This is where Hamlet’s “antic disposition” actually took place — a grand castle near Copenhagen, Denmark. And yes, visitors are still welcome.
If you’ve been reading Trivium blogposts, you’ll know that we are a fan of how-to guides. We also love writing what we know. And we happen to know all about a favourite staple text of AP English classes, Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But we know something even more fun: that you can still visit the very castle where the events of Hamlet went down, today.
In Hamlet, “Elsinore Castle” is where the Danish court resides, and where the events all take place. The castle is full of hauntings, from the ghost of Hamlet’s father wandering its ramparts, to the mysterious madness that befalls its characters. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” the guard Marcellus says (l. 1.4.90), about the gloom and paranoia hanging over its inhabitants.
In real life, Hamlet’s “Elsinore” is actually Kronborg Castle, the renaissance fortress that guards the town of Helsingør, a strategic viewpoint between present-day Denmark and Sweden. If you note the similarity between Helsingør and the English Elsinore, that’s right–Shakespeare got the name from that town. And today, Kronborg Castle is a museum and performance hub for the life and work of Shakespeare.
Getting to Helsingør
We visited Helsingør in 2019, as part of a backpacking trip through Scandinavia. We learned from our Airbnb host that the castle that cycling was one of the best ways of experiencing the castle. At 47 km away from central Copenhagen, it was still accessible via flat ground and clearly-marked bike lanes. And because Denmark has some of the best cycling infrastructure in the world, we couldn’t pass up the chance to try the roads ourselves.
Starting from central Copenhagen, we winded through quaint city streets and neighbourhoods until we reached the dedicated coastal highway reserved just for cyclists–Cycle Route 9. We stopped at a beach to have smørrebrød (open faced sandwiches) for lunch, and then continued past lily ponds, farms, inland forests, and even residential areas.
When we got to the town of Helsingør, our earliest view of the castle was from the 7-11. Talk about Shakespeare and postmodernity! We could also see the castle from the harbour of Helsingør once we walked along it. There was even a statue of Hans Christen Andersen’s Little Mermaid, welcoming visitors there. But we couldn’t get distracted by the town. We had to keep biking onwards to the castle. Even though we were quite late, it was June in Denmark–which meant the sun was not setting until 11pm.
Interesting facts
In 1420, Eric of Pomerania built a fortress called “Krogen” to control entrance to Øresund–the strait between Denmark and Sweden.
Around 1574, Frederik II built a magnificent renaissance castle in place of Krogren fortress, and called in Kronborg.
The castle went through reconstruction in the 1600s, and then became a home for military supplies and barracks. The incredible building we see today dates from the renaissance period.
Shakespeare himself never visited the castle, but heard rumours about its “decadence”–the lavish banquets and celebrations that shook even the most dedicated English partygoers. He heard all about Elsinore from his colleagues who likely performed at the court of Frederik II at Kronborg between 1586 to 1587.
Travelling actors–known as “players” in Shakespeare’s time–were a common entertainment in Frederik’s court. But if Shakespeare’s colleagues, who were no strangers to spectacles and performances themselves, found the court at Kronborg to be somewhat wild, then it would have been an especially dubious place.
Was the something “rotten” in the state of Denmark, then, a commentary on Hamlet’s disillusionment with the festivities of the court? Likewise, are we ourselves often fed up with surface appearances that seem splendid, but actually contain nothing much underneath–if not gaping destruction?
Along the gates
Unfortunately, the castle interior was already closed when we arrived, but we got to bike around and explore its ramparts (protective walls) and grounds. Fun fact: swans wander freely around these grounds, as they are hardy creatures that can survive different temperatures. We saw many of them perusing the castle grounds. There was a neat replica as well of the castle grounds near its main entrance, evoking the feeling of a play-within-a-play.
A moat still surrounds the outer grounds of the castle from its innermost area. Although it was after hours, the gates were still open for intrepid explorers — us.
Here are some photos of the imposing walls and moat:
The edge of the world
What amazed us as well were the stunning ocean views that we glimpsed beyond the walls of the castle. The late sunset time meant that a continual golden hour glow basked the shoreline. We stood along the edge and briefly saw Sweden across the water.
In Hamlet, Horatio frequently warns the prince about trusting the visions he sees in the castle–especially if they’re encounters with his dead father. Horatio warns:
Standing before the terrifying sea, that just happened to be bathed in warm lighting, definitely brought these lines to mind. It was easy to see how the isolated nature of the castle could convince you of its aliveness–that it spoke directly to you.
Modern additions
The soldier barracks that appeared on the castle grounds more recently, and the posters of that year’s Shakespeare festival, brought us back to the present. We remembered that the castle is a tourist attraction after all, full of things to do.
The Shakespeare Festival takes place here every year, ever since –you guessed it–Hamlet was first performed in 1816, in one of the castle’s square turrets. You can say that even from beyond his grave, Hamlet continues to haunt Elsinore.
Visitors get to engage with this fun selfie setup of the “hakespeare Festival” (the S had fallen off), and handle Yorick’s skull (which was attached to the frame, to deter those trying to “pocket” it away). I’m not sure if this setup is still available, but it’s likely another interactive features has replaced it. (If you have visited Kronborg Castle recently, I’d love your input–in the comments section below–on how the castle grounds now look.)
Leaving Helsingør
Visitors can go back the way they came, along that scenic Cycle Route 9 hugging the coast. Or, like us, you can opt to take a train that goes directly back to Copenhagen from the town centre. The best part was we could bring our bikes aboard, sit back, and enjoy the ride. We were sad to leave the town, but were already planning our next visit.
The literary perspective
I was supposed to write about visiting Shakespeare’s Hamlet from a literary perspective, with attention to the themes and devices that the play uses. But I ended up writing about having fun instead.
However, this is still at the heart of what we do as writers and teachers. We believe literature is not about writing stuffy essays on the theme of revenge in Hamlet, nor is it counting the stanza lines of each soliloquy for the sake of counting. We believe that reading and writing is an engaged experience with text, and that an encounter with language is an encounter with all your senses. And this means having fun, as well as feeling sorrow, dread, excitement, and many other feelings that the text elicits.
So, when Horatio warns Hamlet about the “dreadful summit of the cliff” of Elsinore, he is talking about a fearful, uncanny presence that the body registers as real. And we can feel it, standing at the water’s edge of Kronborg Castle today. Any encounter with the physical world, from the grass under your feet or the sun warm on your face, is a living one. And this aliveness is what reading and writing are all about.
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