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HAPPY ST. PATTY’s DAY

Admlithi of Eire (the ”d” is silent) became Hamlet of Elsinore

Lisa Collinson at the University of Aberdeen has traced the origins to a little known Irish tale called the ”Destruction of Da Derga”s Hostel’.’

The common wisdom has been that Shakespeare’s Dane was based on  Amlothi,  a hero in the t 10th or 11th century poem by the Icelandic poet Snow Bear. Collinson has traced that story back to Ireland.  An  8th or 9th-century  Irish tale about a king, Admlithi,  killed in his great hall>  the resemblance ot the Bard’s screed is uncanny ,  “As soon as I saw ”Admlithi”, I thought of Hamlet,” said Collinson. Her studies of the origins of words show that Admlithi of Eire (the ”d” is silent) became Hamlet of Elsinore (Helsingor, in Danish) as the Gaelic name traveled to Scandinavia aboard the Vikings’ longboats.

“Snow Bear”s verse containing the name Amlothi has been connected to Shakespeare  because of a grinding sea motif , the tensions that William’s anti hero can not survive. Collinson said, “l”But we can take this further, and match A..  Amlothi with the Gaelic player name Admlithi which is related to a Gaelic word for grinding,”  “Although the player Admlithi had only a tiny role in the Irish tale, his strange name had the potential to be used in many different contexts. At an early date, I think it was used by superstitious sailors to refer to a dangerous sea-feature, such as a whirlpool,” she said.

“What”s most exciting ..is the idea that a version of the name Hamlet may once have described not just a man ”as mad as the sea” or threatened by a ”sea of troubles ….”Hamlet becomes a whirlpool incarnate… . I couldn”t even begin to imagine how that might be played, but I hope that someday, someone, somewhere will try,” she added. (adapted from TopNews.In)