(315.21-317.21) First things first: today officially sees me passing the halfway point in Finnegans Wake. (I'm counting the book as beginning on page 3, since that's where the actual text begins.) It's taken a long time to get here, but I'm excited and proud nonetheless. I'm aiming to take less than 10 and a half months to finish the second half (seriously).
Back to the text. Maybe I'm psyching myself out a bit here, but it seems that this chapter is particularly difficult, especially when considering the way in which it's already blending the competing-yet-parallel narratives of the goings-on in HCE's pub and the affairs of the Norwegian Captain. Different parts of today's reading could be dealing with either or both of those storylines. Since my primary purpose in this project is to make it through the Wake with a basic understanding of what's going on, I'm choosing for the moment to try and simply things as much as possible (and am therefore saving most of the deeper analysis for later (in this read through or in life in general)).
Having reentered the pub after going out to urinate, HCE greets the customers by saying, "Good marrams . . . freshwatties and boasterdes all." He has his hat on a bit slanted (he's getting drunk himself) as he asks what everyone's been talking about while he's been out. One patron tells HCE that the skipper is coming in then lowers his voice to tell his friends, "Pukkelsen, tilltold," which McHugh translates as Norwegian for "Humpson, charged," meaning, in essence, that this patron is indicting HCE. The patron then goes on to quietly discuss HCE's invasion (again, this could also be the townsfolk discussing the Norwegian Captain's invasion) as HCE stands aloof pouring beer and spirits.
HCE then resumes the story of the Norwegian Captain, who, upon his return to Ireland, greets the natives by saying, "Good marrams and good merrymills." The natives had been walled up in a castle for the seven years that the captain had been gone and ended up believing that the captain might have drowned at sea. He didn't, though, and as he makes his way off his ship he gives the Viking "sign of the hammer." He's worked up an appetite, so he asks, "[S]hoots ogos shootsle him or where's that slob?" (In essence, "Do I have to shoot somebody to get some slop to eat?") He adds that he'd like a bit of cheese, a whiskey and soda, or some bread with sake. "When I'm soured to the tipple you can sink me lead," he adds, basically saying that once he's sated and passed out, they can shoot him for all he cares.
"Allkey dallkey," says the Ship's Husband, being very accomodating. He makes the "sign of the feaster" and lays out a nice spread for the captain, lest "this ogry Osler will oxmaul us all." At the conclusion of today's reading, we see the natives plying the captain with fare, concluding, "Say wehrn!"
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