finneganswakenotes.net.
Exhortation for all Finnegans to awaken
Unique Literary Experiment:
179.26 his usylessly unreadable Blue Book of Eccles, édition de ténèbres
So starts Finnegans Wake, the greatest challenge in 20th-century literature. Who is Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker? And what did he get up to in the Phoenix Park? And what did Anna Livia Plurabelle have to say about it? In the rich nighttime and the language of dreams, here are history, anecdote, myth, folk tale and, above all, a wondrous sense of humour, coloured by a clear sense of humanity. In this exceptional reading by the Irish actor Barry McGovern, with Marcella Riordan, the world of the Wake is more accessible than ever before.
“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.”
It is no coincidence that the FW pub (the Mullingar House) is in the Dublin suburb of Chapelizod, an anagram of HCE, ALP and Izod (Isolde). The sons, Shem and Shaun, are twins and yet opposites (1132 HCE, ALP, Shem+Sean+twins=3, Izzy+mirror image). Shem, like Joyce himself, is a ‘penman’, an artist and man of ideas. His brother Shaun is more practical and less imaginative – a postman, antagonistic towards his more famous brother, who he considers a charlatan and degenerate.
C H A P E L I Z O D
‘unspeakably wearisome’ and ‘the witless wandering of literature before its final extinction’
558.33 Where are we at all? and whenabouts in the name of space?
Where are we? In Dublin In the master bedroom of the Mullingar House Hotel in Chapelizod, where the elderly landlord is just falling asleep at 11:32 pm on the 7th April 1928 (Easter Saturday).
When are we? Back at the beginning of a new Viconian cycle, when salient events in history have not yet occurred
Since the book has no beginning and no end, the last word along with the first one construct the point of recirculation: the Ouroboros bites its own tail while the story unfolds in-between,.
558.33 Where are we at all? and whenabouts in the name of space?
What is FW about? The fall of man, and his subsequent rise again the whole of human history and indeed the entire history of the World, of which the life of a single family or a single individual is a microcosm
How does this story unfold? By conflict between opposites, which are actually striving for reconciliation and union through their Brunonian conflict
The first four paragraphs seem to comprise a single Viconian cycle of four ages, so that the true beginning of the story occurs in the 5th paragraph.
558.33
Finnegans Wake employs a circular structure that begins and ends mid-sentence, suggesting a continuous cycle with no fixed starting or ending point. This structure reflects Joyce’s vision of history, time, and identity as recurring, cyclical forces, where events and characters reappear in new forms.
“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.”
And it is no coincidence that their pub is in the Dublin suburb of Chapelizod, an anagram of HCE, ALP and Izod (Isolde).
Tumulus mound: FW acts as a palimpest i.e. a text layered with multiple meanings, historical references and overlapping allusions.
Spirals flowing clockwise before the winter solstice and anti-clockwise after with the river of life flowing beneath
In delving into FW Irish people have a distinct advantage over other nationalities as they have a deep understanding of Irish place names and locations referenced plus inherent connection to Irish linguistic (Hiberno English), cultural, historical & mythical allusions.
A New Perspective on Reading and Interpretation
Hiberno-English used extensively in FW
1. Past perfect tense: Rachel Blackmore: 13:32 “grand and national” (Gold Cup is very important in Ulysses); after perfect e.g. "she's already after leaving'" (tá sí tar éis imeachta)
2. Habitual Present Tense: I do be; We does be comes directly from the Irish e.g. Bionn sí tuirseach
3. Plural of you: Ye, yez, yous, yer wans
4. Dem Deese and Dose: “Dem don’t do nuttin at all”
5. Yerra, arrah, at all at all, whist, astóir, aye, bedad, begad, ach, segotia
6. Pronunciation of the letter “H”
7. Amn’t I? Wouldn’t you?
8. Adding an extra syllable: film form (Sanskrit?)
9. Pronunciation of “leave” “tea” “either”
178.06 "he would wipe alley english spooker, multaphoniaksically spuking, off the face of the erse"
035.15 Guinness thaw tool in jew me dinner ouzel fin?
Conas tá tú inniu mo dhuine uasal fionn?:
Engagement with Universal Themes
Joyce informed a friend, he conceived of his book as the dream of old Finn, lying in death beside the River Liffey and watching the history of Ireland and the world – past and future – flow through his mind like flotsam on the river of life....Richard Ellmann, James Joyce, p.543-6.
Expands Language Awareness: Reading Finnegans Wake sharpens sensitivity to the sounds, rhythms, and potentials of language.
Discovery of Meaning: Each re-reading reveals new layers, offering a sense of adventure through linguistic and symbolic discovery.
Engagement with Multiple Languages: An opportunity for polyglots and language enthusiasts to see how languages interweave. Joyce influenced by Francois Rabelais (1483 - 1553)
Reading FW expands the mind: firing neurons & building complex connections in the brain (similar to listening to the great composers like Mozart)
“riverrun” similar to French rêverons: let us dream; reverie; River Rhone; River Rhine; rivereranno they will return; ribhéar a rúin; rún a mystery;
From German regenbogen: rainbow
From French chute: fall
383.01 Three quarks for Muster Mark.
Murray Gell-Mann used “quarks” to name fundamental particles in physics
From German for rubbish, trifle, curd, cheese
176.27 fled like a leverret for his bare lives to Talviland
From Finnish talvi: winter
The hare was a sacred and mystical animal to the Celts; a symbol of abundance, prosperity and good fortune. They were believed to have connections to the Otherworld. They were treated with great respect and never eaten.
Symbol of Osiris in Egyptian mythology
Ballad of Persee O’Reilly
From French perce-oreille: earwig:
047.15 When that frew gets a grip of old Earwicker Won't there be earwigs on the green?
Some FW References
A Challenging but Rewarding Journey
Getting Started
Full Guide to Getting Started at finneganswakenotes.net
Finnegans Wake
riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay ….
A way a lone a last a loved a long the .
And it’s old and old it’s sad and old it’s sad and weary I go back to you, my cold father, my cold mad father, my cold mad feary father ….
004.18 Bygmester Finnegan, of the Stuttering Hand, freemen's mau-
004.19 rer, lived in the broadest way immarginable in his rushlit toofar-
004.20 back for messuages before joshuan judges had given us numbers
004.21 or Helviticus committed deuteronomy (one yeastyday he sternely
004.22 struxk his tete in a tub for to watsch the future of his fates but ere
004.23 he swiftly stook it out again, by the might of moses, the very wat-
004.24 er was eviparated and all the guenneses had met their exodus so
004.25 that ought to show you what a pentschanjeuchy chap he was!)
004.26 and during mighty odd years this man of hod, cement and edi-
004.27 fices in Toper's Thorp piled buildung supra buildung pon the
004.28 banks for the livers by the Soangso. He addle liddle phifie Annie
004.29 ugged the little craythur. Wither hayre in honds tuck up your part
004.30 inher. Oftwhile balbulous, mithre ahead, with goodly trowel in
004.31 grasp and ivoroiled overalls which he habitacularly fondseed, like
004.32 Haroun Childeric Eggeberth he would caligulate by multiplicab-
004.33 les the alltitude and malltitude until he seesaw by neatlight of the
004.34 liquor wheretwin 'twas born, his roundhead staple of other days
004.35 to rise in undress maisonry upstanded (joygrantit!), a waalworth
004.36 of a skyerscape of most eyeful hoyth entowerly, erigenating from
005.01 next to nothing and celescalating the himals and all, hierarchitec-
005.02 ti tipti top loftical, with a burning bush abob off its baubletop and
005.03 with larrons o'toolers clittering up and tombles a'buckets clotter-
005.04 ing down.
Finnegan was a good builder
003.01 riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend
003.02 of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to
003.03 Howth Castle and Environs.
003.04 Sir Tristram, violer d’amores, fr’over the short sea, had passen-
003.05 core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy
ALP
HCE
003.06 isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor
003.07 had topsawyer’s rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse
003.08 to Laurens County’s gorgios while they went doublin their mumper
003.09 all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe
mishe to
003.10 tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a
003.11 kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all’s fair in
Peter the Rock
003.12 vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a
003.13 peck of pa’s malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory
003.14 end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.
Noah
003.15 The fall (baba badal gharagh takam minar ronnkonn bronn tonnerronn tuonn thunn trovar rhoun awn skawn toohoo hoorden en thurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all Christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan, erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly sends an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumpty tum toes:and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since devlins first loved livvy.
Thomas Parr
Chapelizod turnpike
Castleknock
Liffey - Devlin
Muldoon Solid Man
The Dead
Adam & Eve
Lucifer
Humpty Dumpty
Babel
A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake by Joseph Campbell:
“Running riddle and fluid answer, Finnegans Wake is a mighty allegory of the fall and resurrection of mankind. It is a strange book, a compound of fable, symphony and nightmare — a monstrous enigma beckoning imperiously from the shadowy pits of sleep. Its mechanics resemble those of a dream, a dream which has freed the author from the necessities of common logic, and has enabled him to compress all periods of history…into a circular design of which every part is beginning, middle and end.
“In a gigantic, wheeling rebus dim effigies rumble past, disappear into foggy horizons and are replaced by other images which are vague but half-consciously familiar. On this revolving stage, mythological heroes and events from remotest antiquity occupy the same spatial and temporal planes as modern personages and contemporary happenings…All time occurs simultaneously… Multiple meanings are present in every line; interlocking allusions to key words and phrases are woven like fugal themes into the pattern of the work. “
Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake by Joseph Campbell:
“The vast scope and intricate structure of FW give the book a forebidding aspect of impenatrability…Cleary such a book is not meant to be idly fingered. It tasks the imagination, exacts discipline and tenacity from those who would march with it: yet some of the difficulties disappear as soon as the well disposed reader accepts a few compass clues and gets his bearings. Then the enormous map of FW begins slowly to unfold: characters and motifs emerge, themes become recognisable and Joyce’s vocabulary falls more and more familiarly on the accustomed ear.
“Complete understanding is not to be snatched at greedily at one sitting; indeed it may never come. Nevertheless, the ultimate state of the intelligent reader is certainly not bewilderment; rather it is admiration for the unifying insights … which have miraculously quickened this stupendous mass of material… He had to smelt the modern dictionary back to protean plasma and reenact the genesis and mutation of language in order to deliver his message in this incredible book.
017.26 Countlessness of livestories have netherfallen by this plage, flick as flowflakes, litters from aloft, like a waast wizzard all of whirlworlds. Now are all tombed to the mound, isges to isges, erde from erde.