"So This Is Dyoublong?"

(11.3-13.4)  Today's passage is split into two distinct parts: a brief introduction of ALP and a look at Dublin.  While still on the recently-deserted battlefield, we see ALP as a bird ("a peacefugle, parody's bird") who only comes out when the thunder of battle is over.  An armistice has been declared, so ALP heads out to the battlefield to collect "all spoiled goods" -- things like buttons, bones, and maps -- and put them "into her nabsack."  She picks up these "nickelly nacks" or "historic presents from the past propheticals," for our collective good.  We then see ALP as the one who nurtures the nascent human race by reestablishing the land after the Flood and gathering the remnants of Humpty Dumpty so that "there'll be iggs for the brekkers come to mournhim, sunny side up with care" (is it bad if this part makes me hungry for an omelet?).

While ALP's busy with her work -- "her behaviourite job" -- Joyce takes the opportunity to survey the Dublin landscape, once again with HCE's head at Howth and his toes in Phoenix Park.  Between those two points is central Dublin, and it is here that everyone from St. Patrick and St. Brigid to everyday modern Dubliners are "hopping round his middle like kippers on a griddle" and "scraping along to sneeze out a likelihood."  But even this place isn't free from strife, as it is here that Irish and English elements collide.

Once again, today's passage felt like a continuation of the general (and extended) prologue, both developing the figure of ALP and emphasizing the general and universal nature of HCE.  And, as always, the language was tough to get through on the first go 'round.  I do, however, continue to feel more comfortable with the Wake, and I'm getting the sense that as I continue to read and blog, I just might "blong"in "Dyoublong."