13G 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Maurice P. Dunlap 



A BICYCLE PARTY STOPS FOR REFRESHMENT AT AN ICE-CREAM STAND 



Bicycling is one of the most popular sports in Denmark, and it is said that everybody 

 rides, from the King down. In the narrow streets policemen must be stationed to regulate 

 the traffic. There is little snow in Denmark and bicycles are used the year round. 



he has much of Hamlet in his composi- 

 tion. 



Until I spent some years in Denmark, 

 I believed that Shakespeare's creation of 

 Hamlet — founded on the Hamlet legend 

 of the Danish historian, Saxo Grammati- 

 cus — represented a second-rate philo- 

 sophical mind, English of the sixteenth 

 century, battling against circumstances; 

 but I soon realized that Shakespeare's 

 Hamlet was a Dane ; and more, also, that, 

 whether it was through the intuition of 

 genius or through experience, Shake- 

 speare had come to understand very 

 clearly the condition of Denmark and the 

 Danes in the sixteenth century. 



DANISH HISTORY AND TRADITION OF 

 SHAKESPEARE'S "HAMEET" 



In parentheses, I may say that Rosen- 

 crans and Guildenstern were really at- 

 taches of the Danish diplomatic estab- 

 lishment in London during the reign of 

 James I. 



In the rearrangement of territory, de- 

 pendent on one of the frequent quarrels 

 between Sweden and Denmark, the Guil- 



densterns are now Swedish. Their cas- 

 tle is not very far from the shores of 

 the Sound which divides Denmark and 

 Sweden, and which at one point, that of 

 Elsinore, can be crossed by a good swim- 

 mer. In fact, that part of the Sound 

 between Elsinore and Halsingborg is fre- 

 quently used as a swimming track in con- 

 tests. 



The family of Rosencrans, now rather 

 large, is Danish. The legend is that in 

 the old days, before the Danish aristoc- 

 racy had surnames, one of the popes be- 

 stowed on the head of the Rosencrans 

 family the title of "Knight of the Rosary" 

 or, rather, "Knight of the Rose Wreath." 

 "Crans" in Danish is "wreath." It will 

 be remembered that in Hamlet, on that 

 sad day when Ophelia was borne to her 

 tomb, she was deprived of her "crans" 

 and "maiden strewments." 



There is a tradition very firmly fixed 

 in Denmark that William Shakespeare, as 

 a boy, visited the Castle of Kronborg 

 with a strolling troupe, sent for to honor 

 a visit made by James I, who married the 

 Danish princess, Ann of Denmark, sister 



