So, Stephen and Co. are sitting, eating and chit chatting. Buck had just asked if Mother Grogan was in the Mabinogion or the Upanishads. I think Buck was setting Stephen up for some Irish word game or joke, you know, like they do, coming up with limericks off the top of their heads and that sort of thing. Stephen comess back with a solid "I fancy it did not exist in or out of the Mabinogion. Mother Grogan was, one imagines, a kinswoman of Mary Ann" Buck is please with Stephen's verbal slam dunk. Then sings to a loaf of bread:
For old Mary Ann
She doesn't care a damn
But hising up her petticoats....
That's where it stops, but you don't really need to dig to deep to know what the last line is.
Ugh... I can't stand it, starting a little jingle but stopping right at the good part. Just like when evil Christopher Loyd does the ol' shave and a haircut bit. knowing it would draw Roger Rabbit out. No one can resist the urge to belt out that last little line.
Anyway. I think all that really happened in that exchange was a declaration that Mother Grogan was better fit to be in the folktales of low brow humor than the scholarly works of highfalutin professors.
Enter the milk lady. I'm not sure I like their attitudes toward her, or more specifically Buck's attitude towards her.
Milk lady: "That's a lovely morning, sir, Glory be to God"
Buck Mulligan: "To whom?" glancing at her "Ah, to be sure!"
We already found out his views on metaphysical things, I think he was talking down to here.
Stephen watched this all take place, then there is a pretty awesome paragraph that I want to pick apart.
"He watched her pour into the measure and thence into the jug rich white milk, not hers. Old shrunken paps. She poured again a measureful and a tilly. Old and secret she had entered from a morning world, maybe a messenger. She praised the goodness of the milk pouring it out. Crouching by a patient cow at daybreak in the lush field. a witch on her toadstool, her wrinkled fingers quick at the squirting dugs. They lowed about her whom they knew, dewsilky cattle. Silk of the kine and poor old woman, names given in old times a wandering crone, lowly form of an immortal serving her conqueror and her gay betrayer, their common cuckquean, a messenger from the secret morning to serve or to upbraid, whether he could not tell: but scorned to beg her favor"
We are comparing this, in my opinion, nice old lady to being a witch, even as she gives the boys extra milk. "Old and secret she had entered from a morning world, maybe a messenger" what does this mean? My attention go straight to "a morning world" Which makes me think of Morning Star, brings me to Lucifer. Coming from a moderately religious upbringing I heard a lot of names tossed around to be synonymous with the devil, Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Ktp. I wasn't sure how Morning star got in the mix. So I looked it up! (By the way, I donate to wikipedia and you should to!) .there I said it.
Anyway, turns out Lucifer is the Latin word for Morning Star. It's also a Dungeon & Dragons weapon that deals 1d10 damage. The Morningstar, not Lucifer.
"Old and secret she had entered from a morning world, maybe a messenger" and old and secret messenger from a morning world. I'm thinking Venus, its called the Morning Star when it appear right before daybreak. It is indeed a world. If you would consider "world" to be the same thing as a "planet". That's an interesting thought, and Venus would fit nicely with the mythology theme, was Venus a Roman god? Hold on... Ha! She was! We've already had a good serving of Roman gods, and Venus is a nice contrast with the "wandering crone" picture that we have painted for us.
Maybe it's slightly more literal, maybe she comes from a morning world. Meaning she wakes up early, before the people she serves.
"a witch on her toadstool, her wrinkled finger quick at the squirting dugs. They lowed about her whom they knew... Silk of the kine and poor old woman, names given her in old times. A wondering crone. lowly form of an immortal serving her conqueror ...
"lowly form of an immortal", maybe this woman, partly represents a woman from a newly conquered Ireland, and is now a slave to her new christian masters. Maybe this woman is representing a witch in the more common way as in talking to animals, "The lowed about her whom they knew"
But who is the gay betrayer? I dunno, I think it has to do with some Irish/British history which I have already spouted off more than I have business too.
Stephen is still having his inner monologue. He imagines, or maybe she really is treating Buck nicer, because he is studying medicine, and that lines up with the old lady pagan character that Stephen created he calls him her bonesetter, her Medicineman. While at the same time, is treating Stephen a bit more hostile because he is studying to be a priest.
By the way, I just saw The Wickerman last night, and I am fully aware of the influence it is having on me right now.
You should watch it though, great movie.
Okay, all of this is fine, but this is throwing me through a loop:
"A wandering crone, lowly form.. blah blah blah..., a messenger from the secret morning. To serve or to upbraid, whether he could not tell: But scorned to bed her favour."
let's reword this to something I can grasp better.
A old lady with a message, who has been secretly awake since early morning milking her cows. To serve or to find fault in someone, possibly Stephen, either of which he could not figure out: but he refused to try to make her like him.
I've never figured out what message we are talking about. I don't know, but the words have been rearranged into something that my densa kapo can fumble through, hopefully without ruining the point he was trying to make.
An old lady, who Stephen views as a pagan has shown up. he assumes she is there to either give them milk, or find something they are doing wrong. Stephen has decided that he will not cower to her, regardless of her intentions.
Finally, Haines is being an ass and flaunting his Gaelic language at her, just to prove that he is English and knows more about Ireland than the nice old milk lady.
Is that fair? I don't know much about Irish/British history. I know it's awkward, bloody and only squared (maybe?) up pretty recently. It's really important to repeat this: I don't want to presume I know more about a complicated subject than I tout. Just trying to learn and apply my own life's two cents to a new book.
Glossary
Prepuces - The Prepuce is the foreskin of the penis and also the fold of skin around to clitoris. There is also a thing called the Holy Prepuce. Besides being a kick ass name for a death metal band, it is also Jesus' foreskin. I guess its floating around somewhere, several churches in Europe claimed to have it at some point in time. Christians are fucking weird.
coming back to this. Come to find out in the Wickerman novel, burning foreskins would make it rain, I dunno if this come from some earlier pagan influence or just something made up for the story, in any event, circumcisions have been a thing in several religions over the years, but around here, it's mostly a Catholic, Jewish or something considered for medical/health thing
Paps - Maybe lady's nipple? "He watched here pour the measure and thence into the jug rich white milk, not hers. Old shrunken paps." Yeah probably a nipple.
Scorn - To feel contempt for or snub/ignore something. To refuse to do something because you are too proud.
Everyone has heard the cliché: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" I always assumed that if you wrong a woman, She is liable to cause a ruckus and make the wrong doers life a living hell. Now that I have figured out what scorned means, it has a different flavor to it. Hell hath no furry like a woman who isn't well liked, or Hell hath no fury like a woman who has snubbed or rudely ignored. I wonder if everyone already knew this.
Thence - From somewhere that has already been mentioned. or "as a consequence"
Tilly - An Irish word for adding a little something at no extra cost. The Cajuns call it "lagniappe". Tilly is also a nickname for Matilda, I think it's more popular in Germany.
Dewsilky- I think this might be word that J.J. came up with. It is used to describe Cattle. I choose to interpret it as "dew silky" as in the dew on the cattle made them appear silky.
Kine - Oh dang, I didn't know this. It's a group of cows as in "Oh dang, that kine of cattle just robed that bank! This town has really gone down hill ever Jimmy Carter took over."
Cuckquean - It's what you would would figure, the gender opposite of cuckhold, The female spouse of an unfaithful man. In biology, it's also used to refer to a woman who takes care of offspring that isn't hers.
Upbraid - to find fault is some one, to scold them
Bogswamp - Well, there's a bog and there's a swamp. You know its a swamp if it has tree growing everywhere. where as you know your in a bog because of the disappointing dirty quality. I think in this context, its just referring to the overall grossness of where they live.
Consumptive- Having a wasting disease like Tuberculosis, Which I think used to be call Consumption.
Shrive - an old term for going to confession.
And pissing like man!
