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"smote the sledded Polacks"
Historical Allusion
Act 1,
Scene 1
Lines 58b-64

An explanation of the “sledded Polacks” allusion in Act 1, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

Marcellus

                                   Is it not like the king?

Horatio   

As thou art to thyself.
Such was the very armor he had on
When he the ambitious Norway combated.
So frowned he once when in an angry parle
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.
'Tis strange. 

Around 1250, a group of knights—including some Danish royalty—embarked on a crusade. Their objective was not to retake Palestine from the Muslim Ottoman Empire, but to attack the Eastern Orthodox Christians of Northern Europe, whom they considered to be pagans. The two forces clashed in a battle on a frozen lake near the Baltic Sea. If, as some critics think, Shakespeare is alluding to this battle, what does this add to the scene?