"This collection first provides an introduction in the form of a brief historical survey of Shakespeare's role in Scandinavian theater, literature, and culture more generally. Subsequent essays mirror the Nordic engagement with Shakespeare in more recent times, starting with an account by August Strindberg of his own relationship to a Shakespeare who deeply influenced his own drama, and especially his historical plays.".

"One study deals with the Elizabethans' incomplete and erroneous knowledge of Scandinavian geography and the resulting confusion in Hamlet. Another essay discusses the ever-recurring problem of Othello's color. Further studies are concerned with the loose ends and contradictions in Shakespeare's plays and the ways in which these enhance the dramatic effect, and with the architectonic aspects of his drama.

On the latter subject special attention is given to The Tempest and Julius Caesar, but other dramas such as Henry V and Hamlet are also considered. One close study of Henry V proposes a "Shakespearean philology" and raises fundamental questions of the relationship between language use and the exercise of power. Another study draws attention to the importance of heeding prosodic differences between Shakespeare's English and the target language in translation.".

"There is also a study of English-Danish relations in Shakespeare's time and how they are reflected in Hamlet, and another essay discusses the very personal work of the influential Danish scholar Georg Brandes.

The last essay is concerned with a highly successful but controversial anti-Nazi production of The Merchant of Venice in Stockholm towards the end of the Second World War, and with the highly diverse ways in which audiences and critics responded to the political message envisaged by director and cast."--BOOK JACKET.