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Archiver > DANISH-SURNAMES > 2004-11 > 1100466537


From: "w.i.borg" <>
Subject: RE: [Dan-Sur] Roll Call - Rosenkrantz & Gyldenstierne
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 13:09:17 -0800
In-Reply-To: <LOBBKDFILNDCMNKDKCDPAEGBEAAA.tegmac@tpg.com.au>


Dear Marie,

I can be of virtually no help on these rather famous names. But some
speculation is fun.

Of course you are aware that Rosencrantz and Gyldenstierne appear in
Shakespeare's play, Hamlet.

You also probably know Hamlet is based in part on Saxo Grammaticus' "The
Danish History." The relevant story there is about Amleth. If you want
to read Grammaticus' Danish History in English translation, Project
Gutenberg has a free copy on the net at
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/dnhst10.txt . Unfortunately
Rosencrantz and Gyldenstierne do NOT appear Grammaticus' Danish History.


But there is scholarly speculation that two cousins of Tycho Brahe,
young nobles named Frederick Rosencrantz (1569-1602) and Knud
Gyldenstierne (1575-1627), were the source for the names used by
Shakespeare. Apparently both were students at Wittenberg, both returned
to Denmark in 1591 and both went to England in 1592 for the year. There
is published research about these two - someone may have developed
family trees for them. So you might look to this literature for these
folks & your possible ties in the 1500's - what lovely lines to tie
into. And it would give you Tycho Brahe too! Great for stories at wine
tastings & around the Thanksgiving table.

On a more serious note, this is a good chance to put in a plug for
Project Gutenberg, a not-for profit organization dedicated to making
electronic copies of older material available free on the net.
Information about Project Gutenberg can be found at
http://www.gutenberg.org/ .

And if any readers want to help put materials up on Project Gutenberg, a
group of volunteers at Distributed Proofreaders help edit books for
Project Gutenberg (see http://www.pgdp.net/ ). They/we can always use
folks to help edit Scandinavian language texts (or English as well). All
you need is a computer with a tie to the internet.

Happy hunting - Jim



-----Original Message-----
From: Marie McCulloch [mailto:]
Sent: Saturday, November 13, 2004 11:00 PM
To:
Subject: RE: [Dan-Sur] Roll Call


Dear Jim

I would love to know more about the Rosenkrantz & Gyldenstierne families
- do you know where I could find more information - especially for the
1500's?

Marie McCulloch

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