A Walking Tour of Dublin and Copenhagen

This chapter charts Nordic links in Ulysses, uncovering hitherto unknown source material by Andersen, which Joyce extrapolates from for his novel set in Dublin in 1904. Further correspondences exist between Joyce’s Ulysses and Andersen’s work, Fodreise fra Holmens Canal til Østpynten af Amager i Aarene 1828 og 1829 (A Walking Tour from Holmen’s Canal to the Eastern Point of Amager in the Years 1828 and 1829). Viewing Ulysses through a comparative, etymological, and onomastic lens considers the importance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and its origin as a Danish story, Amleth. Although word stratagems are more frequent in Finnegans Wake, Ulysses contains pertinent examples of these fascinations. In addition, this chapter shows Joyce’s use of Danish place names in Gerty MacDowell’s characterisation uncovers the character’s identity as a fictitious character firmly entrenched in the text by examining Joyce’s onomastic technique linking her persona to a saga drama, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson’s Halte Hulda.