the sources of "hamlet, prince of denmark", a tragedy by william shakespeare believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601, trace back as far as pre-13th century. the generic "hero-as-fool" story is so old and is expressed in the literature of so many cultures that scholars have hypothesized that it may be indo-european in origin. a scandinavian version of the story of hamlet (called amleth or amlóði, which means "mad" or "not sane" in old norse) was put into writing around 1200 ad by danish historian saxo grammaticus in his work "gesta danorum" (the first full history of denmark). it is this work shakespeare borrowed from to create "hamlet". similar accounts are found in the icelandic "saga of hrolf kraki" and the roman legend of lucius junius brutus, both of which feature heroes who pretend to be insane in order to get revenge. a reasonably accurate version of saxo's story was translated into french in 1570 by françois de belleforest in his "histoires tragiques". belleforest embellished saxo's text substantially, almost doubling its length, and introduced the hero's melancholy.