AMLETH: THE ORIGINS OF HAMLET

The Immortal Bard and the Viking Conquest of England

By Brian Howard Seibert

In 1013, after a decade of fighting, King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, aka Prince Svein (Sviatoslav) of Kiev, finally conquered England and ruled it for 2 months before dying as their king.  His son, King Canute the Great of England, aka Grand Prince Valdamar (Vladimir) the Great of Kiev, ruled the island nation for a further 20 years until 1035. When he died his sons lost control of England and the Saxons took their land back. But King Harald Hardruler of Norway, a former Varangian Guard leader of Constantinople, and Prince William Longsword, from the line of Rollo Ragnarson (son of Ragnar Lothbrok, conqueror of Paris in 845) of Normandy (Viking territory in Northern France) both laid claim to the inheritance of Canute the Great and the race was on.

In 1066, King Harald Hardruler attacked King Harald Godwinson of England from the North and the Norwegian lost his life at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.  Two months later, Prince William Longsword attacked from the south and killed King Harald Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings.  The Northmen of Normandy (Normans) ruled England and for the next 300 years French became the official language of the English, as the Normans had adopted the French of their patrons, the Franks. The English language returned as the official language of England in time for William Shakespeare (aka the Bard) to write a play about a Danish Prince called Hamlet, but he got the story from Belleforest of France who got the story from Saxo Grammaticus of Denmark who recorded it from Viking tales acquired by the Danes while attacking the Eastern Romans of Constantinople. The Eastern sons of Ragnar Lothbrok never quite managed to conquer Constantinople, but in 1204 the Western sons of Ragnar Lothbrok, the Normans, finally did during the 4th Crusade.

NOTE: The recent copyright discovery by the author that Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ Rurikson (Slavic: Prince Igor) of Kiev was also King Harde Knute (Hard Knot) of Denmark, that Prince Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson (Slavic: Prince Sviatoslav) of Kiev was later King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ of Denmark and England and that Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ (Slavic: Grand Prince Vladimir) of Kiev was also King Canute ‘the Great’ of England, Denmark and Norway is original, speculative and remains to be proven by said author, all rights reserved. To put it in the words of the Bard’s Prince Hamlet, “To be, or not to be, that is the question.”