According to Lathim, who may be taken as the repre- sentative of the historical theory, there are really two Hamlets,—the Hamlet of Saxo’s third book an] the Hamlet of his fourth book, who have been confounded together. The former, who is the Shakespearean hero, he would identify with Olaf Kyrre, the Anlaf Cwiran of the Saxon Chronicle and the Amlaf Cuaran of the Irish Annals, whose name, having passed through England and Ireland, he supposes to have returned to Denmark in a form whieh is Latinized by Saxo a3 Amlethus ; tho latter he considers as the Hyzelac of Beowulf, the Chochilaicas of Gregory of Tours, the Hubhleike of the Heimskringla, and even the Havelok of English legend. “By a confusiva between them as min and man, the bearers,” he says, “of names as different as Olaf and Higelac take a form out of which Amlethus is a probable educt.” But this theory, which is expounded with more learning than lucidity, is hardly so much in favour as that of the mythological school.
That, in spite of the links by which Saxo has sought to connect its different portions with the authentic history of Denmark, the whole story was destitute of historical basis was maintained by P. E. Miiller (Critisk Undersigelse af Danmarks og Norges Sagahistorie eller om Troverdisheden af S1x0s og Snorros Kilder, Copenhagen, 1823), and his conclusions in regard to the matter have been very generally accepted. Though Hamlet or Amleth himself is not men- tioned in the earlier documents of the Scandinavian mythology—the only allusion to his existence being the phrase Amlotha quern, or Hamileth’s mill, applied to the sea in the Skaldskaparmal —his father, Horvendill or Orvandil (from ér, the spear, and vandel, skilful), appears in the great Scandinavian mythus in connexion with Thor’s contest with Hrungnir, and is further to be identified with the Orendel of German legend, whose memorial coat was after- wards christened the seamless coat of our Saviour at Treves, and whose name, which occurs also as Ernthelle, may possibly be the source of the more famous name of Tell. Hamletl’s own name finds its explanation in the Norse anu or am!, toil (still used colloquially in Icelandic, ama, to toil), and lothi, devoted to, and probably has reference to his mythic impersonation of the endless toil and travail of the sea. ‘The various details of the story—not only impro- bable and impossible, but essentially stupid and trivial — lend themselves with remarkable readiness to the theory which explains them as versions of the tale, a thousand times retold, of the contests between summer and winter, sea and land, light and darkness, An elaborate exposition of the whole will be found in Zinzow’s Die Humletsage an und mit verwantten Sayen erlitutert, Halle, 1877. Tt has been already stated that Saxo’s is the only original autho- rity ; but proof of the popularity of the legend is found in the presence in Jutland of such names as Amelhede (i.e, Tamlet’s Heath), near Randers, Fegges Sund, that is, Fengo’s Sound, and Feggesklint, that is, Fengo’s Cliff, and in the fact that in modern Icclandic the word amlotht is a regular lent for an idiotic or stupid man. Nor are literary entos of the story wanting. The Icelanders have their Amlotha Saga, which is a free translation of Saxo, and their Ambales Saga, in which the matter is treitel in a more romantic style. The story of Brian, given in Jon Amason’s Islenzkur Pjodsigur (Leipsic. 1864, ii.), has the same main features; and Dr Vigfusson, by whom it was discovered, is disposed to surmise that the legend may actually be of Celtic origin,—a supposition quite in keep- ing with other well-known facts in Icelandic history. It was taken down from the lips of Lady Hildur Arngrims- dotter, whose father was born in 1568. As Niels of Soré in the 15th century made Hamlet more familiar to the Danes by his Dansie Rimkronike, so the French story-teller Belleforest introduced him to a wider company in his Cent Histoires tragiques, That as early as 1587 or 1589 he had been represented on the English stage is shown by the well- known passage from Nash’s preface to Greene’s Ienaphon, “He will afford you whole Hamlets, I should say, handfulls of tragical speeches.”
HAMM, a town of Prussia, capital of a circle in the government district of Arnsberg, province of Westphalia, is situated at the junction of several railways, on the Lippe at its confluence with the Ahse, 22 miles N.W. of Arnsberg. It is enclosed by walls, but the ditches which formerly surrounded it have been filled up and converted into promenades. The principal buildings are two Catholic and two Evangelical churches, a gymnasium, a poorhouse, an orphanage, and an infirmary. The town is flourishing and rapidly increasing, and possesses very extensive wire factories (in connexion with which there are puddling and rolling works), foundries, machine works, and manufactories of gloves, baskets, wadding, leather, sausages, sago, starch, chemicals, sugar-of-lead, gum, lac, varnish, oil, and beer. The population in 1875 was 18,877.
Hamm, which became a town about the end of the 11th century, was originally the capital of the countship of Mark, and was fortified in 1226. It became a member of the Hanseatic League. In 1614 it was besieged by the Dutch, and in 1622 it was taken by Tilly, after which during the Thirty Years’ War it was alternately in the hands of the imperial and the Hessian forces. In 1666 it came into the possession of Brandenburg. In 1761 and 1762 it was bombarded by the French, and in 1763 its fortifications were dismantled.
HAMMARSKÖLD, Lorenzo (1785–1827), Swedish author, was born at Tuna, near Wimmerby, on the 7th of April 1785. He became a student at Upsala in 1801, but failed to take his degree in 1806. He therefore accepted a humble post at the royal library at Stockholm, with which institution he remained connected for many years. In 1804 he published an article on Tieck and Novalis, which attracted much attention, and was the means of founding the “Phosphoric School,” as it was called, of poetry in Sweden. Hammersköld became the friend of Atterbom and antagonist of Wallmark, and in due time, by the bitterness of his tone, brought down on himself the scathing anger of Tegnér. In 1806 he published Translations and Imitations of Poets, Old and New, in the preface of which he denounced the classic Swedish writers with much force and wit, commending Goethe and Tieck to the young poets of the day. In 1808 appeared his trenchant Critique of Schiller, and in 1810 a volume of essays of a polemical kind. In 1813 Hammersköld published a collection of his poems, and in 1815 had to endure the ridicule of Tegnér in his brilliant satire of Hammarspik. In 1818 appeared the first part of Hammarsköld’s chief contribution to literature, his famous Svenska Vitterheten, a history of polite letters in Sweden, a book that was revised and republished after his death by Sondén, in 1833. He is chiefly remembered as a critic; his lyrics and his juvenile tragedy of Prince Gustaf, 1812, are of little value.
HAMME, a town of Belgium, in the province of East Flanders and the arrondissement of Termonde or Dendermonde, is situated on the right bank of the Durme, near its junction with the Scheldt, and 18 miles E.N.E. of Ghent. It contains grain and oil-mills, has manufactures of lace, ribbons, linen, starch, ropes, and cordage, and carries on trade in flax. Population (1876), 10,778.
