From Husum to Helsinore

Jacob Knijff - National Maritime Museum, London (c.1670), image Wikipedia

 

 

Husum to Helsinore

Today, the trip from Husum Germany to Helsinore Denmark takes 4 hours by car, longer if one goes by boat since one must travel north along the Jutland peninsula, past Fredrikshaven and on to the northern point of the island of Zealand. Here is Hamlet's imposing castle overlooking the sea where Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia are separated by a channel of water called Öresund (the Sound) which is no more than two and a half miles.

Hamlet

The closeness sets the political stage for Shakespeare’s play Hamlet in which the underlying fear of a Norwegian invasion is the backdrop for Hamlet’s conflict with his uncle, the new King of Denmark and the king’s wife, Hamlet’s mother.

I mention this purely because Shakespeare’s play may give us insight into the life and times of the Danish people, and, our progenitor, Jan Franz Van Husum (Husum then Danish and the people a mixture of Danes, Dutch, and Frisians). Too disturbing you say, too psychological, too royal for a common sailor like our Jan and his father Franz. Perhaps.

Still, it demonstrates that our ancestors were like us, subject to human passions, to anger, to love, to jealousy and revenge. And life does not always turn out well.

Varengezel 

The marriage certificate of Jan and Volkje
in which he describes himself as a "varengezel"

 

A “varensgezel,” as Jan would later describe himself, is a sailor, a shipmate, a wayfaring journeyman. Such a sailor makes a brier appearance addressing Hamlet’s best friend Horatio:

“Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded them. On the instant they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did: I am to do a good turn for them.”

Scholars of Shakespeare have determined that Hamlet was written sometime between 1599 and 1602. This would be a few years before Jan’s birth in 1608 and at time when Jan’s father Franz was of a similar age to Hamlet himself.

Shakespeare speaks

We are all familiar with Hamlet’s soliloquy, “To be or not to be…” It dominates our understanding of the play, but there is much, much more that reveals the everyday thinking of the late 16th century and early 17th century Dane. I will give you two and suggest that you read the play.

“Brevity is the soul of wit.” And, “Listen to many, speak to a few.”

And close with, “Good-night, sweet prince; and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”