I’m back from my trip to Dublin and will put up some pictures on this blog soon. But until then, here’s a small post about a phrase that’s been in my mind.

Right at the beginning of the book, the narrator says of the legendary Finnegan,

His scutschum fessed, with archers strung, helio, of the second.

Even on a first read, I recognized the Latin “scutum” (shield). This is his coat of arms. I did not know, as the annotations later taught me, that “escutcheon” is specifically a “shield on which a coat of arms is depicted.” I also did not know that “fesse” in heraldry refers to a “horizontal band across the middle of the escutcheon.”

So, across the middle of his coat of arms are a bunch of archers with bows strung (these are the Three Soldiers who attack HCE). In heraldry, “of the second” means “of the second colour in the description of a heraldic object (i.e. argent).” So the archers, like the “ancillars” (female servants, who correspond to the two girls in the Park) of the previous line, are argent. “Helio” is either “He-lion” (to match the “hegoak” or he-goat of the previous line) or the sun, helios, as HCE in his St. Patrick form is associated with the rising sun of morning at the end of the text (see also Kevin/Shaun in the final chapter, depicted as a stained glass window through which sunlight pours).

[also, Helium is the second element…perhaps the text here is anticipating how HCE will split into two]

I didn’t know that “fesses” is French for “buttocks” or that “fesser” is French for “spank” or that “archers” might refer to the German “Arsch” for “buttocks.” Oh, Joyce. Well, HCE (especially in his form of Russian General) did show his backside to the Soldiers (this is also a reference to Moses beholding the backside of God in the Old Testament, along with the sons of Noah beholding the nakedness of their father).

Anyway, here was the thought that motivated this post: “scutschum” reminds me of “skutch,” slang for “to annoy.” It apparently is Italian-American slang, and comes from the Italian  “scocciare.”

“Scutschum” sounds like “skutch’em,” which is what HCE does to others in Dublin. The man is a pest, a bother, an insect-like creature (Earwicker = earwig). And “fessed” sounds like “fest,” as in party or celebration. HCE’s wake is a party for a skutch, or a party in which the people of the fallen world skutch each other and thereby resurrect HCE, the Ultimate Skutch, in their own actions. “Fessed” also reminds me of “confess,” as in “fess up.” What is Finnegans Wake if not a record of the dreamer’s mind “fessing up” to how he’s been a skutch (and how he’s been skutched by others)? At the same time, dreams obscure the unconscious material that they reveal. So the secrets being “fessed” are simultaneously a shield (scutum) to protect the dreamer from fully confronting his guilt and anxiety, at least all at once.

As ever, I am thrilled at how much depth there is even in a handful of nonsense words in this book.