Skírnir - 01.04.2009, Blaðsíða 73

SKÍRNIR
FORLESTUR AÐ FINNEGANS WAKE
71
með hinum íburðarmiklu kenningum Snorra-Eddu (þótt hér, sem
víða annars staðar, sé uppruni hennar sagður norskur). Aðferð
Joyce, segir Budgen, einskorðast þó ekki við tómar umritanir þar
sem heiti og merking liggja hlið við hlið, aðskilin af ósýnilegu
jöfnunarmerki svo að segja, heldur gengur Joyce lengra en svo:
Necessarily, for every one poetic device of the skald Joyce must have a
hundred. The kenning was extensive. In every case the theme was
expanded. Odin was the Wielder of Gungni; Thor, Hrungni’s bane, God
of Goats, Hallower of Earth; Sleep, a parliament of dreams; the eye, a
cauldron of tears; a ship, a plank bear, and so on. The object was imagi-
natively reborn in the light of each new name. The universality of Joyce’s
theme dictates an intensive technique — a greater density of word tex-
ture. Meanings can no longer lie side by side. Here they overlap and there
into one word he crowds a whole family of them. A letter added or left
out — the sound of a vowel or consonant modified — and a host of asso-
ciations is admitted within the gates [sbr. ofangreinda umfjöllum um ljóð
ísaks Harðarsonar]. And one letter may stand pregnant with meaning as
a rune. (Budgen 1972: 39)
Áhrif íslenskra fornbókmennta á þessa „Eyrawiggla sögu“ (48.16)
Joyce eru reyndar ljós af sjálfum texta hennar, enda hér og þar
vikið að goðsögnum og bókmenntum okkar Islendinga:
HUMP (Mr Makeall Gone, read the sayings from Laxdalesaga in the pro-
gramme about King Ericus of Schweden and the spirit’s whispers in his
magical helmet). (220.24-26)
Þá virðist bókin á einum stað sögð skilgetið afkvæmi Snorra Sturlu-
sonar:
she chauffed her fuesies at my Wigan’s jewels while she skalded her mer-
meries on my Snorryson’s Sagos. (551.3-4)
Landsins sjálfs er einnig getið nokkrum sinnum á síðum
Finnegans Wake, til að mynda hér:
Ann alive, the lisp of her, ‘twould grig mountains whisper her, and the
bergs of Iceland melt in waves of fire. (139.19-20)
Efalaust myndi nákvæmnislestur á Finnegans Wake leiða fleiri til-
vitnanir til íslands og íslenskra bókmennta í ljós. En við skulum