Why did Shakespeare choose Denmark for the setting of Hamlet?

Question

Are there any particular reasons you think Shakespeare chose Denmark to be the country Hamlet was the prince of?

Answer 1

It is indeed based on a true story. Check the following:

"While the earliest reference to the legend of Hamlet occurs in an eleventh century Icelandic poem, the earliest written version of the story appears in Saxo Grammaticus's twelfth century Historiae Danicae, and tells of Amleth (derived from the Old Norse word for idiot), Prince of Jutland. When his uncle Feng murders his father and marries his mother, Amleth escapes death himself by pretending to be a harmless fool, and after similar adventures to our Hamlet (plus marrying the King of England's daughter), he kills Feng, burns his palace with all of the court inside, is elected ruler of Jutland and lives to die in battle a few years later."

http://www.georgedillon.com/theatre/hamlet_programme_story_dates_sources_texts_cuts.shtml#Sources

Answer 2

Well, since the play deals with the murder of a king, an attempt to depose the next king, and a queen who is a darn fool, it would NOT have been good politics for Shakespeare to have set the play in his own country, England, and made them kings and queens of England. That might have incurred the King's wrath!

But why Denmark? Perhaps because at the time in which the play was set, Denmark was a warlike, warrior nation.

EDIT: The basic story of Hamlet is told by Saxo Grammaticus is his history of Denmark (in around 1200). But Shakepeare probably got the story not from Saxo's work, but rather from someone else who had used Saxo's story. It's belived that he got it from from another play, about Hamlet, which had been very popular in London about a decade before Shakespeare. Unfortunately, that play has been lost. We know of it only from newspaper accounts.

Answer 3

I believe Hamlet is based, if very loosely, on an actual historical figure.

Answer 4

Denmark bordered on the fringe of old paganism (Norway) and new christianity (Paris)

Answer 5

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Answer 6

might wanna look that up on some other website cus i dont think anyone would know that off te top of their head!