Hamlet legend question: What's the symbolism of a gadfly with a straw in its tail as a warning?

[Brynhildr_Budladottir]

I have to write an essay on *Hamlet *as part of a preparation course on English Literature I’m doing to get into uni as a mature-age student next year when I will be 21 at the start of the uni semester (long story, and no this isn’t a homework question or anything close to it). To make it easier to write a good essay I went back and read and reread the basic source, an English translation of the Danish story of Amleth as told by Saxo Grammaticus in his Danish History. Now since studying this play in class I’m beginning to like Amleth more and more.

Here’s a translation for anyone who hasn’t read it and can’t read Latin.

Anyway, I can’t understand one detail in the Saxo version. When Amleth is out on a hunt with his foster-brother and some coutiers, his uncle wants to trap him and reveal that he’s actually sane by sending a woman to seduce him into having sex with her. In order to warn Amleth his foster brother catches a gadfly, sticks a piece of straw under its tail and sends it flying. Amleth takes it as a warning, but I can’t understand why a gadfly with a straw in its tail would be interpreted as a warning but I can guess it’s a form of symbolism. Anyone have an idea what the symbolism of this would be and why it might be sent as a warning? Is it a translation from Latin issue?

[Kimstu]

This guy says:

An explanation of this puzzling passage has been given by Jorgen Olrik, who pointed out that Avnebag (Straw-buttocks) was a recognized term for a thief who took straw from the fields in harvest-time, which he would hide down his trousers. There were heavy punishments for this, and no doubt men were on the watch for dubious characters with their trousers bulging with straw, so that this gives a meaning to a fly with a straw in its tail: “Watch out!”

[Brynhildr_Budladottir]

@Kimstu

This guy says:

Thanks for the link. Actually that writer was a woman (Hilda Davidson).

[Chronos]

I’m skeptical about that explanation. Here we have a critter with something long stuck in its backside (an obviously sexual bit of imagery), and it’s being used as a warning against sex. Invoking a non-sexual explanation as an intermediary seems far-fetched to me.

Besides which, since when is straw valuable enough that a pants-load of it would be worth stealing?

[Dale_Sams]

@Kimstu

This guy says:

Better than my “Careful, you’re about to get it in the ass”

[wolfman]

Ignoring the obscurity of the message it self, First of all , who the hell uses an insect as a message sender?
It has never occurred to me to check a ladybug’s ass just in case someone was trying to say hi.

[Johnny_Q]

For some reason I’m thinking of a fly with a piece of straw shoved up its ass to look something like a wasp. Perhaps the message is that it’s a fake. A setup. A “sting” if you will.

[CarnalK]

That Uncle is a genius because crazy people never have sex with women who try to jump their bones!

But seriously, here’s a biblical view on the symbolism of straw:

The signification of chaff or straw, is truths of memory-knowledge (AC 3114), and indeed memory-knowledges the lowest and most general of all, for the lowest food in a spiritual sense is straw or chaff, because it is the food of beasts. Those knowledges are called lowest which are full of fallacies of the senses, which the evil abuse to pervert goods and truths, and thus to defend evils and falsities; for on account of fallacies these knowledges can be turned in favor of principles of falsity and of cupidities of evil.

from:
http://www.biblemeanings.info/Words/Plant/Straw1.htm

and a gadfly is a fly that draws attention to itself because it’s so damn annoying, so the symbol would get noticed. ISTM. Just my WAG.

[CarnalK]

In regards to the earlier guess: what the hell are pantaloons full of straw gonna net you? People seriously stole straw by the pant load?

[Claverhouse]

…And other people bought it ?

[Kimstu]

@CarnalK

In regards to the earlier guess: what the hell are pantaloons full of straw gonna net you? People seriously stole straw by the pant load?

Actually, on looking deeper, I think the summary of Olrik by Davidson that I quoted in post #2 may have slightly misrepresented the situation. According to Jacob Grimm’s Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer, the word avnebag relates to German

Spreurücker, weil ihm die stoppeln von dem weggetragnen korn auf dem rücken haengen,

that is, somebody who has straws in the sense of chaff sticking out of his trousers seat because he’s hiding stolen grain there.

So an Avnebag/Spreurücker/“Straw-ass” isn’t actually stealing the straw itself, he’s stealing grain (more valuable and more portable), and the straw sticking out of his rear betrays him.

According to Grimm, this definitely was a serious offense in medieval times, and these various Germanic words meaning “Straw-ass” were recognized slang terms for a grain thief.

On the other hand, in Shakespeare’s own time it was apparently a recognized pastime to have fights between a fly and a spider, where the fly would have a straw stuck in its tail (presumably so it couldn’t just fly away and avoid the contest?). But I don’t see what bearing this would have on the earlier legend of Amleth.

[Morgyn]

@Kimstu

On the other hand, in Shakespeare’s own time it was apparently a recognized pastime to have fights between a fly and a spider, where the fly would have a straw stuck in its tail (presumably so it couldn’t just fly away and avoid the contest?). But I don’t see what bearing this would have on the earlier legend of Amleth.

Maybe it meant, “look out! you’re about to become the fly in a spider versus fly contest, and that won’t end well for you.”

[Kimstu]

@Morgyn

Maybe it meant, “look out! you’re about to become the fly in a spider versus fly contest, and that won’t end well for you.”

Yabbut, the legend of Amleth in the work of Saxo Grammaticus that the OP is talking about was written in 1185 and is derived from even older narrative elements. We can’t assume that the fly-and-spider fights known to courtiers of Shakespeare’s day were a feature of Danish society around four hundred years earlier.

As for plausible alternatives to the Avnebag/Straw-ass hypothesis, so far this thread has produced several speculative WAGs but AFAICT there’s no actual historical or texual evidence to support any of them.

[Brynhildr_Budladottir]

@Kimstu

Yabbut, the legend of Amleth in the work of Saxo Grammaticus that the OP is talking about was written in 1185 and is derived from even older narrative elements. We can’t assume that the fly-and-spider fights known to courtiers of Shakespeare’s day were a feature of Danish society around four hundred years earlier.

As for plausible alternatives to the Avnebag/Straw-ass hypothesis, so far this thread has produced several speculative WAGs but AFAICT there’s no actual historical or texual evidence to support any of them.

Small digression, but Morgyn’s suggestion makes me laugh.

[Brynhildr_Budladottir]

EDIT: Also, Snorri references a poem written by Snaebjorn, mentioning Hamlet/Amleth in the Prose Edda:

It is said, sang Snæbjörn, that far out, off yonder headland, the Nine Maids of the Island Mill violently stir the host-cruel skerry-quern — they who in ages past ground Amlóði’s meal. The good chieftain furrows the hull’s lair with his ship’s beaked prow. Here the sea is called Amloði’s Mill.

Translation found on http://fornsed.tumblr.com/post/14901745661/hamlet-the-legend this blog

There’s also a low-budget movie (originally titled Prince of Jutland) based on the Saxo version, and personally a play based on it would also be interesting to see IMO.