Category: The Wake

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

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:

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!

So, now about that “topsawyer”. From the Dublin, GA town website:

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.

The City of Dublin History

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!

See you on the next post!

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.

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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:

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.

Encyclopedia Brittanica

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.

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

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.

I’ve been to Dublin a number of times and didn’t realize that there is a church along the River Liffey called The Church of the Immaculate Conception, or the Church of Adam and Eve. I’ve included a map below.

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”:

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:

According to Curious Ireland:

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.

Cheers!

I’ve been a huge fan of James Joyce since 2013 when I picked up my first copy of Ulysses in the Kinsale Bookshop on a family trip to Ireland. When I got there, I had been contemplating reading the masterpiece for some time. After all, I am Irish and I love literature so why not tackle what was reputedly one of the greatest and most difficult novels of all time? And what better place to buy it? So I did. I picked this version (below) because, throughout the book, the publishers represented inner monologue by using italics, making it a little easier to follow Joyce’s famed stream-of-consciousness style.

I’d like to say that I was hooked from Day One. I wasn’t. It was a struggle. What the hell was I reading? About halfway through the book, I began searching around for something to help me. What started as a quick search for chapter summaries ended with me discovering an entire industry of books explaining and theorizing on Ulysses. I ordered a bunch of them. From simple annotation to deep, deep analysis of the text, I bought them all. I was no longer curling up in a bed with a good book, I was hunched over a table with an entire library. But, by the time I read Molly Bloom’s final “yes”, I had become obsessed. I remember commenting to someone that this might be the single greatest work of art I’ve ever encountered.

I’m proud to say now that I have an entire bookshelf devoted to Joyce. From various versions of his books to tome upon tome of literary criticism and theories. My mania wasn’t limited to books, however. I began buying other things. Among one of my most prized possessions is a map of Dublin made out of the words of Ulysses, including major sites from the text. (I think you can still buy it over at Leopold’s Day.) I’ve had it for probably five years now and it’s almost always the first thing I hang in any office or home.

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So what was it that really appealed to me about Ulysses? Yes, the prose is incredible, of course. But what really captured my imagination and turned it into an obsession is the fact that Joyce made me work for it. This wasn’t simply a “point A to point B” story and plot. If anything, to me, the plot was actually secondary. This was a masterpiece that I needed to dig into and work for the payoff. This was layer upon layer of references and allusions, so deep and so dense that one may never reach the end of it. Indeed, Joyce once said:

The demand that I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole Life to reading my works.

Interview with Harper’s Magazine as quoted in “James Joyce” by Richard Ellman (1956)

At this point, I was ready to agree. It was, quite simply, an interactive work of art. It was a challenge that I will never fully master.

You can probably see where this is going and how it relates to Finnegans Wake. What other book presents such a puzzle and a challenge to its readers? How could I continue calling myself a “Joycean”, if I haven’t made an honest effort to conquer the Wake? (I did try once. It didn’t end well.)

So, here I am, armed with a variety of books to help me through. This isn’t meant to be a guide to Finnegans Wake but, rather, it’s just going to be my sounding board and motivation to try and make it through and understand as much as I can. I don’t know where it will lead. I’ll try and explore every rabbit hole I find. In the meantime, I’ll be using this site to share my impressions, frustrations, and (hopefully) understanding of one of the most complex works of literature ever written.

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I have no idea how long it will take me to finish and I have no idea how often I plan on posting. It likely won’t be every day. I’m reading other books alongside this one. The Wake can’t be the only thing I’m reading. On top of that, each page I read of the Wake will include leafing through the pages of countless other texts (see above), so I’m sure progress will be slow. However, I do plan on posting other things as appropriate. I have a LOT more to say about Ulysses so I’m sure I’ll be posting more about that. And, who knows, given the strange times in which we live, I may share more personal posts, too.

So, without further ado, let’s get started!

(By the way, did you notice what day it is?)