ’d hear the narrative " interrelate in Iceland by sometime women and such sort of multitude " many times when he was a boy .
" The Northman " is n’t the first picture to institute Amleth to the silver screen . Christian Bale played the character in the 1994 drama " Prince of Jutland , " which was released in some market as " Royal Deceit . " ( Amleth isreferred toas " Amled " in that movie . )
