Editing Amleth (section)

==Name==
The [[Old Icelandic]] form ''Amlóði'' is recorded twice in [[Snorri Sturluson]]'s ''[[Prose Edda]]''.  According to the section ''[[Skaldskaparmal]]'', the expression ''Amlóða mólu'' ('Amlóði's [[quern-stone]]') is a [[kenning]] for the sea, grinding the [[skerry|skerries]] to sand.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Edda-2a.pdf|title=Edda: Skáldskaparmál, vol. 1: Introduction, Text and Notes|last=Sturluson|first=Snorri|publisher=Viking Society for Northern Research|year=2007|editor-last=Faulkes|editor-first=Anthony|location=London|pages=112|quote=''Sem Snæbjǫrn kvað: "Hvatt kveða hrœra Grotta hergrimmastan skerja út fyrir jarðar skauti eylúðrs níu brúðir, þær er – lungs – fyrir lǫngu, líðmeldr, skipa hlíðar baugskerðir rístr barði ból – Amlóða mólu." Hér er kallat hafit *Amlóða kvern.''}}. See also ''[http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Edda-2b.pdf vol. 2: Glossary and Index of Names]'', p. 346.</ref><ref>Cf. ''[http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Skáldskaparmál Skáldskaparmál]'', ed. [[Guðni Jónsson]] (1935), section 33. ''Sjávarkenningar'' (sea-kennings), no. 94.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/SNORRA%20EDDA%20searchable.pdf|title=Edda|last=Sturluson|first=Snorri|publisher=J.M. Dent|isbn=0-460-87616-3|location=London|year=1995|pages=92–93|translator-last=Faulkes|translator-first=Anthony|quote="… they who long ago ground Hamlet's meal-ship … Here the sea is called Hamlet's mill."}}</ref><ref>Cf. the older translation by I. Gollancz, ''Hamlet in Iceland'', London, Northern Library, vol. 3., 1898, p. xi: "Tis said, sang Snaebjorn, that far out, off yonder ness, the Nine Maids of the Island Mill stir amain the host-cruel skerry-quern—they who in ages past ground Hamlet's meal. The good chieftain furrows the hull's lair with his ship's beaked prow. Here the sea is called Amlodhi's Mill."</ref> In a poem by the 10th-century [[skald]] [[Snæbjörn galti|Snæbjörn]] the name of the legendary hero Amlóði is intrinsically connected to the word ''líðmeldr'' ('ale-flower'), leading to the conclusion that the nine [[mermaid]]s, who operated the "hand-mill of the sea", "long ago ground the ale-flour of Amlóði".<ref>Edith Marold (ed.), '[https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=verse&i=4041 Snæbjǫrn, Lausavísur 1]', in: Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds.), ''Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages'', vol. 3, Turnhout: Brepols, 2017, p. 377.</ref> The association with flour milling and beer brewing, the gold carried around, the net used to catch people and the association with the nine female waves place Amleth on a par with the deity [[Aegir]] and his wife [[Rán]].

The late 12th-century ''Amlethus'', ''Amblothæ'' may easily be latinizations of the Old Norse name. 
The etymology of the name is unknown, but there are various suggestions.

Icelandic ''Amlóði'' is recorded as a term for a fool or simpleton in reference to the character of the early modern Icelandic romance or folk tale.<ref name="Harrison">
Henry Harrison, ''Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary'' vol. 1 (1912), [https://books.google.com/books?id=0kc60WqxYK4C&dq=Amleth%20name&pg=PA184 p. 184].</ref>
One suggestion<ref>[[Ferdinand Holthausen]], ''Vergleichendes und Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altwestnordischen'', 1948.</ref> is based on the "fool"  or "[[trickster]]" interpretation of the name, composing the name from Old Norse ''ama'' "to vex, annoy, molest" and ''[[óðr]]'' "fierceness, madness" (also in the theonym ''[[Odin]]''). The Irish and Scottish word ''amhlair'', which in contemporary vernacular denotes a dull, stupid person, is handed down from the ancient name for a [[royal court|court]] [[jester]] or fool, who entertained the king but also surreptitiously advised him through riddles and antics.

A more recent suggestion is based on the Eddaic [[kenning]] associating ''Amlóði'' with the mythological mill ''[[Grottasöngr|grótti]]'',  and derives it from the Old Irish name ''Admlithi'' "great-grinding", attested in  ''[[Togail Bruidne Dá Derga]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Lisa A. |last=Collinson |title=A new etymology for Hamlet? The names Amlethus, Amlóði and Admlithi |journal=The Review of English Studies |volume=62 |issue=257 |year=2011 |pages=675–694 |doi=10.1093/res/hgr008 }}</ref>

Attention has also been drawn to the similarity of ''Amleth'' to the Irish name ''[[Amhladh]]'' (variously ''Amhlaidh,  Amhlaigh,  Amhlaide''), itself a Gaelic adaptation of the Norse name [[Olaf]].<ref>{{cite book |title= A Colder Eye |last= Kenner |first= Hugh |author-link= Hugh Kenner|year= 1989 |publisher= Johns Hopkins Paperbacks |location= Baltimore MD|isbn= 0-8018-3838-X |pages= 82–83 }}.

In a stanza from the Irish ''Annals of the Four Masters'', compiled in the 1600s, the Irish Queen Gormflaith laments the death of her husband, Niall Glundubh, at the hands of one ''Amhlaide'' at the battle of Ath-Cliath (919). 
The identity of the killer  of Niall Glundubh is otherwise recorded as [[Sigtrygg Caech]], the father of that [[Olaf Cuaran]] (i.e. ''Anlaf'', gaelicized ''Amhlaide'') who was the prototype of the English Havelok.</ref>

In a controversial suggestion going back to 1937, the sequence ''æmluþ'' contained in the 8th-century [[Old Frisian]] runic inscription on the  [[Westeremden yew-stick]] has been interpreted as a reference to "Amleth". Contemporary runic research does not support this conclusion.<ref>
N. Kapteyn, 'Zwei Runeninschriften aus der Terp von Westeremden', ''Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur'' 57 (1937), 160-226.
H. Arntz, ''Handbuch der Runenkunde'' 2nd ed. 1944 ("Gegen das hohe Land stellte sich Hamlet. Vor seinen Eiben hat das Unwetter sich ducken müssen. Vor diesem Eibenstäbchen ducke sich die Flut"). "Eibe" in ''Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde'', Volume 6 (1973), p. 527. ''ophamu gistadda amluþ : iwim ost ah þukn iwi os ust dukale'' "Auf (bez. gegen) Opheim nahm Stellung (nahm den kampf auf, constitit) Amluþ. Vor (seinen) eiben hat sich die brandung geduckt. Vor (dieser) eibe ducke sich die brandung"'; Arend Quak,'Runica Frisica', in: R.H. Bremmer et al. (eds.), ''Aspects of Old Frisian Philology. Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik'', 31/32 (1990), 357-370, 365.
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