ELSINORE’

(Dan. Helsingér), a seaport of Denmark, in the Island of Zealand, at the narrowest part of the Sound, here only 3} miles broad, 24 miles north by east of Copenhagen, opposite Helsingborg in Sweden, and connected with it by train-ferry. Near Elsinore is the castle of Kronberg, built by Frederick II of Denmark about 1580, and commanding the Sound. The castle, now chiefly used as barracks, is a ociated with Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Before the abolition of the Sound dues in 1857 all merchant ships pa ing through were bound to pay toll here. Pop. 15,841. _ELSTER, two German rivers, the White or Great Elster, a tributary of the Saale; the Black Elster, a tributary of the Elbe.