Fortinbras is a minor fictional character from William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. A Norwegians crown prince with a few brief scenes in the play, he delivers the final lines that represent a hopeful future for the monarchy of Denmark and its subjects. His father, the fictional former king of Norway, is also named Fortinbras and was slain in the play's antecedent action in a duel with King Hamlet.
His name is not Norwegian in origin, but is a FrenchEnglish hybrid ( fort in bras) meaning "strong in arm."
Role in the play
Although Fortinbras makes only two brief appearances in the latter half of the play, he is referred to throughout:
King Claudius sends ambassadors to Norway in the hopes of staving off his invasion, and they return with the news that Fortinbras will attack Poland but leave Denmark alone. At the very end—after all the major characters except Horatio are dead—Fortinbras and his army enter, accompanied by ambassadors from England who have come to announce that Claudius' supposed orders to execute Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been carried out. With the throne of Denmark now vacant, Fortinbras is to be crowned ruler. This may be an allusion to the political situation of the day: at the time the play was written, Denmark and Norway were
Denmark-Norway; also, England itself was to be ruled by King James I of England and James VI of Scotland, who claimed the throne by virtue of his blood relation to Elizabeth I (the play was written before Elizabeth I's death).
Fortinbras also serves as a parallel to Hamlet in many ways: like the latter, he is motivated largely by the death of his father, whose name he also bears (as Hamlet does his), and both serve as princes of their respective countries. In other respects, Fortinbras serves as a foil for Hamlet: while the Danish prince is deliberate and given to long-winded soliloquies, the Norwegian is impulsivity and hot-headed, determined to avenge his slain father at any cost.
Fortinbras orders that Prince Hamlet be given a soldier's funeral, describing him as "likely, had he been Coronation, to have proved most royally."
Screen adaptations
Hamlet, with a running time in the range of four hours, is seldom performed in its entirety. Consequently, the role of Fortinbras is sometimes omitted, as it was in the 1948 film starring
Laurence Olivier, in the 1969 film starring
Nicol Williamson, and the 1990 film starring
Mel Gibson. He was included, however, in the 1921 Svend Gade and Heinz Schall directed German silent film
Hamlet and portrayed by
Fritz Achterberg, in the 1964
Broadway theatre revival, which was later filmed as Richard Burton's
Hamlet, in the 1980
BBC Shakespeare television production starring
Derek Jacobi, in the 1996 film starring
Kenneth Branagh and the 2000 film starring
Ethan Hawke, although in the 2000 film, he is an enemy of business. In these films he was played by
Michael Ebert,
Ian Charleson,
Rufus Sewell and
Casey Affleck, respectively.
Fortinbras also appears in the 1964 BBC television Hamlet, starring Christopher Plummer, and here he was played by Donald Sutherland, in what was his first important role.
Other stage adaptations
Fortinbras is the protagonist of the 1992 play
Fortinbras by
Lee Blessing. The plot of
Fortinbras follows that of
Hamlet; the first scene is the death of Hamlet in the original Shakespearean text. The rest of the play is in a vernacular, modern English. Major characters from
Hamlet appear as ghosts in this sequel.
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