Difference between revisions of "Elms leap where askes lay"

Latest revision as of 08:25, 29 March 2018

Elms leap where ashes lay → elms leap where askes lay
- A first-draft version of Finnegans wake

Elms ... askes: in Norse mythology Askr (the ash tree) was the first man and Embla (the elm tree) was the first woman → Adam & Eve → HCE and ALP
- Third Census of Finnegans Wake

salmon leap: a waterfall or weir which salmon ascend by leaping → Leixlip (name means "salmon leap")
- A Finnegans Wake Gazetteer

oaks ... ald ... elms ... askes: the letters of the early Irish alphabet (and of the Ogham alphabet which preceded it) were named after trees. The Ogham alphabet was called beithe-luis-nin or beithe-luis after its first, second and fifth characters:
- a = ailm (pine)
- b = beithe (birch)
- c = coll (hazel)
- d = dair (oak)
- e = edad (aspen)
- f = fern (alder)
- g = gort (ivy)
- h = úath (whitethorn)
- i = idad (yew)
- l = luis (rowan, mountain-ash)
- m = muin (vine)
- n = nin (ash)
- o = onn (furze, gorse)
- p = pin (pine? gooseberry? rowan?)
- r = ruis (elder)
- s = sail (willow)
- t = tinne (holly)
- u = úr (heather)

oaks ... ald ... elm ... askes: trees are used proverbially to represent eternity; in Ulysses, Gerty MacDowell muses that Edy Boardman "never had a foot like Gerty MacDowell, a five, and never would ash, oak or elm". See also Rudyard Kipling's poem A Tree Song: "England shall bide Judgement tide / By oak and ash and thorn."

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 ** [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/JoyceColl/JoyceColl-idx?type=turn&id=JoyceColl.HaymanFirstDrft&entity=JoyceColl.HaymanFirstDrft.p0058&isize=L A first-draft version of Finnegans wake]
-* '''Elms ... askes''': in Norse mythology Askr (the ash tree) was the first man and Embla (the elm tree) was the first woman &rarr; Adam & Eve &rarr; [[HCE]] and [[ALP]]
+* '''Elms ... askes:''' in Norse mythology Askr (the ash tree) was the first man and Embla (the elm tree) was the first woman &rarr; Adam & Eve &rarr; [[HCE]] and [[ALP]]
 ** [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/JoyceColl/JoyceColl-idx?type=turn&id=JoyceColl.GlasheenFinnegans&entity=JoyceColl.GlasheenFinnegans.p0105&isize=L Third Census of Finnegans Wake]
@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 * '''askes:''' (''Middle English'') ashes &rarr; the Phoenix’s ashes ([[Page_4|FW 004.17]])
+* '''askes lay. Phall:''' &rarr; [[ALP]]
 * '''oaks ... ald ... elms ... askes:''' the letters of the early Irish alphabet (and of the Ogham alphabet which preceded it) were named after trees. The Ogham alphabet was called ''beithe-luis-nin'' or ''beithe-luis'' after its first, second and fifth characters: