UP THE SOUND TO HAMLET'S CASTLE
"MOTHER dear, how fine and cool the sea-breeze feels!" exclaimed
Valdemar, as the little Sound steamer puffed along over the bright
Baltic waves, past the big merchant-ships on the blue Sound, making
many stops on its way up towards historic old Elsinore, the spot made
famous by Shakespeare.
Uncle Oscar had departed three days before, going directly to the
Jutland Park, to begin preparations for the entertaining of the
thousands of loyal Danish-American visitors, expected to arrive in time
for the Fourth celebration, and Fru Ingemann had given him her promise
to meet him there, with the three children, for that great event.
For it had not taken Fru Ingemann long to decide that Uncle Oscar's
plan for the summer was best. Summer days are long, but few, in
Denmark,--the winters cold and stormy,--and Karen and Valdemar needed
the trip as much as did Karl, she told herself. So the little party
of four were already on their way north, to see for themselves all
the wonders and beauties of Jutland, of which Karl's father had been
telling them.
Once Fru Ingemann had decided, the days fairly flew. Valdemar wanted to
start at once. But there was all the packing to be done--of things to
be left, and things to be taken--and the flat to be closed for at least
several months.
Karen, who had never before been farther from home than their own
little villa up on the _Strandvej_, was overjoyed and danced busily
about, saving her mother steps in a thousand different ways; while
Valdemar and Karl surprised Fru Ingemann by getting out ladders,
buckets and brushes, and nicely whitewashing all the flat windows,
which was really being very useful indeed.
"Aunt Else, why is our steamer so awfully crowded with people? Are the
Sound boats always like this?" asked Karl, who could hardly turn his
chair around without knocking into some one.
"Yes, Karl, it's like this every year at 'Deer-Park-time.' The huge
crowds are as eager as ourselves to leave Copenhagen with the first
warm day and flee to _Skoven_,[18] for we Danes love our beautiful
woods. With the first bursting of the beech-buds, everybody asks
everybody else: 'Have you been in the woods yet?' And then by
thousands--young and old--they flock to our beloved beech-woods. Those
who cannot find room on the boats take the first train, or carriage,
or cycle, or car, or even foot it--any way at all in order to reach
the Deer Park, for that is where most of them go. After we make a stop
there, we shall have plenty of room on our boat, Karl. Look! We are
passing Charlottenlund, the Crown Prince's palace. You can see it up
among those fine old trees."
"Then, Aunt Else," asked Karl, "isn't 'Deer-Park-time' something like
our American 'Indian Summer,' only that it comes in the spring? It's
your finest part of spring, and our best part of fall, when every one
wants to live out of doors. Isn't that it?"
"That's just right, Karl," laughed Fru Ingemann. "And a little Danish
boy would feel almost as badly not to be taken to the beech-woods
when 'Deer-Park-time' comes, as would a little English boy if he got
no plum pudding on Christmas day, or a little Scotch boy without his
currant bun on New Year's Day, or a nice little American boy like
you, Karl, if he couldn't have any firecrackers for his Fourth of July
celebration. But here we are stopping at the Deer Park now. Half the
people are getting off."
Valdemar's eyes looked far beyond the disembarking crowds landing at
the pier. He saw only the dark pine trees in the distance, straight and
tall, suggesting to his imaginative mind giant masts for Viking ships.
Many a fine day had he spent tramping through those tree-shaded walks
with his mother, while she told him wonderful stories about Denmark's
great heroes of old.
"In America, we like to go to the woods, too," said Karl; "but not just
to walk and walk all day. We like to play ball, or climb the trees for
nuts, or keep doing something all the time. Do you ever do anything but
just walk, in your woods?"
"Sometimes, on a warm summer's evening in the woods, we sing some
beautiful old hymn, like Grundtwig's:
"'For Danes have their home where the fair beeches grow,
By shores where forget-me-nots cluster,
And fairest to us, by cradle and grave,
The blossoming field by the swift-flowing wave.'
There are no people in all the world, Karl, who have the same simple
love for their trees, as do the Danes," explained his Aunt Else.
"There, Karl, we are starting again," said Valdemar.
The beautiful Deer Park, with its masses and pyramids of green foliage,
followed the Sound-Shore for five miles before the steamer had left it
behind. The boat kept close to the shore, stopping frequently at the
little, red-roofed settlements, inviting little villas and sea-bathing
resorts, to let off more passengers, for everybody in Copenhagen who
can, must lie on the _Strandvej_ for at least a part of every summer,
enjoying the out-of-doors amusements, the bathing, the woods, sea,
sky and sunshine. Nestling among the trees of the _Strandvej_, for
miles, were little white, yellow, and green villas, among them Fru
Ingemann's,--at the sight of which Karen, who always felt a little sick
on the water, brightened, and exclaimed:
"There, Karl, is ours! You must come back and spend another summer with
us up there. We do have the best times, don't we, Valdemar?"
The afternoon was singularly fine. Hundreds of ships were gliding
silently past them in one continuous procession.
"Why," exclaimed Karl, "there must be the flags of every nation
on the globe. I've counted the Russian, German, French, English,
Swedish, Norwegian, Italian, Greek, Spanish and Portuguese flags, and,
look!--there is a steamer with our dear old United States flag! How
narrow the sound is growing, Aunt Else. The mountains of Sweden look
nearer and nearer. I believe that, if I yelled loud enough, the people
over there could easily hear me."
"Yes, Karl, we must be nearing Helsingör, for the Sound certainly
is narrowing rapidly. It is less than two miles wide at that point.
It hardly seems three hours since we left Copenhagen," remarked Fru
Ingemann.
"Oh, mother, look! Isn't that old Kronborg now?" exclaimed Valdemar.
"That is surely Hamlet's Castle, mother! Helsingör is where we land!"
"Yes, it is grim old Kronborg Castle, Valdemar. Many a tale its old
gray walls could tell of terrible fighting, royal merrymaking, and of
sadness. Karen and you, boys, shall go all through it when we land.
For three hundred years Kronborg was the key to the Sound, keeping a
sentry-like guard over the gate between the Baltic and the North Sea.
For before the Kiel Canal was cut, as many as twenty thousand ships
every year passed through this narrow strait, bound for Russian and
Swedish ports; and Denmark grew rich from the Sound dues she collected.
Now, the gates are open to the ships of all countries, and, when
foreign sovereigns or men-of-war glide through this narrow silvery
streak dividing Sweden and Denmark, old Kronborg's cannon give a
friendly salute. But, come, we are landing now."
It was but a few minutes' walk up to the frowning old fortress on the
promontory, with its many lofty, gray stone towers rising from the
castellated roof. Karl was seeing for the first time in all his life a
real "fairy-tale" castle, surrounded by a broad moat and ramparts.
First they were shown the apartments occupied by the royal family
when, at rare times, they visit Kronborg. Passing a little chapel,
with its carved choir-stalls and pulpit, they found themselves, after
a fatiguing ascent, out upon the flat roof of a great square tower,
from which they gazed in admiration in all directions, for the day was
remarkably clear and bright.
Far and near, over land and sea, the view was magnificent. To the east
rose the mountainous Swedish coast, and, to the north, the gleaming
blue waters of the Sound expanded into the equally blue Kattegat. All
was still, like noon. Nothing seemed to move but the multitude of white
sails silently passing and repassing through the narrow silvery strait
below.
"Mother dear, do you think I shall ever be able to paint anything so
beautiful as this? Uncle Thor could do it justice, mother; but I--"
"Yes, dear, if you work hard enough," was his mother's only answer, as
she drew his coat collar closer about his neck, for a chill wind had
risen.
"The Swedish coast is so near, mother, that I can see the windows of
the houses," said Karen. "The coast doesn't look dangerous, does it,
mother; but Valdemar says the guard told him he had seen as many as six
shipwrecks here in one night."
"Yes, child, there are often bad storms on this coast; for the Kattegat
is very rough and dangerous at times. Now we must go."
"But Aunt Else, I want to see the famous platform where the ghost of
Hamlet's father walked that night," protested Karl, as the little party
started down.
"Why, my dear boy, the ghost of Hamlet's father is believed to have
paraded this very platform, right here where we are standing," laughed
his aunt, as she put her arm about little Karen, who shuddered at the
thought.
"Don't you know the familiar verse, Karl?
"'And I knew that where I was standing,
In old days long gone by,
Hamlet had heard at midnight
The ominous spectre cry.'
"This is, indeed, the far-famed castle of Elsinore, of glorious
Shakespeare's fancy, Karl. You must, of course, have read about it in
your school in Chicago," said Fru Ingemann, with a twinkle in her eye.
"Through the magic of Shakespeare's great genius this out-of-the-way
corner of our beloved little Denmark has become forever famous the
whole world over. But come quickly, all of you; we have much yet to see
this afternoon, before we take our steamer for Aarhus."
"Wasn't it here in this fortress, too, that beautiful Queen Caroline
Matilda was imprisoned until her brother, George III, sent her to
Germany, where she soon died?" asked Valdemar, as they hurried down.
"And, oh, Aunt Else, isn't it right here in this castle that Holger
Danske stays?" demanded Karl.
"Yes, Valdemar, Queen Caroline Matilda was a prisoner here; and Karl,
no one can ever see Holger Danske, although it is believed that he is
alive somewhere down in the underground vaults of this fortress, and
that, whenever Denmark needs him, he will arise and come to her aid.
All little Danish boys know him. Valdemar, you tell Karl the story,"
said Fru Ingemann, as the little party hurried on.
"Well, Karl, Holger Danske is the great national hero of Danish
tradition, the founder of the Danish nation, in fact," began Valdemar,
who was thoroughly familiar with his country's history and traditions.
"Holger Danske's cradle was a warrior's shield, so the story goes, and
he sits down in the deep dark dungeon of this fortress, all alone, clad
in iron and steel, his head forever resting on his strong arms, bending
over a marble table to which his great long beard has grown fast.
There he forever slumbers and dreams that he sees and knows everything
that is happening above in his beloved Denmark. Whenever his country
is in peril, or stands in need of his services, he will appear. But,
every Christmas night, one of God's angels visits him in his dungeon,
and assures him that all his dreams are true, and that Denmark is
threatened with no extraordinary danger, and that he may sleep on
again."
As they reached the Castle grounds, the guide pointed out the old
moat, where Ophelia drowned herself, and the spring near by that bears
her name. Then he took them to the grave of the melancholy Dane, in a
beautiful shaded spot, marked by a moss-grown cairn of stones, and a
granite shaft bearing the inscription:
+--------------------+
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| "HAMLET'S GRAV." |
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FOOTNOTE:
[Footnote 18: The woods.]