|
The sources of ''Hamlet'', a tragedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601, trace back as far as pre-13th century Icelandic tales. The generic "hero-as-fool" story is so old and is expressed in the literature of so many cultures that scholars have hypothesized that it may be Indo-European in origin. A Scandinavian version of the story of Hamlet, Amleth or Amlóði (Norse for "mad", "not sane") was put into writing in the 12th century by Saxo Grammaticus around 1200 AD in the ''Gesta Danorum'' (from which Shakespeare borrowed). Similar accounts are found in the Icelandic ''Saga of Hrolf Kraki'' and the Roman legend of Lucius Junius Brutus, both of which feature heroes who pretend to be insane in order to get revenge. A reasonably accurate version of Saxo's story was translated into French in 1570 by François de Belleforest in his ''Histoires Tragiques''. Belleforest embellished Saxo's text substantially, almost doubling its length, and introduced the hero's melancholy. After this point, the ancestry of Shakespeare's version of ''Hamlet'' becomes more difficult to trace. Many literary scholars believe that Shakespeare's main source was an earlier play—now lost—known today as the ''Ur-Hamlet''. Possibly written by Thomas Kyd, the ''Ur-Hamlet'' would have been in performance by 1589 and was seemingly the first to include a ghost in the story. Using the few comments available from theatre-enthusiasts at the time, scholars have attempted to trace exactly where the ''Ur-Hamlet'' might have ended and the play popular today begins. A few scholars have suggested that the ''Ur-Hamlet'' is an early draft of Shakespeare's, rather than the work of Kyd. Regardless of the mysteries surrounding the ''Ur-Hamlet'', though, several elements of the story changed. Unlike earlier versions, Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'' does not feature an omniscient narrator of events and Prince Hamlet does not appear to have a complete plan of action. The play's setting in Elsinore also differs from legendary versions. ==Scandinavian legend== (詳細はSaxo Grammaticus called ''Vita Amlethi'' (part of his larger Latin work ''Gesta Danorum''), which was written around 1200 AD.〔Saxo and Hansen (1983, 1-5)〕 Older written and oral traditions from various cultures influenced Saxo's work. Amleth (as Hamlet is called in Saxo's version) probably derived from an oral tale told throughout Scandinavia. Parallels can be found with Icelandic legend, though no written version of the original Icelandic tale survives from before the 16th century. Torfaeus, a scholar in 17th century Iceland, made the connection between Saxo's Amleth and local oral tradition about a Prince Ambales (''Amlóði'').〔The etymology of the name is unknown, and there are various suggestions. One suggestion (Ferdinand Holthausen, ''Vergleichendes und Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altwestnordischen'', 1948) is based on the "fool, simpleton" interpretation of the name, composing the name from Old Norse ''ama'' "to vex, annoy, molest" and ''óðr'' "fierceness, madness" (also in the theonym ''Odin''). A more recent suggestion (Lisa Fraser, ''A new etymology for Hamlet? The names Admlithi, Amlethus, and Amlóði'') is based on the kenning associating ''Amlóði'' with the mythological mill ''grotti'', and derives it from the Old Irish name ''Admlithi'' "great-grinding", attested in ''Togail Bruidne Dá Derga''.〕 Torfaeus dismissed the local tradition as "an old wive's tale" due to its incorporation fairy-tale elements and quasi-historical legend and Torfaeus' own confusion about the hero's country of origin (not recognizing Cimbria as a name for Denmark).〔Saxo and Hansen (1983, 7), Gollancz, Hamlet in Iceland (1898, 3-13)〕 Similarities include the prince's feigned madness, his accidental killing of the king's counsellor in his mother's bedroom, and the eventual slaying of his uncle.〔Saxo and Hansen (1983, 5-15)〕 The original ''Amlóði'' story has often been surmised to be derived from a "10th-century"〔 Henry Harrison, ''Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary'' vol. 1 (1912), (p. 184 ). 〕 Old Icelandic poem, but no such poem has survived. The 'hero as fool' story has many parallels (Roman, Spanish, Scandinavian and Arabic) and can be classified as a universal, or at least common Indo-European, narrative topos.〔Saxo and Hansen (1983, 36-37)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sources of Hamlet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|