Hamlet was made famous by William Shakespeare, but few people realise that the tale was taken from Danish Mythology. In this he is named Amlethus which is a Latin version of Hamlet. His father is Orvendel which is a name that should be familiar to Folkish Wodenists since we know this figure as Or-Waendal. I will recount the tale as told by Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 CE to 1216 CE).
Orvendel achieves a victory over King Koll of Norway which makes his brother Fengo rage with jealousy. Fengo's rage causes him to murder Orvendel, the murder being witnessed by Amlethus. Amlethus plotted revenge for his father's murder but he was shrewd enough to realise that if Fengo suspected this his life would be in danger. He chose to feign dullness, and to pretend that he was a witless fool.
To do this he remained in his mother's house, listless, inactive and without cleaning himself. He threw himself into the mud and covered himself with foul and filthy dirt, feigning madness. He sat by the fire, raked up some of the embers, fashioned wooden stakes, hardening them in the fire and then shaping the tips into barbs. When asked what he was doing he replied that he was preparing sharp spears to avenge his father. This made people scoff even more, as he appeared quite mad.
But some began to see through this, since he took care to always guard the pile of sharpened stakes, and they muttered that he only played the simpleton. To test him they suggested getting a woman with him in a secluded place, and if he was feigning he would be tempted to take her.
Some of the men drew him into a secluded place in a remote part of the forest, amongst them the foster-brother of Amlethus who had not ceased to see himself as his kin. He tipped Amlethus off about the plan. Amlethus sat on his horse facing the rear, looking quite ridiculous in the process. On his way a wolf crossed his path amid a thicket; when riding he used cunning to answer those present, and in the process give hints but not far enough to be seen through. As they passed along the beach his companions found the rudder from a ship-wreck, and said to him they had discovered a huge knife, to which he replied that it was the right thing to carve such a 'huge ham' - meaning, of course, the sea. When they passed some huge sandhills and made him look at the 'meal' - meaning the sand - he replied that it had been ground small by the 'hoary tempests of the ocean'.
The woman sent by his uncle met him in a dark spot as if by chance; remembering his foster-brother's warnings he caught up the woman and dragged her off to a distant and impenetrable fen. After laying together he warned her not to disclose anything of the matter, which was not hard since he had known her well since childhood, both of them being fostered together. When he returned home he was asked if he had given way to love and he replied that he had ravished her. When asked where he did it and what was his pillow he replied that he had 'rested upon the hoof of a beast of burden, upon a cockscomb, and also upon a ceiling. The maiden was asked too and she said he had done no such thing.
A friend of Fengo was not sure of this whole thing and suggested Fengo went away, and whilst away Amlethus would be left alone with his mother and they should hide someone in the room to listen to what was said. Amlethus was shut up in the room with his mother and he saw through the treachery, and thus used his feigning of madness. Then he mounted upon the straw in the room, jumped up and down upon it to see if anyone hid there, and feeling a lump beneath his feet drove his sword into the spot. He dragged the man out and slew him, cut his body into pieces, boiled the pieces in water, and then flung it through the mouth of an open sewer for the swine to eat. His mother scalded him but he got back by scolding her for wedding her husband's slayer.
When Fengo returned he could find no trace of the man, and when Amlethus was asked about him he replied that the man had gone to the sewer and fallen through its bottom, and had been eaten by the swine. Seeming senseless this was laughed at by those present, though it had been the truth. Fengo sensed that Amlethus was full of cunning but he could not slay him himself because of his own wife and also Amleth's grandsire, Rorik. He thought that the King of Britain should be employed to slay him, and he remain innocent of the dark deed. On leaving Amleth gave secret orders to his mother to hang the hall with knotted tapestry and to perform mourning for him one year hence.
Two of Fengo's retainers went with Amleth bearing a letter graven in wood; the letter asked the King of the Britons to put to death the youth. Whilst they rested Amleth searched their coffers, found the letter, erased the letters and put in fresh ones, shifting his doom to Fengo's retainers. He also put in that the King of Britain should grant his daughter in marriage to Amleth.
Cutting a long story short, Amleth showed through his knowledge and wisdom how he understood many things not known to others, and the king gave his daughter to be his wife. He hanged the companions, to which Amleth feigned offence. so that the king paid him weregild of gold, which he melted and poured into hollowed sticks. After one year he got leave to return to Jutland, taking with him only the sticks holding the gold. Once more he dressed as the simpleton he entered the room where the mourners were he was asked where his comrades were, to which he replied - 'Here is both the one and the other' - pointing at the weregild.
He got everyone drunk and when they were sleeping around the hall he brought down the hangings of the tapestry and thus applied the crooked stakes so that they could not move. Then he set fire to the place and they and the whole palace were burnt to the ground. Going to his uncle's room he switched a sword hanging by the bed, awakened his uncle telling him the hall was in flames and that his nobles were dying, and that he was now going to exact his revenge upon Fengo himself. Fengo could not draw the strange sword and Amleth slew his uncle.
Hamlet here plays the fool, the simpleton, the madman, and yet he is the one who has the power to dispense good and evil, the avenging power that brings divine justice. He is the one who is inspired, has great knowledge, wisdom and above all, insight. The hidden meaning of the Myth of Hamlet is that evil is never attacked head-on, for it is made to defeat itself. Hamlet is never a misfit, though he plays the fool and simpleton, for he is the bringer of justice. This is made clear in the later Shakespearean version where we find the saga in the light of its higher clarity.
The myth is plain to see, and Hamlet is the Archetypal Avenging Hero -
- The uncle slays his brother.
- The son of the brother plots his revenge but plays the fool or simpleton in order that his uncle does not suspect his plot.
- The son revenges his father by slaying the uncle.
Hamlet is connected to the North Sea, the stormy ocean of the North, and its breakers grind away the granite rocks, thus being called Hamlet's Mill. This is indeed an important concept since Or-Waendal is in fact the same as Mundilfore who is the Turner of the World Mill. Thus, Hamlet's father is the Cosmic Turner whilst Hamlet himself is the World Turner - the former turns the Cosmic Mill and the latter the World Mill. I have shown before how Or-Waendal is the Long Man of Wilmington.
Hamlet's Meal is ground by the Nine Giant Maidens or Nine Maids of the Island Mill; here we find the Nine Wave-Maidens and mother of Hama (Heimdall). We can find this tale of Hamlet in various guises from different areas of the Indo-European world -
- Kullervo from Finland.
- Kai Khusrau of Persia.
- Horus slaying his father's brother Set.
This can, to a degree, be found in the figure of Wid-Ar whose father, Woden, is slain by Fenris (Loki's son), and thus he avenges the death of his father. We do not find the fool or simpleton in his tale but the theme is similar. We can also find hints of this in the Swiss tale of William Tell, since the name 'Tell' actually stems from 'Tol' which means 'fool' or 'simpleton'. This, of course, as familiar to Folkish Wodenists, is The Hooded Man. Indeed, in the Robin of Sherwood series Robin is linked to the Tarot Card named The Fool.
We should note here that The Fool is numbered '0' which would hint at The Void, and thus that the figure of The Hooded Man appears when the worlds sink into chaos and into the Void. Note also the 'dog' in this card since we find a 'wolf' in the story of Hamlet - this can be no coincidence, and shows that the Tarot cards once held knowledge and wisdom, though much of it is no doubt distorted with time and those who passed this on. The figure above also wears the 'coat of many colours' which is that of the Harlequin; he also carries the White Rose of Albion. We should also note that the 'coat of many colours' was worn by Joseph, father of Jesus; this shows us how the Initiates worked, since they passed on the knowledge through symbols and those who followed would pick up on the symbolism to know what was being said. Thus various different traditions would hold the same secrets which were unlocked through a knowledge of the symbolism used.
The dog is also an important part of mythology since it has connections with the dice and with dice-throwing, and thus with board-games such as taefl. Today the dice is not used, but it is most likely that in ancient times dice were cast to make each move. Hence, a game of chance, was altered into a game of intelligence, the 'chance' really being the key to understanding the game. Chess is a game of intelligence today, and is played out as a battle between Good (White) and Evil (Black); 'chance' does not come into this at all and it is only through clever thinking or making a mistake that causes the outcome and the winner.
In the Rig Veda the gods are said to go around like ayas which means the cast of dice; indeed, the four ages - Krita, Treta, Dvapara and Kali - are casts of the dice, the last one, Kali. being the 'Dog Dice' and the worse cast. We cannot but feel that here we have a link to the 'Warg Age' of Norse Mythology. The divide in the Great Battle (symbolised in the board-games) is the Milky Way, and in the number of the Einheriar, 432,000, we find the reference to the Precession of the Equinoxes. This is part of the sequence -
- 432,000
- 216,000
- 108,000
The number of stanzas in the Rig Veda is 108,000, each stanza being made up of 40 syllables; there are 10,800 bricks of the Indian Fire-Alter, Agnicayana. The Babylonian Great Years was 432,000 years, and in certain Greek texts the duration of the Aeon was 10,800 years. As I stated before these are symbols used to understand that what is being spoken of is the Precession of the Equinoxes, and in this case the end of a cycle and beginning of another cycle.
In many traditions we see the 'Churning of the Ocean' linked to the above numbers, and here again we must recall the idea of Hamlet's Mill in the North Sea, and to the Cosmic Ocean 'churned' (turned) by Or-Waendal. As I have mentioned before this 'churning' is a backwards and forwards motion, which suggests that the world may reverse its axial spin at certain times. The 'rope' that does the churning is the Serpent and in both the Vedic and the Mayan a tortoise is the base of the churning - no doubt symbolising a slow process.
We are talking here of the Ragnarok and the Fall of Troy in which time the world falls into chaos, but this chaos and disorder is the wreck and ruin of the world, out of which will arise a new world. This is the Time of the Wolf and it is also the Time of The Hooded Man.
There are links to both Mars and Saturn in the tales connected to the Precession of the Equinoxes and to the Myth of Hamlet. We should note that Mars is associated with the colour Red and Saturn with the colour Black - both linked to the colours associated with anarchy. This is no coincidence, and thus we find the association with such times of Chaos. Everything we see has an inner meaning which relates to symbolism. In the above we see the 'Four Beasts of the Apocalypse' - Lion (Leo), Man (Aquarius), Bull (Taurus) and Eagle (Scorpio, originally Aquila the Eagle). We see Mars in Scorpio and Saturn in Taurus - Aquarius is ruled over by Uranus (Ur-An-Us). Mars is the Avenger, whilst Saturn is the Destroyer, which is why these two forces are paramount in the destruction of the old world-age and old cycle.
Virgil describes Mars as 'caeco Marte' which means something like 'blind fury' and here we can see a hint of a god such as Woden, and maybe why Woden was seen as being Mars by some Roman scholars. Orion the Hunter is also associated with blindness, and we can see here a link once more to Waendal since the figure of the Herne Giant is an aspect of the Hunter-God. Saturn is, of course, Kronos who is the God of Time, Old Father Time, and thus also the Grim Reaper. Orion the Hunter is also Nimrod, the Great Hunter, and is the Blind Giant. We should also note how in one tale of Robin Hood at the end of his days he is blinded.
In the above Daily Mail clipping of August 1999 we see not only the Divine Marriage of the Sun and the Moon, together with Venus the Virgin (in Leo the Lion) but the twin forces of chaos and destruction (Mars and Saturn) that rule over this particular period in between the cycles. We know from the various prophecies that I have mentioned in other posts and articles how the Solar Eclipse (Black Sun) resurrected the King of the English (Ingwe) and that at the time Nostradamus tells us that 'Mars reigns before and after'. The hope for our Folk here lies in the ruler-ship of the New Age - Uranus. The coming age will be the Age of Aryan Man.
In the figure of 'Saint Christopher' (Patron of Travels) wading across the fierce waters with the Krist-Child upon his shoulders we find that of the Blind Giant bearing Tom Thumb upon his shoulders, whose eyes guide the giant across the fierce Northern Waters. 'Saint Christopher' was said to be 'half-hundinga', i.e. 'half-hound' and thus (again) associated with the dog. Or-Waendal is also connected to such legends, and even the blinded Samson in the biblical account where he acts as the destroyer.
Most people are familiar with the Myth of Orvandil and 'Orvandil's Toe'; if we see Orvandil as being associated with Orion the Hunter (The Herne Giant) then we should note that the bright star in this constellation, Rigel, means 'foot' in Arabic. The Three Stars of Orion's Belt (Frigg's Distaff) look across at the Dog-Star, Sirius. In Persian Mythology Sirius is called Tishtriya and it is said -
'We worship the splendid, brilliant Tishtriya, which soars rapidly to Lake Vurukasha, like the arrow quick-as-lightning, which Urxsa the Archer, the best archer amongst the Aryans, shot from Mount Aryiosutha to Mount Huvanvant....(it causes) Lake Vurukashs to surge up, to flood asunder, to spread out; at all shores surges Lake Varakusha, the whole centre surges up.'
(Avesta: Eighth Yasht.)
Sirius has always been associated in Egypt with the flooding of the Nile, and here we see an ancient Aryan Myth where Sirius is seen as being associated with flooding. Sirius is also known as the 'Dog-Star' and here again we have the dog motif. Sirius has also been known as the 'Arrow-Star' and it is thus perhaps significant to note that the Persians also called this star - Tir. Or-Waendal is the Archer, as is Robin Hood, as is Aegl the Archer, etc. etc. We should here make clear that the idea of flooding and the waters refers to the dissolution of the worlds which plunge into the Waters of Chaos at the end of a Cosmic Cycle, and from this emerges a new world.
Here we see the Red-Haired, Red-Bearded Aryan Thunder-God bearing his Twin-Hammers, sailing in the Dragon-Ship on the Waters of Chaos, standing beside the White Stone of Ingwe - the 'Gift of Ingwe' (as shown on the twin figures at the side X-XX).
What we see here are subtle links with the Fall of Troy, with the destructive hordes of barbarians from the East, with Attila the Hun, driven by Nimrod the Great Archer - with the Ragnarok. Yet, from Troy a few remnants, guided by Wid-Ar (AEnius) left to found the mighty Empire of Rome, and so a New Era dawned from out of the chaos, disorder and destruction. What comes down to us through Christian eyes - Ragnarok - is the time of doom - the Doom of the Gods. Yet this wholesale destruction is not the whole story, for though only a short piece remains to us, the whole thing is not about death alone, but about a rebirth and renewal - about the hope of a better tomorrow.
At this time we who have seen these things are ridiculed and even declared to be 'mad' or 'insane'; and yet, throughout this tale the 'madman' and the 'insane' are indeed the wise ones. They are the ones who wait, who are to bring justice to an unjust world, who await the time when the Evil Forces will indeed destroy themselves through their folly and madness. This Archetypal Myth will be played out on the Stage of Life, and there is nothing that can be done to stop what is coming. Their evil world shall burn and the Sword of Wid-Ar will bring justice for the slaying of Woden. This is the Time of The Hooded Man - 'And the guilty shall tremble!'
Rune-Stave of The Hooded Man
The Hooded Man
Both of the above rune-staves contain the secret of The Hooded Man and also of the Rising of At-al-land from out of the 'waters' - the 'Waters of Chaos'. The Hooded Man is The Fool and the April Fool is depicted by the Long Man of Wilmington - the Great Initiator. I have shown before how the name 'Robin' adds to the Number 58 and is thus the key to the 58 Words of The Hooded Man Prophecy. I have chosen to use the term Ingwe now rather than 'Ing', since this is the most ancient spelling - the name Ingwe, using English Gematria, adds to the Number 58!
'Who is the more foolish, The Fool, or the fool who follows him?'
Obi Wan Kenobi - 'Star Wars'.
