V.V. (12) "an old Englishman named Godolphin"

[jbor]

     "I hope I don't disturb you," Godolphin said. Mondaugen shrugged,
    keeping his eyes in a constant sweep over what he guessed to be the
    horizon. "I enjoy it on watch," the Englishman continued, "it's the
    only peace there is to this eternal celebration." He was a retired
    sea captain, in his seventies, Mondaugen would guess. "I was in Cape
    Town, trying to raise a crew for the Pole."

     Mondaugen's eyebrows went up. Embarrassed, he began to pick at his
    nose. "The South Pole?"

     "Of course. Rather awkward if it were the other, haw-haw.

     "And I'd heard of a stout boat in Swakopmund. But of course she was too
    small. Hardly do for the pack ice. Foppl was in town, and invited me out
    for a weekend. I imagine I needed a rest." (241.9-23)

Godolphin's sudden appearance on Mondaugen's moonlit watch is indeed
disturbing, on many levels I think, and the unusual present tense of the old
man's greeting foregrounds this multiple layering. It would, no doubt, have
been extrememly disturbing for Stencil to hear of Godolphin from Mondaugen,
after the previous appearances of his name in Sidney Stencil's journals. But
does Godolphin's presence at the villa also "disturb" the *reader's* prior
conceptions regarding old Hugh, Foppl, the significance of the earlier
Vheissu/ Sth Pole stories et. al.

Q. Why did Foppl invite Godolphin to the villa? Is there a hint of pleasant
familiarity, camaraderie even, between Foppl and Godolphin and, if so (or
even if not), what does their relationship signify?

Q. What to make of Godolphin's disturbingly enigmatic prophesy that
"Everyone has an Antarctic."

best