National Network for Equitable Library Service

Denmark. 12th century. In the castle of Kronborg, during the reign of the mighty King Rorik, an unwanted child is born to a lowly servant, Gitte, and an unknown father. But the boy Erik, later known as Yorick, will climb to a position of power that will prove his undoing. Unruly but quick-witted, Yorick rises from humble stable-boy to joining the King's players, acting at great feasts before the highest in the realm. On the death of the kindly Makan who has helped to raise him, Yorick becomes the King's jester. Now a hard-drinking rake, reckless of the dangers that swirl about him, he finds himself privy to secrets—and under the thumb of the King's spoiled and wilful daughter, Gurutha. When the Princess is forced to take a husband she does not want, the dour sea-rover Horwendil, she secretly cuckolds him with his brother, Feng—and Yorick is their go-between. On Rorik's death, when Gurutha becomes Queen, she takes the name Gertrude—her husband taking the name Hamlet. And when she bears a son, young Hamlet, Yorick becomes the Prince's playfellow, sporting happily with the boy he adores. Yorick reaches heights he never imagined—which is the beginning of his downfall. But as he nears the end, the final betrayal is yet to come...