Horwendil

Horwendil is Amleth's father — the valiant governor of Jutland whose murder sets the first Hamlet in motion. A bold and famous warrior, he wins renown and the hand of the princess Gerutha, and fathers Amleth; but his very success breeds the envy of his brother Feng, who treacherously murders him, seizes his place, and marries his widow. Horwendil's killing is the original wrong that the whole tale exists to avenge — the slain father whose memory drives the son to feign madness and bide his time through every danger until the reckoning comes. He is the saga's (and, through Saxo, literature's) archetypal murdered father: the good ruler struck down by a jealous brother, whose death poisons a court and lays on his son the long, dangerous duty of revenge. The first ghost of the Hamlet story — though in Saxo no ghost, simply a remembered wrong demanding blood.