I did notice something, however, when I was reading the “Lotus Eaters” episode of Ulysses last week. There is a scene where Bloom stops in a church and watches the congregation take communion. Here is the quote, all Bloom’s thoughts:
Something like those mazzoth: it’s that sort of bread: unleavened shewbread. Look at them. Now I bet it makes them feel happy. Lollipop. It does. Yes, bread of angels it’s called. There’s a big idea behind it, kind of kingdom of God is within you feel. First communicants.
“Lotus Eaters”, Ulysses by James Joyce
The part that stuck out to me was the part that says “…kind of kingdom of God is within you feel.” I recognized this instantly because it is the title of a lesser-known Tolstoy book called The Kingdom of God is Within You. that I read a few years ago, based on the fact that it had allegedly influenced Martin Luther King, Jr and Gandhi. It’s not a novel but is, rather, a treatise on Tolstoy’s view of Christianity, non-violence, and the beginning of what has become known as “Christian anarchism”. In it, he argues that a Christian should not participate in modern society at all, including military service and even voting, because the modern state only exists because of its monopoly on violence.
Would Joyce have known about this book? I think we can easily say, without hesitation, that Joyce would have been intimately familiar with Tolstoy. But what about this book? Joyce was, of course, incredibly well-read so it’s not unreasonable to think that he would have read it. And, to be sure, as meticulously as Joyce wrote Ulysses, it certainly is unreasonable to think that phrase would turn up in a sentence by chance without him being aware of the book. But, just a couple hours ago, as I was reading through Joyce’s biography, I found an excerpt of a letter Joyce had written to David Fleischman (his daughter-in-law’s first son by a previous marriage) in 1938:
I believe the three writers of the nineteenth century who had the greatest natural talents were D’Annunzio, Kipling, and Tolstoy – it’s strange that all three had semi-fanatic ideas about religion or about patriotism.
Letter from James Joyce to David Fleischmann, 1938
Of course, The Kingdom of God is Within You is entirely about religion and patriotism and it absolutely included what many would consider, even today, “semi-fanatic” ideas. I think it’s safe to say, then, that the reference is certainly intentional.
So I quickly referred to the standard Ulysses annotations text, Gifford’s Ulysses Annotated, and didn’t find it there. I also consulted the website, The Joyce Project, which often has more references than Gifford’s tome. Not there either.
For sure, Ulysses is one of the most studied books of the twentieth century and there are people far smarter, and far more well-read, than I am who have pored over this book for years. So I am certain that someone else has noticed this reference and has written it in a book somewhere. Nevertheless, I was quite proud to have found something that wasn’t included in Annotations, the most authoritative collection of Ulysses references available. In a book where I am constantly having to look up references and allusions to make sense of its complexity, finding a reference that didn’t appear to be documented certainly made my day. And this is exactly why I love Joyce. So many puzzles, so little time.
I’ve taken somewhat of a break from Finnegans Wake in the last week as I do a little domestic travel. My Joyce obsession, however, continues…
For one, I think I mentioned this already, I am participating in the Rosenbach Museum’s class Learning Ulysses Online. It has been an absolute pleasure to read Ulysses again and be able to discuss it with other readers.
More importantly, I have begun reading Richard Ellman’s biography of James Joyce and I am stunned. I have never been one for biographies but this is a work of art. It is incredibly detailed and seems to be written specifically for those of us who struggle with Joyce’s difficult prose, leaving little breadcrumbs here and there to give a little more context to the characters and situations in all of his books from Dubliners (Ulysses most of all) to Finnegans Wake.
I’ll share just a handful of the things I’ve learned in just the last two days of reading… I’ve been reading it for more than a week now so this is just a glimpse of what I’ve learned:
Joyce developed a fascination with one of his English students in Trieste (one of the main ways he earned money) whose name was Amalia Popper. She was to serve as a partial model for Molly Bloom and her father was named Leopoldo, thereby making the connection to Leopold Bloom.
Joyce was terribly frightened by thunderstorms, giving the thunderclaps in Finnegans Wake a little more significance.
Joyce attempted a secret correspondence (he was with Nora at the time) with a female doctor named Gertrude Kaempffer during a short stay in Locarno. He wrote her two letters, professed his love for her but she never wrote back. Those of you who have read Ulysses might remember the secret correspondence that Bloom carried on under the name of Henry Flower. Additionally, Ms. Kaempffer’s name is Gertrude or “Gerty” for short. He wrote to her of his first sexual experience at the age of fourteen when walking with the family nanny “when she suddenly apologized and asked him to look the other way. As he did so he heard the sound of liquid splashing on the ground. (Joyce used the word ‘piss’, with which [Gertrude] was unfamiliar.) The sound aroused him: ‘I jiggled furiously,’ he wrote.” Needless to say, this is a reference to the scene in Nausicaa, when Bloom jiggles himself furiously over the sight of Gerty Macdowell.
At any rate, it has been an incredible experience diving into the small details of Joyce’s life and how it informed his writing. It’s possible that his ability to distill multiple real people into complex single characters might be even more impressive than the multiple layers of literary references that permeate every one of his sentences.
If you’re a Joyce fan, or even just a fan of Ulysses, I highly recommend Ellmann’s biography of Joyce. It has been an extremely rewarding and satisfying journey.
We’ve come to the next part of our sentence, highlighted in red below:
Sir Tristram, violer d’amores, fr’over the short sea, had passencore rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor had topsawyer’s rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County’s gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all’s fair in vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a peck of pa’s malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
A top sawyer and a bottom sawyer
So what are “topsawyer’s rocks”? A quick search tells us that a “top sawyer” is a person working in a sawpit who is above the log being cut, as opposed to a “bottom sawyer” (see right). In British usage, though, it can be “a person in a position of advantage or eminence.” (See Merriam-Webster). Not sure what that has to do with anything. According to Joseph Campbell, this is a reference to the opposing brothers; one on top, one on the bottom.
What is maybe more likely (and also correct) is that it’s a reference to Tom Sawyer. Ready for some cool stuff? This is all based on Joseph Campbell’s Skeleton Key but I dug around for additional sources. Samuel Clemens, a.k.a Mark Twain, wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, right? Huck Finn. Finn in America now. Finn again / Finnegan! Also, anecdotally, the wife of Samuel Clemens? Olivia Langdon Clemens. What did her husband call her? Livy! Livy -> Liffey -> Livia -> Annabel Livia Plurabelle (ALP). Crazy!
But, the more I researched this blog post, the more I think this isn’t really about Tom Sawyer. Yes, the reference is certainly there and none of it is accidental. (There are no accidents in what Joyce references. It’s all correct.) But there is another Sawyer that might be more important here, particularly since this paragraph seems to be establishing a time frame. Read on…
The next part of the sentence is: “…by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County gorgios…”
There just so happens to be an Oconee River in Laurens County, Georgia in the US. So, back to our map:
Laurens County, Georgia, USA
Here is Laurens County, Georgia. But let’s zoom in a little bit more. We can see that the Oconee River flows right through Dublin!
The City of Dublin was incorporated by the Georgia Assembly on December 9th, 1812, and made the county seat. It is said that a citizen, Jonathan Sawyer, named it Dublin after the capital of his Irish homeland.
We have Dublin, GA being made the county seat of Laurens County in 1812 after the city was founded by Jonathan Sawyer. He may be the “topsawyer” we really care about from a timeline perspective.
As for the rest of it, I can find no other explanation than Campbell’s who explains that the “rocks” are, in fact, genitals, and, when we’re talking about “exaggerated themselse” and “doublin their mumper all the time,” it refers to the settling of Dublin, Laurens County, Georgia and its growing population.
The “rocks” (genitals) of “topsawyer” (Jonathan) “exaggerated” themselves (reproduced) and they were “doublin” (Dublin/doubling) their “mumper” (number) all the time. And, by the way, the motto for Dublin, GA? “The City That’s Doublin’ Daily!”
Oh! And, as for those “Laurens County gorgios”? Well, it’s certainly a nod to the state of Georgia in the United States. But there’s more… By looking up the definition of “gorgios”, Merriam-Webster tells us that it is a word used by the Roma to describe someone who isn’t Roma. That doesn’t help much. But, here’s an interesting fact… James Joyce’s son, his first child with Nora Barnacle, was born in July 1905 and was named “Giorgio”. That certainly gives some support to Campbell’s assertion that this is all about reproduction and doubling in population.
So, another part of our timeline is complete… This is before the settling of Dublin, Georgia in Laurens County in 1812.
If we momentarily forget the reference to Tristan and Iseult (from the year 1177) from the last post and assume “penisolate war” refers to the Peninsular War, we have a relatively consistent timeframe so far. The Peninsular War was fought between 1807-1814 and Dublin, Georgia was founded in 1812. So, we’re setting the stage for something that happened before, say, 1807.
Make sense? Also, keep in mind that none of this may be right or all of it may be right at the same time. By all accounts, Finnegans Wake does not follow a linear timeline and, since it is apparently a dream-novel, timelines may merge and split at any time and without warning. But what fun it is to try and make sense of it all!
I’ve rearrived! There are numerous reasons for the delay. First and foremost is: man, that second paragraph is dense! Other than that, my family and I went on two small vacations and, in the meantime, I signed up for the Rosenbach Museum’s “Learn Ulysses Online” class. Yes, I’m also going to read Ulysses again and I can’t wait! I’ve also decided to dive into Richard Ellmann’s biography of James Joyce. So, needless to say, I’ve been pretty busy but it’s been all-Joyce-all-the-time. So where to begin? Let’s begin with the first part of the second paragraph:
Sir Tristram, violer d’amores, fr’over the short sea, had passencore rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war…
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
Who is “Sir Tristram”? Well, he’s partially Tristan from the 12th century romance, Tristan and Iseult. Since I’ve heard there will be multiple references to Tristan and Iseult (both Iseults, mind you… I’ll explain), I figured it would make sense for me to actually read it rather than just borrow from the Wikipedia article. So I did. See my brief summary of The Romance of Tristan and Iseult at the end of this post. Additionally, there was a poem called Tristram and Iseult (notice the different spelling) written by Matthew Arnold in 1877. This was someone that Joyce certainly knew about if his biography is to be believed. I’ve included a few screenshots of the poem below.
But why is it just partially Tristan? Well, apparently it also refers to Sir Almeric Tristram, a Norman knight who conquered Howth (remember Howth Castle and Environs?) in 1177, according to Wikipedia. Almeric then, apparently changed his name to “Lawrence”, which is the same name we referred to in the last post.
So, violer d’amores… A viola is a musical instrument. Tristan was apparently a talented harp player. Amores is a misspelling of the French word amour for “love”. So, a musical lover? Or, as it’s written, is it a violator of love? Tristan violated his vow to Iseult of Ireland by marrying Iseult of Brittany. He also is violating the marriage of Iseult of Ireland with King Mark of Cornwall.
For the rest (“fr’over the short sea, had passencore rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor”), we turn again to a map:
fr’over the short sea…
It looks like Joyce is trying to give us a time frame. The word “passencore” is a merging of the French words “pas encore” which means “not again”. So Tristan/Tristram had not again “rearrived” here (Ireland) from North Armorica. At first, I think most people assume that’s just a Joycean spelling of “North America” but, as it turns out Armorica was a place. According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica:
Armorica, also spelled Aremorica, (from Celtic ar, “on,” and mor, “sea”), Latin name for the northwestern extremity of Gaul, now Brittany. In Celtic, Roman, and Frankish times Armorica also included the western part of what later became Normandy. In Julius Caesar’s time it was the home of five principal tribes, the most important being the Veneti. Under the Roman Empire it formed part of the province of Gallia Lugdunensis. It received many immigrants from the British Isles in the 5th and 6th centuries, during the time of the Saxon invasion.
So, North Armorica is, indeed, Brittany, France, both where Sir Almeric Tristram came from and where Tristan came from yet again (see synopsis below). And, sure, it doesn’t directly mean “North America” but, if Joyce didn’t intend some reference to North America, why use that name at all? Particularly since he actually does refer to North America later in this same sentence. So, it is all of the above at the same time.
Next up, we have “wielderfight his penisolate war“. The first thing I see is “fight his war of the penis” which could reference Tristan returning from Brittany to pursue, again, Iseult of Ireland. I also read a reference that said it could be “pen-isolate” which could either mean, a “war of the pen” or “isolated penis”, the latter suggesting masturbation. Which, in my mind, is even further evidenced by “wielderfight”. Is that “wield or fight” his “penis war”? Or is that “wield his penis” and/or “fight his war”? No idea.
What many seem to think is that it refers to the Peninsular War where Napoleon and the French fought the British, Spanish, and Portuguese. Possibly, but that wasn’t until the 1800s, which really screws with our timeline if we’ve already referenced an event that happened in 1177. But, then again, no one dares to think that Finnegans Wake follows a linear timeline. Maybe it’s both at the same time? Probably.
Anyway, that’s it for this post. I hope it wasn’t too incoherent. Next time, I’ll talk a little about Tom Sawyer’s genitals. (Seriously. You’ll see.)
Add-On: Summary of Tristan and Iseult
So, here’s the gist of the story… Keep in mind that this is an old tale so there may be multiple versions. This is the version I read.
Tristan’s father dies in war before Tristan is born. He is raised by King Mark of Cornwall, his uncle. Tristan gets abducted and is taken away on a ship. The ship crashes. Tristan survives and meets a pack of hunters. He teaches the hunters many things so they take him back to their king who is… King Mark! King Mark is impressed with the young man, particularly on his skill with a harp.
The King of Ireland sends a huge knight, Morholt, to Cornwall, to demand tribute that Mark’s predecessors have paid in the past. Tristan volunteers to fight Morholt on behalf of his new king. He wins but is terribly injured in the process. Not knowing what to do, they put Tristan in a boat with no oars and no sails, only his harp, and set him to sea figuring that it’s in God’s hands now. After seven days and seven nights, some fishermen hear the harp music and find him in the boat. They bring him in to Iseult the Fair, hereafter known as Iseult of Ireland.
He gets better, lies about who he is, and escapes back to Cornwall. Iseult, though, eventually figures out that this was Tristan, the man who killed Morholt. So she hates him.
At this point, people in Mark’s court are jealous of Tristan. So, given that the king does not have an heir, they’re worried that the king will give everything to Tristan. So a couple of evil dudes persuade the king to take a wife so that he might have an heir. The king thinks about this. While he’s thinking, two sparrows come to his window with a golden hair. He tells his court that he has decided on a wife. He wants to marry the woman whose hair just came in his window. Sounds better than Tinder, IMO.
Tristan knows that the hair belongs to Iseult of Ireland so he tells the king, he’ll go fetch her for him. He travels to Ireland. When he gets there, he comes upon a town that is being terrorized by a dragon. If he kills the dragon, the king promises his daughter to him. His daughter is… Iseult of Ireland!
Tristan goes and kills the dragon. He gets injured again. Iseult heals him again. Then she decides not to hate him. Much drama ensues where someone else tries to take credit for killing the dragon but Tristan prevails. Iseult’s mother, the queen of Ireland, is super happy that she’s going to marry King Mark. So she gives Iseult’s maiden a secret potion that will ensure that they love each other forever, as long as both of them drink it. But, she warns the maiden to keep it a secret! Surely you can see where this is going…
On the way back to Cornwall, Tristan and Iseult get thirsty. So, of course, they drink the potion. They fall in love.
When they get back to Cornwall, those four jerks are still plotting and they figure out that Tristan loves the queen. They try and try again to prove it to the king. Finally they do. The king sentences both Tristan and Iseult to death. Tristan escapes and the king gives Iseult to the lepers rather than kill her. Tristan defeats the lepers and manages to rescue Iseult. They go live in the woods together.
King Mark eventually finds them but decides not to kill them. Instead he leaves his gloves to show them that he knows about them and where they are. They realize that they’ve been spared by the king. Now they feel bad. Tristan and Iseult decide to give themselves up to the king. Tristan returns Iseult to the king and then he leaves Cornwall.
Tristan ends up in Brittany. He meets a local Duke, fights bravely for him and the Duke promises that Tristan can have his daughter. Also named Iseult. But this one is Iseult of the White Hands, hereafter known as Iseult of Brittany. Tristan marries her but doesn’t sleep with her, saying something about a vow. He feels bad because he feels like he betrayed the first Iseult, Iseult of Ireland.
He manages to go back to Cornwall to visit Iseult of Ireland, and disguises himself as a madman. Iseult eventually believes that it’s him.
He leaves again and goes back to Brittany. He’s injured. Again. He’s on the verge of death. So he sends his assistant back to Cornwall to bring back Iseult of Ireland, his original love, so that he may see her one more time before he dies. And he tells him, if he’s successful in bringing her back, come into the harbor with a white sail. If not, a black one. The problem is the second Iseult, Iseult of Brittany, his wife, overhears this and starts thinking about how best to get her revenge.
He gets worse and worse. Eventually, Iseult of Ireland comes back and Tristan’s assistant flies a white sail in the harbor. Iseult of Brittany sees this and goes to the ailing Tristan and tells him it’s a black sail. Tristan dies of grief. Iseult of Ireland lands on shore, goes to Tristan and sees that he died. So she, too, dies of grief.
So why include all of this? From what I’ve read so far, this myth comes up fairly often in Finnegans Wake, particularly the theme of two women fighting for the affection of a lover or father figure, or even corrupting the father figure. Also, Tristan rearrives from North Armorica in Ireland and Cornwall.
I’m working on dissecting the second paragraph of Finnegans Wake and, of course, it’s quite dense so it’s taking me a bit longer than expected. Additionally, I spent last week away from the computer and with family so I hadn’t made any progress. But, never fear, I am working interpreting Sir Tristram and his not yet rearrival from North Armorica and will be posting soon, hopefully by the end of the week! In the meantime, I’ll give you the second paragraph to chew on for a few days:
Sir Tristram, violer d’amores, fr’over the short sea, had passencore rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor had topsawyer’s rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County’s gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all’s fair in vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a peck of pa’s malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.
So now that I’ve read more than a hundred pages of supplemental texts and taken over fifteen pages of handwritten notes, I think I’m ready to begin.
According to Campbell, the first four paragraphs of Finnegans Wake are some of the most dense of the book. He claims that they serve as somewhat of an overture for the themes that recur throughout, similar to the way in which the chapter “Sirens” in Ulysses begins with a musical overture. So, while I likely won’t do this for every page I read, I’ve decided to go through the first four paragraphs almost word for word and transcribe them below. Let’s start with the first “sentence”…
…riverrun
riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.
Finnegans Wake, James Joyce
Vico’s The New Science
Here we have the infamous first “sentence” of Finnegans Wake. And I say “sentence” because it actually begins in mid-sentence as a continuation of the last sentence in the book. This is in line with Joyce’s modeling of the Wake on Giambattista Vico’s The New Science and its cyclical view of all of history.
By the way, did I mention that I bought that book? I surely won’t be buying every work of literature that Joyce references (or will I?) but since the whole structure of the Wake is modeled on Vico’s work, I felt like it was kind of important.
I’ve included a small bit of the last sentence of Finnegans Wake below so you can see the “flow” (get it?):
A way a lone a last a loved a long the
Finnegans Wake, James Joyce
That’s how the book “ends”. No period. No end. It “riverruns” back into the first sentence. Anyway, let’s move on…
We know from my last post that rivers will play a key role here, given that one of the main “characters” is, in fact, a river, the River Liffey to be precise. That is Anna Livia Plurabelle, or ALP.
So, at the first mention of “Eve and Adam’s”, we think of Genesis from the Bible, of course. The Garden of Eden. The beginning of man. But there’s something else.
The Church of Adam and Eve on the south bank of the River Liffey
Coincidentally, the Church of Adam and Eve is located very close to The Brazen Head pub, which is reputedly the oldest pub in Ireland, having been founded in 1198. I’ve had more than a few pints there.
But now let’s zoom back the map a bit to explore the “swerve of shore” and “bend of bay”:
The first sentence of the Wake in a map of Dublin
I’ve charted out the first sentence of the Wake over a map of Dublin, Ireland. We have the Church of Adam and Eve along the “riverrun”, or River Liffey, or otherwise known as Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP). Next we follow the “swerve of shore” and “bend of (Dublin) Bay” to “Howth Castle and Environs”, or HCE, or Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker.
We should also mention Howth Castle. Howth Castle exists on the tiny peninsula in the upper right hand / northeast corner of our map above. I’ve included a photo of it below:
Howth Castle in north county Dublin has been the private residence of the Gaisford – St Lawrence family for over 800 years since 1177.
Remember the name “Lawrence”. That’s all I’m going to say right now.
One last thing… I didn’t find this in any of the guides I read but “commodius vicus” makes me think of the flushing of a toilet. Sure, “vicus” is a reference to Vico’s New Science and his cyclical structure of history but, if we follow the path the words lay out for us (see map above), it does in fact remind us of a toilet flushing. A “commodius recirculation” so to speak. The fall of man and recirculation for him to rise again.
Campbell, of course, refers to the Roman Emperor Commodus who, according to some timelines, presided over the beginning of the fall of the Roman Empire. I think I prefer my toilet metaphor, particularly knowing what we know now of Joyce’s love letters to Nora. Of course, also knowing Joyce, who’s to say it’s not both references at the same time?
I think that’s it for now. As I mentioned, I will probably spend an inordinate amount of time on the first four paragraphs due to their density and the availability of information about them. After those, first few paragraphs, perhaps we’ll pick up the pace a little.
Given the massive amount of reading that I am doing in order to try and make sense of Finnegans Wake, I’ve begun keeping a list of both the books I’m using to understand the text as well as a running list of books that Joyce references throughout the text. You can check it out here:
As I’m wont to do, I tend to open a bottle of Burgundy* or two when I’m diving into the esoteric world of James Joyce on the Internet. I often uncover lectures, new books, and countless articles about these great works of art. Occasionally, I find some cool shit. Tonight, facilitated by some red French wine, I bought a few things… this is one of them:
Joyce and Hemingway in Paris
People that know me know that I’m no fan of Hemingway. Too simple. Too plain. Sure, I can understand the art of simple language and the so-called Iceberg Theory of literature but, in my mind, Hemingway is great for getting from Point A to Point B as efficiently as possible. Joyce is all about not really caring where you’re going but enjoying the journey no matter how long it takes.
Anyway, the print above is a reference to a rare clip whereby the narrator recounts Joyce and Hemingway’s days in Paris, included below:
At this rate, I’ll be the foremost collector of James Joyce memorabilia in about six months.
You can buy some really cool James Joyce art over at Society6.com.
*As for my love of Burgundy, that began long before my love of “Ulysses”. Yes, I know that Leopold Bloom drank Burgundy at Davy Byrne’s (which I’ve done more than once myself) but my love of Burgundy predates my love of “Ulysses”. But imagine my pleasure in reading about Bloom’s affinity for this incredible wine! I hate bleu cheese, by the way..
Let me be clear. I have no idea how I’m going to approach this. I’ve spent the last week reading through a variety of books to prep for reading Finnegans Wake. Let me summarize what I have learned as part of my prep work.
(By the way, this is by no means comprehensive as there is just too much to assimilate into a single blog post.. I have eleven pages of handwritten notes on just the first four paragraphs! Additionally, this is sending me down a rabbit hole of references so I’m sure I’ll learn more as I continue this journey.)
The Title
When I first heard about FInnegans Wake, it immediately made me think of an old Irish folk song called “Finnegan’s Wake”. It was the musical retelling of a man named Tim Finnegan who fell off a ladder and died. Later, when they held his wake, a fight broke out, some liquor splashed on the corpse, and he rose from the dead. I’ve included the song (with lyrics) below:
Having been raised in an Irish family, I learned the words to this song around the same time I learned the words to “Happy Birthday”.
At any rate, we have the story of a man who dies and is resurrected. This is a recurring theme in the book; the fall and rise of a man and of all of mankind.
We also have the name “Finnegan”. Sure, it’s from the song about Tim Finnegan but it also references Finn MacCool, or Fionn mac Cumhaill, a mythical Irish warrior and folk hero who is tied to many geographical features of Ireland such as the Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim (similar to the American myth in which Paul Bunyan creates the Grand Canyon by dragging his axe along the ground.)
Given that this is a book where one of the major themes is the fall and resurrection of man, we can then read “Finnegan” as also “Finn (MacCool) Again” or “It’s Finn Again”. As Joseph Campbell writes in his book Skeleton’s Key to Finnegans Wake:
… Finn MacCool, captain for two hundred years of Ireland’s warrior-heroes, and most famous of Dublin’s early giants, Finn typifies all heroes — Thor, Prometheus, Osiris, Christ, the Buddha — in whose life and through whose inspiration the race lives. It is by Finn’s coming again (Finn-again) — in other words, by the reappearance of the hero — that strength and hope are provided for mankind.
Joseph Campbell, A Skeleton’s Key to Finnegans Wake, p. 4
A Major Theme
In addition to the “fall” of Tim Finnegan (and thereby Finn MaCool and all of mankind), there are other falls that rise to prominence in the text. This includes: the fall of Rome, the fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, the fall of Lucifer and Humpty Dumpty, and even the stock market crash of 1929.
One of the primary works that influenced Finnegans Wake, however, was Giambattista Vico’s Scienza Nuovo (The New Science). Essentially, Vico argues that there are four recurring phases to history, in the following order:
Theocratic
Aristocratic
Democratic
Chaotic
In Finnegans Wake, these changes in historical periods are announced by a thunderclap, like the one below, found in the third paragraph of the book:
The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!)
James Joyce, Finnegans Wake
Each of these apparently signify God’s wrath and the beginning of a new historical era. Coincidentally, I’ve learned that there are ten thunderclaps in Finnegans Wake, each with 100 hundred letters each, except for the tenth which has 101 letters. How many letters is that? 1,001… as in One Thousand and One Nights (or 1,001 Arabian Nights), the incredibly well-known collection of Arabic folk tales. Do I know why he included that reference? No. Not yet anyway.
Characters?
Yes, apparently there are characters. Sort of.
The first and most obvious one is Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, otherwise known as Here Comes Everybody, and Haveth Childers Everywhere, and Howth Castle and Environs. He is our hero, so to speak. The replacement for Finnegan / Finn MacCool. He appears throughout the book, as far as I know, as HCE or even ECH. His body, in repose, is Dublin. I think.
The next one is Anna Livia Plurabelle. She is the River Liffey that runs through Dublin and also represents other female heroines such as Eve, Iseult, and Isis. She also appears as ALP.
Next we have the two sons, Shem and Shaun. Shem the Penman and Shaun the Postman (see where the blog name came from?). They are also known throughout by different names such as Butt and Taff, Mutt and Jute, or Jerry and Kevin. They appear to represent conflict and balance. For example, conflict between Caesar and Brutus or Wellington and Napoleon.
Shall We Start?
There are probably a million other things I could write and about a hundred more books I could read but this is it for now. I’m sure as the book progresses (and I read seven other books about this book), I’ll learn more. And, if I do, I’ll certainly tell you about it.
In closing, I’ll leave you with the famous “first” sentence of Finnegans Wake, and a video recording of a reading of the first chapter.
…riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.
Even though this blog is about Finnegans Wake, you’ll certainly find me writing and posting about other Joycean things. First and foremost among those things is Ulysses and, of course, today is Bloomsday! I wanted to share an incredibly beautiful short video produced by the Irish Foreign Ministry. It’s an incredible homage to the power of Ulysses, particularly as it relates to living in 2020. Please check it out.
Shawn the Penman 