"Flou inn, flow ann."

(20.19-22.17)  While yesterday's passage was the most challenging one I've tackled so far, today's passage was the least perplexing.  That's not to say it was straightforward or easy to read.  It made some sense on the first reading, though, and on subsequent readings I was able to "sail" through the two pages in "basic understanding" mode while still catching some of the depth of the passage.

The first full paragraph on page 20 begins with the narrator telling us to "Cry not yet!" for the Wake's narrative circle remains unbroken and "every busy eerie whig's a bit of a torytale to tell."  In other words, there's plenty of stories to tell about the countless incarnations of HCE (aka H.C. Earwicker).  There's a short catalog of the various moments in human history that the narrator might chronicle, and then the narrator tells us to "lay it easy" because "we are in rearing of a norewhig" (i.e., take it easy because we're within the hearing of the Norwegian immigrant/invader HCE).  Before beginning to tell the next story, we are alerted that it's going to be a tale of HCE and ALP:  "Hark, the corne entreats!  And the larpnotes prittle."

Now it's time for the Joycean fairytale of Jarl van Hoother and the Prankquean.  The secondary sources detail how on one level this is a telling of the story (dating back to the 16th century) of Grace O'Malley, who it is said wasn't let into Howth Castle when she tried to visit the Earl of Howth.  (Remember, the hill of Howth is the head of the giant HCE interred in the Dublin landscape.)  Perhaps understandably upset over this slight, she kidnapped the Earl's heir.

In the Wake, when the Prankquean arrives at the castle, Jarl van Hoother is inside, along with his "jiminies" (Geminis, or twins), Tristopher and Hilary, and the household dummy.  At the door, the Prankquean asks "why do I am alook alike a poss of porterpease?"  Maybe he's confused by this question, maybe he doesn't want to give the Prankquean any porter, or maybe it's something else, but van Hoother simply replies, "Shut!"  Denied her request, the Prankquean kidnaps Tristopher and has him "convorted" into a "luderman."  (So in one sense he becomes a Lutheran, and in another sense he becomes a crazyman.)  The Prankquean eventually returns to Howth castle, where van Hoother is up to his heels in malt (i.e., drunk).  This time the Prankquean asks "why do I am alook alike two poss of porterpease?"  Again, van Hoother replies, "Shut!"  In response, the Prankquean returns Tristopher and kidnaps Hilary, who she has "punched with the curses of cromcruwell" and "provorted" into a "tristian."  (So in one sense he becomes a Christian, and in another he is made into a duplicate of his brother, Tristopher.)

The paragraph containing the Prankquean's story is a long one -- over two pages -- so I've broken it off halfway through and left the rest for tomorrow.  That's one downside of my two-pages-a-day plan:  sometimes there's no clean way to break the Wake into neat two-page increments.  I'm interested, though, to see whether the fact that I've studied up on the first half of the Prankquean story will mean that the rest of it will read smoother on the first go-round tomorrow.