Hibernian Cultural Excursions: Recent Episodes
David Alexander
This podcast is dedicated to filling in some bits of background information which may be helpful in understanding some of the references that James Joyce makes in his novel Finnegans Wake.
Joyce was very interested in invented languages and used some words from Volapük and Esperanto in both Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, so we will explore some aspects of invented languages and what motivates their creators.
The letters HCE, which are the initials of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, recur throughout Finnegans Wake. This episode takes a look at the first appearance of HCE, Howth Castle and Environs. We will learn about the history of the castle and its owners and a little about what is going on nearby.
In this installment, we continue talking about rivers, which are thematically important to the Wake. We resume a discussion of how rivers change over time, talk about some of the ways one can get to know a river and then return to the great river of Dublin, the Liffey. This is the conclusion of the discussion of rivers begun in Part 1.
In this installment, we start talking about rivers, which are thematically important to the Wake. We begin with the great river of Dublin, the Liffey, and then consider other rivers from geographic, historical, and literary points of view. The discussion of rivers will be concluded in Part 2.
In our first installment, we will start with the song that the title refers to, which is also referred to more than once in the text. The song is also called “Finnegan’s Wake” and it is a comic ballad about an Irishman, Tim Finnegan, who dies and is reborn… after a fashion.