V.V.(9) Chapter Seven, part 1 - Notes, part 2

[Michael Perez]

     166.1  “Wren”
The following is from Tim Ware’s _GR_ site at:
http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/v/v-novel-f.html
“In his _The Fictional Labyrinths of Thomas Pynchon_ David Seed
writes: 
‘This particular act [Melanie L’Heuremaudit's impaling during the
ballet performance] relates back to the mythic significance of
Victoria Wren's name, the wren being described in  as 'the Lady of
Heaven's hen'. Frazer notes the custom of hunting the wren which
is killed and then carried aloft on the end of a pole. Pynchon
conflates Frazer and Stravinsky to produce a work which travesties
both and which contains neither mythic meaning, solemnity nor
transcendence." (p.107)
>From _The Golden Bough_: 
"By many European peoples [...] the wren has been designated the
king, the little king, the king of birds, the hedge king, and so forth,
and has been reckoned amongst those birds which it is extremely
unlucky to kill. [...] In Scotland the wren is called "the Lady of
Heaven's hen [...]" 
"the custom of annually killing the wren has prevailed widely both
in this country [Ireland] and in France. In the Isle of Man down to
the eighteenth century the custom was observed on Christmas Eve,
or rather Christmas morning. On the twenty-fourth of December,
towards evening, all the servants got a holiday; they did not go to
bed all night, but rambled about till the bells rang in all the
churches at midnight. When prayers were over, they went to hunt
the wren, and having found one of these birds they killed it and
fastened it to the top of a long pole with its wings extended.
Thus they carried it in procession to every house chanting the
following rhyme: 
'We hunted the wren for  the Bobbin,
We hunted the wren for Jack of the Can,
We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin,
We hunted the wren for every one.'

[...]
The worshipful animal is killed with special solemnity once a year;
and before or immediately after death he is promenaded from door
to door, that each of his worshippers may receive a portion of the
divine virtues that are supposed to emanate from the dead or dying
god." (pp. 621-23) [emphasis added]

>From _The White Goddess_:
"By his successful defiance of the ecclesiastics Robin became such
a popular hero that he was later regarded as the founder of the
Robin Hood religion [...] 'Hood' (or  or Hud) meant 'log'--the log
put at the back of the fire--and it was in this log, cut from the
sacred oak, that Robin had once been believed to reside. Hence
'Robin Hood's steed', the wood-louse which ran out when the Yule
log was burned. In the popular superstition Robin himself escaped
up the chimney in the form of a Robin and, when Yule ended,
went out as Belin against his rival Bran, or Saturn--who had been
'Lord of Misrule' at the Yule-tide revels. Bran hid from pursuit in
the ivy-bush disguised as a Gold Crest Wren; but Robin always
caught and hanged him. Hence the song: 
      'Who'll hunt the Wren?' cries Robin the Bobbin.
Since Maid Marian had been acting as Lady of Misrule in the
Yule-tide revels and deserting Robin for his rival, it is easy to see
how she earned a bad name for ." (p.397) [emphasis added]

     166.31  “Fabian Society”
“British socialist society. An outgrowth of the Fellowship of the
New Life (founded 1883 under the influence of Thomas
Davidson), the society was developed the following year by Frank
Podmore and Edward Pease. George Bernard Shaw and Sidney
Webb joined soon after this and became its outstanding exponents.
The group achieved recognition with the publication of Fabian
Essays (1889), with contributions by Shaw, Webb, Annie Besant,
and Graham Wallas. The Fabians were opposed to the
revolutionary theory of Marxism, holding that social reforms and
socialistic “permeation” of existing political institutions would
bring about the natural development of socialism. Repudiating the
necessity of violent class struggle, they took little notice of trade
unionism and other labor movements until Beatrice Potter (who
later married Sidney Webb) joined the group. They subsequently
helped create (1900) the unified Labour Representation
Committee, which evolved into the Labour party. The Labour party
adopted their main tenets, and the Fabian Society remains as an
affiliated research and publicity agency.”
from The Columbia Encyclopedia at 
http://www.bartleby.com/65/fa/FabianSo.html

     171.23  “after we’d entered Khartoum”
Grant tells us in the _Companion_  that Pynchon got this a bit
wrong since the relief unit did not arrive until two and one half
days after the massacre.  By the time they arrived, Khartoum was
an occupied city.  However, it may be intentional on Pynchon’s
part and *Godolphin’s* stress-addled mind may have been
confused or attempting to rewrite his personal history.
“(March 13, 1884-Jan. 26, 1885), the Madhi’s siege of Khartoum,
capital of the Sudan, which was defended by an Egyptian garrison
under the British general Charles George (‘Chinese’) Gordon. The
Mahdi's capture of the city and the slaughter of its defenders,
including Gordon, caused a storm of public protest against the
alleged inaction of the British government under Lord Salisbury.
“The British government had become the prime European support
of the khedive of Egypt but sought to remain aloof from the affairs
of the Egyptian-ruled Sudan, especially after the Mahdi's tribesmen
rose in revolt beginning in 1881. In early 1884, following a series
of Mahdist victories, the British only reluctantly acquiesced in the
khedive's selection of Gordon as governor-general of the Sudan.
Gordon reached the capital of Khartoum on Feb. 18, 1884, and had
succeeded in evacuating 2,000 women, children, and sick and
wounded before the Mahdi's forces closed in on the town.
“From that time, the British government's refusal of all of Gordon's
requests for aid, together with Gordon's own obdurate refusal to
retreat or evacuate further, made disaster virtually inevitable. The
Siege of Khartoum commenced on March 13, but not until August,
under the increasing pressure of British public opinion and Queen
Victoria's urgings, did the government at last agree to send a relief
force under General Garnet Joseph Wolseley, setting out from
Wadi Halfa (October 1884). After learning of two victories won by
Wolseley's advancing forces, the Mahdi's troops were on the verge
of raising the siege; but the further unaccountable delay of the
relief force encouraged them to make a final, successful assault at
a gap in the ramparts caused by the falling of the Nile's waters. The
city's garrison was butchered, Gordon with it. The forerunners of
the relief force, consisting of river gunboats under Lord Charles
Beresford, arrived off the city on January 28, two days too late,
and, after a brief gun duel with the Mahdist defenders, retreated
downriver.
“Soon after, the Mahdi abandoned Khartoum and made
Omdurman his capital.”

from the entry for the “Siege of Khartoum” at:
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/6/0,5716,46346+1+452
88,00.html


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