Today we saw the Danish castle made famous in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Whether Shakespeare ever visited Kronborg ("Crown") Castle is unknown, but in Hamlet, Shakespeare called the castle Elsinore, the anglicized name for Helsingør, the town next door. (Helsingor is still a fishing village, just with a huge famous castle next to its harbor. Fisherman were heading home with their catch when I snapped this picture, famous castle in background.)
Hamlet was first performed at Kronborg castle in 1816 and famous actors (Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Jude Law, etc.) have come to the castle to peform Hamlet on the premises. Now every August they have a Shakespearean festival.
Hamlet was written in 1602, and Krongberg was likely well known to Shakespeare, even if he never saw it in person. The hook shaped peninsula has had a fort on it since 1420, but was developed into an enormous Renaissance castle by Danish King Frederik II by 1577. The castle sometimes hosted the monarch, but mostly it was used as a tollbooth.
Ships passing through from the Baltic Ocean down to Western Europe had to pay a "Sound dues" to the king as they passed through this 2.5 mile channel between Denmark and Sweden. Our tour guide said dues could be 35,000 Danish Kroner. That's over $4,000 per ship in today's exchange, and this was 400 years ago! On busy days, 50 ships could pay dues. Now you can see why Frederik II could build such an extravagent castle.
As it was an unusually sunny day for October, our tour guide took us up to the roof to take in the vistas. While in the attic, she pointed out the cannon ball that had gone through the rafters in 1658, courtesy of the Swedes. The Swedes and Danes were mortal enemies for centuries. But all has been smoothed out now. I even saw an Ikea in downtown Copenhagen.
But my favorite discovery was of the legendary warrior Holger Danske (Holger the Dane), who sleeps in the castmates (reinforced cellars) beneath the castle. His scuplture was placed there in 1907. Here I'm standing next to the slumbering giant. While the legend of Holger Danske is a thousand years old, Hans Christian Andersen made him even more famous, and placed him at Kronborg castle. Andersen wrote, "should real danger come, old Holger Danske will rise in his fury... and the mighty blows he strikes for Denmark will be heard throughout the world."
No comments:
Post a Comment