Wassaily Booslaeugh

Nikolai Okhlopkov (Vasily Buslayev), Valentina Ivashova (Olga Danilovna) & Andrei Abrikosov (Gavrilo Oleksich) in Aleksander Nevsky (1938)

This short paragraph—it is less than seven lines long in my preferred text, The Restored Finnegans Wake—has to be read in conjunction with the preceding paragraph and the following two paragraphs. Taken together, these four paragraphs interpret the popular Irish-American ballad of Finnegan’s Wake in terms of the Viconian Cycle. According to Giambattista Vico’s cyclical view of human history, civilization passes through three phases before collapsing into the chaos of uncivilization. This ultimately leads back to the first phase and the beginning of a new cycle:

Theocracy, or the Age of Gods
Aristocracy, or the Age of Heroes
Democratcy, or the Age of Men
Collapse into Chaos, and Ricorso, or Reflux

The second stage, the Aristocratic Phase or Age of Heroes, had its own characteristic language:

§ 928 Three kinds of languages ...

§ 930 The second was by heroic blazonings, with which arms are made to speak; this kind of speech, as we have said above, survived in military discipline. (Vico §§ 928, 930)

The first half of this brief paragraph takes up this theme of heroic blazonings, or, as we call it today, heraldry. The following expressions are all heraldic terms:

of the first the first tincture, or colour, mentioned in a blazon
coat of arms a heraldic display on a shield
crest a heraldic device borne on top of the helm
heraldry the science of arms and blazonry
hure the bodiless head of a wild boar or a salmon
vert green
argent silver
Poursuivant an officer of the College of Arms
horned said of a bull, unicorn or owl, when its horns are of a different tincture to its body
escutcheon a heraldic shield bearing a coat of arms
fesse a horizontal bar covering the middle third or fifth of the heraldic field
archers a not uncommon figure on coats of arms.
heliotrope a sunflower
of the second the second colour mentioned in a blazon

In addition to these, Joyce has managed to cram in a few other terms that, while not actual heraldic expressions, have an obvious heraldic ring to them:

ancillars supporters (or tenants) are figures that are depicted supporting the two sides of a heraldic shield. The coat of arms of Dublin City is flanked by two female tenants. Latin: ancilla, handmaiden.
hegoak the goat and the oak appear on various coats of arms. Their French equivalents, chêvre and chêne, have similar spellings and pronunciations. This particular creature, however, is described as horrid (shaggy) and horned, which suggests that he-goat is the primary meaning. Horrid horn is cant for fool, said to derive from the Irish word amadán (Mayhew 207). Horned also suggests cuckoldry, which adds an Oedipal flavour to the passage.
troublant the attitude or disposition of animals on a coat of arms is typically described by a medieval French gerundive, such as couchant (lying down), rampant (rearing up on its hind legs), or sejant (sitting). In French, troublant means perturbing, troubling, upsetting.
strung stringed is the heraldic term used to describe the strings of bugle-horns, harps, bows, mitres, etc when they are of a different tincture to the rest of the object.

The Dublin City Coat of Arms

First-Draft Version

In Joyce’s first draft, this paragraph was not yet separated from the preceding one, and only its second half existed. All the heraldic terms were added later:

Haitch is for Husbandman planting his hoe. Hohohoho Mister Finn you’re going to be Mr Finn again. Comeday morning when your senday end you’re Vinegar. Hahahaha Mister Finn you’re going to be fined again. (Hayman 47)

It appears, then, that it was only at a later date that Joyce decided to make a Viconian Cycle out of these paragraphs.

Vasily Buslayev

Vasily Buslayev

We have already met this character. Vasily Buslayev was a heroic figure who appeared in three of the Bogatyr Epics, a cycle of Russian epic poems from the Middle Ages. He came from Novgorod and in one of his tales, Vasily Buslayev and the People of Novgorod, he makes a drunken boast that he can defeat all the men of Novgorod single-handed. Only the intervention of his mother saves the men of Novgorod from annihilation. Vasily is not very well known in the West—what was Joyce’s source?—but he remains a popular figure in Russian folklore. Sergei Eisenstein gave him a role in the defence of Russia against the Teutonic Knights in his epic movie Alexander Nevsky, and in 1982 he was the subject of the popular Soviet movie Vasily Buslaev.

Why did Joyce choose a Russian character to represent the Age of Heroes? One might have expected a character from the Arthurian romances—the Round Table was alluded to in the previous paragraph, and Sir Tristram was mentioned on the previous page—but it seems that Joyce wanted a hero with a penchant for strong liquor, like his own hero Tim Finnegan. Not only does Vasily’s name accommodate Joyce’s puns on wassail and boose, it also incorporates the Irish word for hero: laoch. In Russian, buslai means fallen man or drunkard (Skrabanek 42). It is also the name of Vasily’s father.

In 1973, Petr Skrabanek, a Bohemian-born physician and Joycean, wrote a short but detailed article on Wassaily Booslaeugh (of Riesengeborg), which appeared in A Wake Newslitter (New Series 10:3). It is a fine illustration of just how much meaning can be wrung from a few words in Finnegans Wake:

Petr Škrabánek

Vasilii Buslaev is a hero-warrior of the Novgorod cycle of byliny (epic poems) from the fifteenth century, a Russian equivalent of Finn Mac Cool. The name Booslaeugh of Riesengeborg also anticipates Buckley and ‘rising gianerant’ (368.08 [RFW 284.38]) ([German] Riese = giant).

The Christian name Vasilii is of Greek origin, being from basileus (king) (cf. e.g. basilisk glorious with his weeniequeenie’, 577.02 [RFW 449.11-12]), which, incidentally, we might hear also in Booslaeugh. Buslaev comes from buslai, which is shortened from the name Boguslav (‘glory to God’). Buslai, however, means also ‘fallen man (heruntergekommener Mensch)’ or ‘drunkard’ (Vasmer’s Russisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch [152]). The latter meaning ties well with an English reading of Booslaeugh as ‘boose-love’ ( … with a love of liquor Tim was born … ).

Wassaily, incorrectly etymologized by Brewer [945] as ‘water of life’ (AS waes hoel) and perpetuated by Joyce (see e.g. ‘wassailhorn tot of iskybaush’, 91.27 [RFW 073.07]) combines with death in Booslaeugh ([Irish] bás) to be immediately counterpointed with life (-laeugh). Similar combinations are found, e.g. in ‘a viv baselgia’ (243.29 [RFW 192.18-19]) or ‘a live … baas’ (608.14-15 [RFW 475.22-23]). Basil Finnegan is brought back from death to life with water of life.

Vassal is cognate with Irish uasal now standing for ‘Mr’ in a title. A complete Irish version could be constructed as Uasal Buadh-Sliabh, where Buadh- means triumphant or joyous, and Sliabh means ‘a mountain’, or ‘a range of mountains’ (= [German] Gebirge), ‘the Mountain of Joy’ (76.04 [RFW 060.24-25]).

There are several other less relevant allusions, e.g. [Danish] Bøsseløb (gun-barrel), [French] bosse (knoll, hillock), bossu (hunchback), or bouse (dung). Boos- alludes to ‘Bous Stephanoumenos’ and to the supernatural bull Finnbhennach ‘Whitehorned’ from the Táin Bó Cuailnge.

The place-name Riesengeborg refers to Riesengebirge, Giant Mountains, the tertiary mountain range forming a natural border between Bohemia and Poland. The German name was used by Sudetic German inhabitants before 1945. The Czechs call them ‘Krkonoše’ and the Poles, ‘Karkonosze’. Hence, ‘Krzerszonese’ (347.09 [RFW 268.13]), ‘mountains from his old continence’ (462.32 [RFW 359.09]), the abode of the bearded giant Krakonoš ([German] Rübezahl).

In Riesen- we also have the Latin root ris- (laugh). Booslaeugh splits into the derisive ‘boo’ and ‘laugh’. Buckley-Burrus-Shaun kills the laughable father-giant-general, thus committing ‘a risicide’ (161.17 [RFW 128.21]). Could we read Riesengeborg also as ‘born (G. geboren) in laugh’ or ‘born laughing’, as some prophets? (Skrabanek 42)

Much of this will mean nothing to the first-time reader (Who is Buckley?) and some of Skrabanek’s analysis is simply inaccurate. Buckley is the Oedipal figure, and not Burrus or Shaun. And in the first edition of his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1870), Brewer derived wassail from the Saxon, Wæs hæl, “Be in health”. In the twelfth edition (1891), he translates this as “water [of] health”. Perhaps Skrabanek’s form “water of life” occurs in some other edition of Brewer.

Vasily Buslayev

Loose Ends

The coincidence of opposites—taken from the philosophy of Giordano of Bruno—continues to inform these paragraphs. Finnegan is first patrician (he bears a coat of arms) and the first plebeian (he bares his arms for manual labour). Vasily Buslayev is both a vassal and a king (basileus, boss). Finnegan is both wine and vinegar—both of which were drunk by Christ shortly before his death and resurrection.

The passage in vert with ancillars, troublant, argent, a hegoak, poursuivant, horrid, horned was glossed by Joseph Campbell & Henry Robinson thus:

a he-goat pursuing two maids (Campbell & Robinson 39)

In future chapters, HCE is going to be accused of committing a crime of a sexual nature that involves two girls [Latin: ancilla, handmaiden] in the woods [in vert, hedge, oak]. Invert also means homosexual, another “crime” with which HCE is charged.

Dmitriy Zolotukhin in the Title Role of Vasiliy Buslayev (1983)

And that’s as good a place as any to beach the bark of our tale.

References

E Cobham Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Twelfth Edition, Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, London (1891)
Joseph Campbell, Henry Morton Robinson, A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York (1944)
David Hayman, A First-Draft Version of Finnegans Wake, University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas (1963)
James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, Faber & Faber Limited, London (1939, 1949)
James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Works, Pynch (editor), Online (2013)
Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, Volume 1, Griffin, Bohn, and Co, London (1861)
Danis Rose, John O’Hanlon, The Restored Finnegans Wake, Penguin Classics, London (2012)
Petr Skrabanek, Wassaily Booslaeugh (of Riesengeborg), A Wake Newslitter, New Series, Volume 10, Number 3, Page 42, University of Essex, English Department, Colchester (1973)
Max Vasmer, Russisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch [Russian Etymological Dictionary], Volume 1, Carl Winter, Universitätsverlag, Heidelberg (1953)
Giambattista Vico, Goddard Bergin (translator), Max Harold Fisch (translator), The New Science of Giambattista Vico, Third Edition (1744), Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY (1948)

Image Credits

Nikolai Okhlopkov (Vasily Buslayev), Valentina Ivashova (Olga Danilovna) and Andrei Abrikosov (Gavrilo Oleksich) in Aleksande r Nevsky (1938): Sergei Eisenstein (director), Mosfilm, © The Pratt Family Collection (photograph), Fair Use
The Dublin City C oat of Arms: Charles J McCarthy (artist), City Hall, Dublin, Fenian Swine (photographer), Public Domain
Vasily Buslayev: Pavel Dmitrievich Bazhenov (artist), ГМПИ, Ippolitov-Ivanov State Musical and Pedagogical Institute, Public Domain
Petr Škrabánek: Copyright Unknown, Fair Use
Vasily Buslayev: Valentin Mikhailovich Khodov (artist), State Museum of Palekh Art, Fair Use
Dmitriy Zolotukhin in the Title Role of Vasiliy Buslayev (198 3 ): Gennadiy Vasilev (director), © Gorky Film Studio, Fair Use

Finnegans Wake - A Prescriptive Guide

07 August 2022