1

“Narrating Sigla”: The ‘Battle Diagram’ and Structuring Finnegans

Wake, Chapter OneBy Jonathan McCreedy

In chapter one of Finnegans Wake there is a three paged section

of text (FW 008.8 – 010.14) which is titled the “Museyroom” in

criticism, and in the following paper I shall study it using a

genetic analysis of Joyce’s early drafts in his Archive. A basic

summary of the plot of the “Museyroom” section can be read as

follows. Kate, the protagonist of the section, is a tour guide of a

waxworks where military weapons including guns and swords lie

around. Her job description is a “janitrix” (FW 008.9), or female

janitor, and she primarily describes the waxwork figures in the

narrative. The location is called the: “museyroom” (FW 008.8) and it

is an open-air museum. The initial exhibits are various items of war

memorabilia from an unnamed conflict, albeit one closely associated

with Waterloo. The “Museyroom” is a dump also. It is a landscape

that is covered by relics deposited after a war. There are weapons

such as a “Prooshious gun” (FW 008.10-11). It is introduced as an

exhibit by Kate and presented as if it is part of the tour. However,

the gun is a piece of debris on the ground and it is not in a museum

presentation case. There are also military uniforms that Kate

1

2

highlights as exhibits such as the “triplewon hat of Lipoleum.” (FW

008.15-16). Willingdone at the conclusion of the ‘Museyroom’ lifts

this hat out of the “bluddlefilth” (FW 010.8-9) and wipes his arse

with it. The hat is found in a sticky, dirty landscape and not in a

museum that is a traditionally clean setting. Kate’s job is a

cleaner so she is responsible for the management of this mess.

However, she does not clean it whatsoever. Instead, she is a

scavenger who is searching for valuable items. ‘Tips’ or “middens”

often contain much historical information inside them as they

preserve materials in their soil. Archaeologists locate weapons and

tools from ancient civilisations in middens.

It is almost exclusively defined in criticism that the mother

figure of Finnegans Wake is not a featured protagonist in the

“Museyroom” section. The mother figure is titled ALP or “Anna Livia

Plurabelle” and she is part of the Earwicker family unit. She is the

wife to HCE, and the mother to Shem, Shaun and to Issy. In the four

canonical synoptic guides to Finnegans Wake: Glasheen’s Third Census

of Finnegans Wake, Rose and O’Hanlon’s Understanding Finnegans Wake,

Campbell and Robinson’s Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake and Gordon’s

Finnegans Wake: A Plot Summary, all of the summaries of the section omit

her from the narrative proceedings; Indeed, her absence within the

“Museyroom” is not noted as conspicuous. However, this may be

because her presence is embedded deep within the narrative. Although

2

3

her character interacts with the other protagonists in a complex

network of archetypal familial relationships, she is a quiet figure

who looks on at the raging battle in the distance. She suffers

mentally as she watches the warfare. The battle between the Jinnies

and Willingdone is instigated by sexual blackmail that concerns her

and the battle between the Lipoleums and Willingdone occurs because

they are revenging his infidelity to her.

In the following paper, I wish to trace ALP’s narrative

presence throughout the “Museyroom”, associating her family roles

together with the other characters on its battlefield, as well as

studying her multiple geographical identities which structures the

landscape upon which the whole scene takes place.

The “Museyroom” section in chapter one is special in Finnegans

Wake as it is accompanied by an extremely rare diagram in its

drafts, which Joyce sketched together with his earliest workings on

the text. Its study facilitates possible interpretations of the

“Museyroom” passage, by using its design as basis for reviewing

character in the text. Joyce sketched it together with his earliest

workings on the text. In a career of using omitting almost no

creative material, Joyce’s most marked genetic omission in Finnegans

Wake, and therefore one of its most secret treasures, is a detail

diagram of sigla, structured upon the design of a battlefield,

composed in 1926 following his visit to Waterloo.

3

4

(BL 47482a – 91v; JJA 44: 17)

In late 1923 to early 1924, the composition of sigla was amongst one

the most important developments in his notebook work. Their

invention would provide Joyce with a range of new stylistic

possibilities on the genetic level of composition and facilitate a

system of categorisation of protagonists in Finnegans Wake. Their

development would create a very significant influence in his

4

5

compositional workings to the extent that they would impress

themselves upon the narrative of a chapter in a thematic and non-

technical sense. The sigla in the diagram represent protagonists in

the “Museyroom” section. Although there are more sigla on the

diagram, this study concerns itself with the following character

representations:

Willingdone:

The Jinnies: and

The Lipoleums: , and .

Anna Livia Plurabelle:

The I.1 diagram was brought to mass critical attention by David

Hayman in his First Draft of Finnegans Wake, with its holographic

reproduction of the page, (Joyce 1950, 50.) that is written as BL

47482a – 91v; JJA 41: 16 in the James Joyce Archive. In criticism, the

diagram was christened the ‘battle diagram’. It is within the first

extant draft of Book I chapter 1, whose title is: ‘1A.*0’.1

Nevertheless, it is not a widely available sight in Joyce studies,

save its transcription in two others texts: The Sigla of Finnegans Wake

(McHugh 1976, 82) and Understanding Finnegans Wake (Rose and O’Hanlon

1982, 11). It is safe to say that the diagram is not especially well

known in comparison to other aspects of research perhaps because

only four texts have printed it. Within contemporary Wake studies

5

6

its content is usually glossed, but not comprehensively reviewed.

There is, in fact, little active debate within genetic criticism as

to its associations with chapter one’s narrative. This creates a

difficulty of arguing theories and ideas, owing to a surprising lack

of interest by the majority of researchers unaware of its existence.

However, Gordon has an excellent theory that the ‘fadeout

engravings’ (BL 47482a – 99; JJA 44, 30) or ‘outwashed engravure’

(FW 0 13.6-7) is the battle diagram as graffiti on the toilet wall

(Gordon 1986, 113). We are lucky in a sense that the “Museyroom” has

a diagram as it offers us a view into the processes of Joyce’s mind

in a visual schematic fashion. The representation of the passage in

such a form is unexpected.

The diagram is fundamentally useful because it alerts us to

the presence of ALP. It is an image that does not conceal the

characters of the story. Although ALP is a hidden character in the

“Museyroom” who appears within multi-layered symbols, her siglum is

drawn alongside the sigla of Willingdone, the Jinnies and the

Lipoleums with clarity. The diagram partially removes the mystery

that surrounds ALP’s figure within the narrative and this is why it

is more-so a schematic representation akin to the Ulysses Linati

schema than an image that could be integrated into the final version

of the novel. Rose briefly considers in Understanding Finnegans Wake

that ‘Joyce may have intended to [include the diagram] in the final text

6

7

[...].’ (Rose and O’Hanlon 1982, 26-27). However, in 2010 he clearly

determines that it was not excluded from the final text by an

editorial error. In his Restored Edition of Finnegans Wake (Joyce, 2010),

the battle diagram is not integrated into the “Museyroom” section of

Book I chapter 1 whereas if his initial theory remained in place

then it would theoretically be reproduced.

In the battle, ALP is present on the field, evident by Joyce’s

sketching of her nominative siglum ( ), or symbol, on the diagram.

ALP, whose siglum is an equilateral triangle in Finnegans Wake, is

drawn at the top of the page in bold, directly beside a row of, what

appear to be, triangles which continue onto the edge of the page.

This identification has not been made in genetic criticism. Prior to

the “Museyroom” narrative, ALP’s husband, HCE lies interred in the

landscape under Dublin, his gigantic subterranean body raising up

the city, from the bay to its outskirts. His feet, which protrude

from the ground, are ‘clay’ (BL 47482a -90; JJA 44: 13; FW 007.30)

covered with grass which erects the location of the Magazine wall in

Phoenix Park, a garrison which is built on a hill. A number of

soldiers wait with lustful impatience for the ‘yondmist’ (BL 47471-

a; JJA 44: 51; FW 007.29) to clear so that they can scale HCE’s

gigantic head in the distance and visit a building known as the

‘museumound’ (BL 47482a-91; JJA 41: 15; JJA 44:15; cf. FW 008.5).2

The ‘museumound’ is a sexual location which attracts the soldiers on

7

8

leave, their excitement charged by viewing it from a distance. The

two ‘quitewhite villagettes’ (BL 47482a -91; JJA 44: 15; FW 008.3)

are the first seen in the location of the ‘waterloose country’,

before the remaining landscape and figures emerge upon final

arrival. They are two girls, shortly identified as taking part in a

battle where they are standing. The white colour of their dresses

makes them visible through the mist and evidently they are country

girls or ‘villagettes’ living on the Waterloo battle-ground. As we

approach the museum, it advertises at its entrance: ‘Penetrators are

admitted in this museumound free, welshers and ^the^ militains one

shellink.’ (BL 47482a – 91; JJA 44: 15; cf. FW 008.5-6). This early

draft, in 1A.*0, with clarity, indicates that the museum has a

sexual design, specifically that of the genitals of a prostitute.

Indeed, mound’ in ‘museomound’ is indicative of the female pubic

mound, or ‘mons pubis’. ‘Militains’ or militants, who visit

prostitutes whilst on leave, are provided with a monetary discount

of one ‘shellink’, a combination of shilling and ammunition shell,

whereas ‘Penetrators’ are allowed in free. The ‘key’ to the door of

the museummound is held by a ‘Mistress’ (BL 47482a – 92; JJA 44: 17;

FW 008.8) or ‘Madame’ called Kate, who must be paid. Kate runs the

museumound as a brothel, instructing the men as they enter inside

its door to wear a contraceptive: ‘Mind your ^hat^ going in.’ (BL

8

9

47482a – 92; JJA 44: 17; cf. FW 008.9) where the ‘hat’ is the condom

which must be worn within.

Upon entrance, the museumound is a historical exhibit wherein

Kate is the tour guide. Kate works inside, with her job description

also a ‘janitrix’ (BL 47482a – 92; JJA 44: 17; FW 008.9), or female

janitor. The initial exhibits are various items of war memorabilia

from an unnamed conflict, albeit one closely associated to Waterloo:

‘This is is [sic] a Prooshious gunn. This a ffrinch. Tip. This the

flag-o’-the-proosh^hious. This is a bullet that bing the flag-o’-th

prooshious.’ (BL 47482a-92; JJA 44:17; cf. FW 008.10-13) With the

disclosure of these items, Kate requests multiple ‘tips’ which the

tour guide in Joyce’s trip to Waterloo also did. The ‘tips’ continue

Kate’s role as a Madame, asking for more money, in association with

the sexual meaning of the word ‘tip’, namely the act of coitus. The

tour, following this early section of exhibits seems to move into an

outside location wherein a full scale battle is raging. The

logistics of this transition are such that Kate retains her role as

a guide, but her overall control over proceedings is replaced by the

battle, which is not pre-destined in its outcome. Instead of wax

figures, in fixed positions, the characters are dynamic, moving from

position to position in the narrative, in war-like movements;

attacking, retreating, sending correspondences, crossing mountains

and rivers.

9

10

The battle itself concerns a figure known as Willingdone who

is being attacked on two opposing fronts, his initial conflict being

the Jinnies, two young girls who are blackmailing him about his

numerous sexual liaisons which his wife does not know about. ALP is

titled ‘Ann’ (BL 47482a – 93; JJA 41: 19; FW 009.14) in the

narrative and she is married to Willingdone, although he is

unfaithful to her. Cheng writes that Wellington is portrayed with

his telescope in many of his portraits and that the Duke preferred

these pictures to any others as he believed they presented him best

as a military commander. Willingdone also has a telescope but he

uses it to spy on the young female protagonists. The telescope is

first referenced in the following quotation: “This is big

Willingdone mormorial tallowscoop Wounderworker obscides on the

flanks of the jinnies.” (FW 008.35-6) The telescope is a phallic

image as it is extendable. When it is unfolded and he looks at the

Jinnies it is paralleled with an erect penis. In Sir Thomas

Lawrence’s portrait of Wellington he holds a telescope operated

using a sliding mechanism in his right hand. (Kauffmann 2009, 111)

Willingdone is an HCE figure in the “Museyroom” passage and he is a

voyeur just as HCE is throughout Finnegans Wake. Simultaneously,

Willingdone is modeled on the Duke of Wellington. The sound of his

name strongly relates Joyce’s protagonist to the Duke of Wellington

just as the fictional character’s image is shaped by the Duke’s.

10

11

Willingdone’s appearance in the ‘Museyroom’ is structured upon the

iconic characteristics of the Duke and these include the association

with certain items, specific costume and animals. However,

Willingdone is a grotesque of the Duke and these features are

represented in very disturbing ways. Almost all of the words in this

sentence may be interpreted as phallic symbols but we will begin

with studying the meaning of “tallowscoop” as it is similar to

‘telescope’ in its sound. ‘Tallow’ is a form of beef or mutton fat

and it is obviously not a material out of which you can construct a

telescope. It is an organic animal product and it is not machinery.

The “tallowscoop” is a representation of a flesh and blood phallus.

It belongs to Willingdone as he is a very fat character and he is

half man/half horse. The ‘tallow’ is the fat on his “big wide harse”

(FW 008.21). The horse’s bottom is considerably large. However, the

‘tallow’ may also represent a tall candle as this type of fat was

historically used to mould them. The candle is arguably a phallic

object and its length diminishes as a penis does. ALP and

Willingdone are not implicitly coupled together and this encases or

hides their relationship status as man and wife deep with the

narrative. The ‘mountrumeny’ (FW 010.3) between ALP and Willingdone

is suitably distance in its emotional standing, with ALP having the

identity of the token soldier’s ‘wife’, a nameless figure, who

remains at home, looking after the children, whilst her husband, a

11

12

non-familial man, fights. As ‘mount’ indicates copulation,

Willingdone marries ALP for lustful sex, not love, fitting his

constantly excited physical state on the battlefield and his

mysognistic, non-romantic, attitude towards women. Willingdone, who

is out of ALP’s sight, takes every available opportunity to cheat on

her. Additionally, in an early draft, Willingdone, in the crossed-

out accretion ‘marturmoney’ (BL 47482a – 92; JJA 44: 17; cf. FW

010.3), it seems, marries ALP for ‘money’, in addition to sex,

perhaps obtained from her rich family and a large dowry.

Prior to the arrival of the Lipoleums, Willingdone is fighting

two girls known as the Jinnies over the matter of his infidelity to

ALP. Wilder suggests that ‘Jinnies’ springs from the French:

‘jeunesses’ for ‘young ladies’ (Glasheen and Wilder 2001, 350). The

Jinnies, via correspondence on the battlefield, write a letter to

Willingdone which threatens that they know scandalous information

about his sex life. They blackmail him by saying in phonetic German:

‘^Leapcher^ Awthur fieldgates ^gaze^ ^the^ tiny frow?’ (BL 47482a –

93; JJA 44: 19; cf. FW 009.5), which, in the first draft 1A.*0, is

especially close to: ‘Lieber Arthur. Wie gehts deine Frau?’.

(Glasheen and Wilder 2001, 350). This translates into an open-ended

threat to Willingdone, in English: ‘Dear Arthur. How is your wife?’

The Jinnies instruct Willingdone to ‘fieldgaze’ or pick up his

telescope and look into the distance of the battlefield, for the

12

13

purposes of him viewing ALP, who is his ‘tiny frow’ in the spy-

glass. Willingdone’s ‘^hurried dispatch^’ (BL 47482a - 93; JJA 44:

19; cf. FW 009.13), or letter sent in return to the Jinnies on the

battlefield is ‘damn fairy ann’ (BL 47482a – 93; JJA 44: 19; cf. FW

009.13-14), a condemnation of his wife by her first name.

Willingdone’s retort is without fear to the threat of the Jinnies.

The anger is a characteristic of the historical Duke of Wellington

who, when blackmailed by Harriet Wilson, a former lover, to give

money or else details of their affair would be revealed in her

memoirs, he said: ‘Publish and be damned.’ (Eckley 1977, 34) Wilson

was a former lover of Tom Sheridan, Fred Lamb and as Wellington

biographer Elizabeth Longford puts it “many other glittering Regency

names.” (Longford 1969, 164) She was frequently penniless since she

spent a lot on clothes and jewellery. Once her celebrity amongst

London’s social elite had diminished she conjured up a plan to solve

her financial problems by deciding to write her Memoirs that

documented her life and relationships with England’s most famous

men. Wilson’s plan presented her-self in a whorish manner but it

brought her a considerable fortune as it was a scandalous success

with the stunned public. Wilson’s book was a monetary success in

another way too and one that was as devious as it was ingenious. It

was written with the design to blackmail the men whom she allegedly

had relationships with and she organised this as a conspiracy with

13

14

her publisher Joseph Stockdale who helped her execute her plan.

Stockdale wrote to every man named in Wilson’s book and threatened

them with the information that Wilson was shortly going to publish

her Memoirs. However, they were given the option to pay to stop the

material about them being printed and the fee was a considerable

£200. Wilson knew Wellington but their relationship was based on a

series of sporadic meetings in 1805 and 1808 but it was never

romantic or particularly close (168). Wellington’s most scandalous

connection to her was his known visits to a house of ill-repute

owned by a Mrs Porter where Wilson was known to have resided. This

information was enough for Wilson to write about Wellington in her

Memoirs and subsequently send him a blackmail letter prior to its

publication. Wellington received the letter with fury and it is at

this point in historical myth that Wellington said his infamous

curse: ‘Publish and be damned!’ ALP, with the dampness that

surrounds Willingdone, instigates the final stage of conflict

between him and the Jinnies, provoking his anger and making him

fight for his reputation as an honourable man on the battlefield.

Willingdone defeats the Jinnies by resolutely refusing to be

blackmailed. He is courageous and is not threatened by their

communication. The Jinnies do not respond to Willingdone and it

seems that Willingdone has ‘called their bluff’. They stop their

design to disgrace him. The Jinnies are defeated as they are

14

15

temptresses and upon realising that they do not have any power over

him they have no other means of offence in this situation. They are

forced to withdraw from battle and Willingdone’s victory is

accompanied by a hail of cannon fire and bombs that chase them away:

‘This is the Willingdone by the splinters of Cork, order fire.

Tonnerre! (Bullsear! Play!) This is camelry, this is floodens, this

is the solphereens in action, this is their mobbily, this is

panikburns.’ (FW 009.21-24)

During Willingdone’s skirmish with the Jinnies, three

soldiers, identified as the Lipoleums, cross a river and they march

towards the battlefield. Once Willingdone has defeated the Jinnies

using brute force, the Lipoleums arrive and fight him. Their sigla

are: and . Willingdone’s masculinity, defined by his sexual

exploits, together with his abilities on the battlefield, is

protected and re-affirmed by the victory over the Jinnies. His

military telescope, or ‘^marmorial^ tallowscoop’ (BL 47482a-97; JJA

44: 27; FW 009.34), views them in the distance, whilst it is also

his erection: ‘This is the Willingdone branlish his same marmorial

tallowscoop Sophy-Key-Po for his royal diversion on the rinnaway

jinnies.’ (FW 009.33-35) Initially, in the “Museyroom” section, the

soldiers engage in trench warfare within a ‘living ditch’ (FW

008.22): ‘^This^ is [the] Lipoleums ^boyne^ grouching [in] ^the^

^living^ ditch’ (BL 47482a – 92; JJA 44: 17; cf. FW 008.21-22).3 The

15

16

‘^living^ ditch’ in which the Lipoleums submerse themselves is the

first instance wherein life-giving water pervades the ‘Museumound’

section, itself defined as a ‘waterloose country’. The stream is

ALP, whose identity as ‘little Anny Rayiny’ (BL 47482a- 9; JJA 44:

13; JJA 41: 13; FW 007.25), the flowing Liffey past HCE’s

‘brontoichthyan form’(BL 47482a-9; JJA 44: 13; FW 007.21) is perhaps

its figurative source. With urine the focus of much interpretation

of the section, there has consequently been a curious neglect of the

association between water and its life-giving properties. In

Gordon’s synopsis of Finnegans Wake, the urination implicit in

Waterloo, or ‘waterloose’, locates the section on the privy, or

toilet, so that we are witness to the bodily evacuations, or

excretions, of the major characters. ALP, the life-giving river and

the personification of fertility in Finnegans Wake, gives birth,

rather than excretes. Her water imagery is not a sterile product of

bodily waste, but amniotic fluid, baptismal water, and fertilising

agricultural canals, in this section alone. Indeed, in the preface

to Book I chapter 1’s volume in the James Joyce Archive, Groden

interprets a river flowing through the battle diagram (JJA 44: xxiv)

As noted, whilst Willingdone is fighting his war against the

Jinnies, ALP remains at home bringing up their children. ‘^Living^’

from ‘^living^ ditch’ integrates the letters ‘LIV’ from ALP’s

surname ‘Livia’ to further characterise her in the passage. But

16

17

since ‘^living^’ is the creation of life, the ‘^living^ ditch’ is

symbolically ALP’s womb, wherein she gives birth to Willingdone’s

children. The Lipoleums, when submerged in ALP’s waters, gestate

together as triplets, their relationship to ALP being that of mother

to sons. The betrayal of Willingdone consequently dictates their

opposition to him on the battlefield. The Lipoleums, as brothers,

initially fight each other in the womb, with the largest beating up

the smallest in the wet ‘bog’ which is ALP’s amniotic fluid, but it

also a location on the battlefield, which is always damp: ‘^This is

the bog lipoleum mordering the lipoleum beg^’ (BL 47482a – 92v; JJA

44: 16; cf. FW 008.24). This is in part since it rained constantly

during the Battle of Waterloo, the conflict whose historical

significance dominates the structure of the passage. Slote mentions

that it rained constantly during the three days of the battle.

(Slote 1998, 113 n15). But the water is also ALP at all times, and

her character actively contributes to the narrative when its imagery

is present.

The Lipoleums are subsequently born to ALP, and their

respective Christened names: ‘^Touchhole Tuobush Man and Dirty Dyke

and Hairy O’Hurry^’ (BL 47482a – 95; JJA 44: 23; cf. FW 008.26-27)

reference their mother’s organ, which they have just been born

through. They are also nicknames for the Lipoleums as fully grown,

sexual experienced soldiers approaching the battlefield. Following

17

18

this, ALP assumes a new shape in the narrative as her womb, which is

the ‘^living^ ditch’ is now empty. The new identity for ALP is that

of a mountain, with Joyce’s change in the geography of the

‘waterloose country’ constructing her subsequent role as a mother of

the Lipoleums. Using a Greek mythological model for ALP, the

Lipoleums are nurtured by her, her body as a mountain providing them

with the ‘protective powers of mother earth’ (Eckley, 32), making

them grow and mature prior to their advancement onto the

battlefield. This identity is sketched on the battle diagram using a

superimposed visual meaning to that of ALP’s triangles representing

wave shapes and the river. The diagram facilitates, with a

simultaneous interpretation of ALP’s siglum, that the Lipoleums have

a mountain range to cross. In European travel guides, available in

the 1920’s, such as those written by Karl Baedeker and Findlay

Muirhead, an equilateral triangle on a map, accompanied by a number,

was the legend for the summit of a mountain, and its height in

metres. On page 82 of: Central Italy and Rome: Handbook for Travellers by Karl

Baedeker, two mountains are represented on the map thusly: ‘M.

Terminuto 722’ and ‘M. Mardello 625.’ (Baedeker 1904, 82).

Additionally, in Joyce’s Finnegans Wake notebook: ‘VI.B.15’ that he

brought with him on his 1926 summer holiday to Belgium, he writes

the entry: ‘chains of Mts. [Mountains]’ (VI.B.15 – 2).4 This is one

indication that ALP’s visual identity on the battle diagram changes

18

19

in meaning, from the wave shapes of a river to that of the peaks of

mountains. This is supported by Danis Rose’s genetic evaluation that

‘The scrawl probably indicates the position of the

alps.’ (Rose and O’Hanlon 1982, 10) ALP’s narrative shift in

identity to ‘The Delian alps’ (BL 47482a – 91v; JJA 44: 16; FW

008.28), a long geographical barrier in the path of the Lipoleums,

smothers them as like an over-protective mother, with mountains

being her figurative breasts. In Greek cosmogony, Gaia, or Mother

Earth, supports the sea whilst her breasts are the mythical

representation of mountains on land. ALP’s three lettered name is

‘ALP’ and although the although the ‘Delian Alps’ do not

geographically exist as part of any mountain range, the title

Delphos associates with the Greek ‘Delphoi’ meaning ‘womb’. The womb

of ALP is now the breast of Gaia which nourishes the Lipoleums and

provides them with the life force to figuratively grow into

mountains themselves: ‘^This is Mont Tipple [,] this is Mont Tipsey

[,] this is the Mons Injun^’ (BL 47482a -95; JJA 44: 23; FW 008.28-

29) The Lipoleums grow up as debauched soldiers, having been

fighting as early as in the womb, their ‘tipple[s]’ indicating

excessive drinking, and the titles of historical battles written

within the names of the mountains demonstrating their desire for

violence. However, ALP, with her motherly instincts, does not want

the Lipoleums to leave her for war, evident in her geographical

19

20

personification as a mountain range impeding their journey to the

battlefield. ALP’s mountains are a part of the landscape and the

Lipoleums, as in any military expedition, scale them with

difficulty. The Lipoleums are held back and attacked by ALP as they

cross, her attempts to them motherly and feminine in their methods:

‘^This is the Delian alps sheltershocking the three lipoleums behind

a crim ^crimmealine^’ (BL 47482a – 91v; JJA 41: 16; cf. FW 008.28-

30). Since ‘shellshock’ (see VI.B.15 – 53) is psychological damage

from experiences on the battlefield, the Lipoleums receive

significant trauma whilst passing the mountains. ALP’s

‘shellshocking’ is motherly, not military, however. Her attempts to

stop the Lipoleums advancing are by hiding them under her skirt and

not allowing them to leave. The ‘crinoline’ or ‘^crimmealine^’ which

ALP wears in the conflict is a large, cone shaped Victorian dress,

structured using a series of concentric hoops made out of whale-

bone. The fear of regressing from mature soldiers to children, who

cower under their mother’s dress, is considerable for the Lipoleums

who fight against ALP and escape her influence. The Lipoleums, who

venture south on the diagram to attack their father Willingdone, in

the classic oedipal conflict, have left their home, together with

the womb, breasts and dress of their mothers.

The “Museyroom” is an open-air museum that is built upon a

hill-top (Howth Head) and on its environs a battle between

20

21

archetypal family members is taking place. In conclusion, by

studying the battle diagram written in the initial draft of Book I

chapter 1, a character’s presence can be determined within the

narrative who has not been identified before in the “Museyroom”

section. This character is “Anna Livia Plurabelle” and she is the

mother figure to all of the protagonists. ALP’s narratological

omission creates structural instability if the section is

interpreted as a battle an archetypal family unit. A mother figure

is needed to complete this character network. “Anna Livia

Plurabelle” is married to the debauched, middle-aged protagonist

Willingdone and her sons are three youthful soldiers who are

collectively titled the Lipoleums. The Jinnies, or the two girls who

sexually blackmail Willingdone, are figures that closely identify

with Willingdone’s daughters and therefore she is their mother by

association. Although the interpretive method used within this

article derives much of its inspiration from the battle diagram, it

is evident that it is a schematic representation of the narrative

plotline. The study finds that the triangular shaped siglum which

identifies “Anna Livia Plurabelle” in the Finnegans Wake notebooks is

drawn at the top of the diagram in a replication of two geographical

landmarks: a river and a mountain range. ALP is the landscape that

the narrative is fought on. Multiple triangles are linked together

to visually resemble the waves of the river and the peaks of the

21

22

mountains. The diagram is useful since it exposes to the reader that

“Anna Livia Plurabelle” is an undisputed figure within the

narrative, and this is valuable as her character’s interactions with

the other protagonists are difficult to interpret. Without any

knowledge that ALP’s is present, the reader primarily interprets

that the pervading water imagery in the “Museyroom” section is

belongs to the landscape. Although it makes multi-layered historical

allusions to the weather at Waterloo or the uncontrolled urination

by the frightened Jinnies, the water than runs throughout the land

also identifies “Anna Livia Plurabelle” as a protagonist in the

“Museyroom”. The dampness that the protagonists feel under their

feet at the battle represents her symbolic attendance and how she

has instigated all of the violent action. Although it is important

that the diagram is not viewed as exclusively mimetic to the

narrative, since such a reading erroneously determines that a visual

image can portray the exact same artistic meaning as a literary

text, it is a highly useful interpretive aid to the “Museyroom”

section and it would be useful if its facsimile was reproduced more

often in criticism and perhaps in the appendix of copies of Finnegans

Wake. It is Joyce’s most beautiful creative image, with the possible

exception of the diagram on Finnegans Wake, page 293, and it would be

a shame if only the community of genetic Joyce critics knew about.

22

23

23

24

Bibliography:

Baedeker, Karl. 1904. Central Italy and Rome: Handbook for Travellers. Leipzig: Karl Baedeker.

Cheng, Vincent. 1995. Joyce, Race and Empire. Great Britain: Cambridge.

Eckley, Grace. 1977. “The Wellington Career in Finnegans Wake”, Eire Ireland, Vol. 12, iii.

Glasheen, Adaline and Wilder, Thornton. 2001. A Tour of the Darkling Plain: The Finnegans Wake Letters of Thornton Wilder and Adaline Glasheen. Ed. Burns, Edward M.; Gaylord, Joshua A. Dublin: UCD Press.

Gordon, John. 1986. Finnegans Wake: A Plot Summary, USA: Syracuse University Press.

Joyce, James. 1939. Finnegans Wake. England: Penguin.

———. 2010. Finnegans Wake. Ed. Rose, Danis, and O'Hanlon. Cornwall: HouyhnhnmPress.

———. 1963. A First-Draft Version of Finnegans Wake, Ed. Hayman, David, .University of Texas Press.

———. 1978. Finnegans Wake, Book I, Chapter 1: A Facsimile of Drafts, Typescripts & Proofs. Ed. Rose, Danis, with the assistance of O'Hanlon , John. James Joyce Archive, 44, New York: Garland.

———. 1978. Finnegans Wake: A Facsimile of Buffalo Notebooks VI. B.9-VI. B.12. Ed. Hayman, David . The James Joyce Archive 31. New York: Garland.

Kauffmann, C.M. 2009. Catalogue of Paintings in the Wellington Museum: Apsley House. Verona: English Heritage and Paul Holberton Publishing.

Longford, Elizabeth. 1969. Wellington – The Years of the Sword. New York and Evanstone; Harper and Row.

McHugh, Roland. 1976. The Sigla of Finnegans Wake. Great Britain: Edward Arnold.

Rose, Danis and O’Hanlon, John. 1982. Understanding Finnegans Wake. New York: Garland.

Slote, Sam. 1998 “Did God Be Come: The Definitive Exgenesis of HCE. Writing His Wrunes for Ever: Essays in Joycean Genetics. Ed. Ferrer, Daniel. Jacquet, Claude, Tusson: Editions du Lérot.

24

25

25

1 See James Joyce Archive Volume 44, 1. Hence: JJA 44: 1.2 In 1.*1, the name changes to ‘museomound’ (BL 47471-10; JJA 41: 55; FW 008.5).3 My emendations. Joyce inserts these words In draft 1.*1, creating syntactical clarity in the sentence.4 This notebook is contained in the James Joyce Archive, Volume 31.