NPPF - Foreword - Notes (2)

[Jasper Fidget]

Page 18:
"[Sybil] and her changeful moods".  The name Sybil can be found in Virgil;
she tells Aeneus how to get to Hades, gives him a leaf from a tree.  Apollo
made her immortal but she ran from him; he was angered, so he allowed her to
age forever -- she got older and older, smaller and smaller, until some boys
put her into a bottle.

Sybil also shows up in Norse myth in the _Elder Edda_: she tells Odin about
the creation of the gods and the world's end -- Ragnarök, Götterdämmerung --
when the witch of the Iron Wood breeds the wolf that eats the sun.  (Sybil
Shade's unmarried name is Irondell.)  (See C.247, p. 171.)

Page 19:
"not a reticulation of deadly drafts"
"reticulation:  1. A network; an arrangement of interlacing lines etc.
resembling a net; reticulated structure or appearance; Photography (the
formation of) a network of wrinkles or cracks in a photographic emulsion.
2. A network of pipes used in irrigation and water supply. Chiefly Austral.
& NZ."

Page 19-20:
Goldsworth, Wordsmith (see C.47-48, p. 82): twist these into Goldsmith and
Wordsworth -- VN taught literature in Goldwin Smith Hall at Cornell; 18th
century goldsmith: Shade is an expert on 18th century poets (see also Judge
Goldsworth page 19 & page 267; Wordsmith College page 20); William
Wordsworth: an important poet in this book; Cornell has a large Wordsmith
collection.

Page 20:
"his abundant gray hair looked berimed in the sun"
"berime, berhyme: Compose rhymes about; lampoon in rhyme."

Page 20:
"A lane curving around the slight eminence on which my rented castle stood"
puts Kinbote slightly above Shade (fitting for a King).  

Page 21:
"the rubicund convives"
"rubicund: 1. Inclined to redness; red.  
   
M. Amis From the country, where everything was good: the sack of wheat, the
rubicund apple-rack.  

 2. Of the face, complexion, etc.: reddish, flushed, highly coloured, esp.
as the result of good living. Of a person: having such a complexion.
   
I. Rankin A rubicund man, hot and jacketless.., was dispensing the drinks."

"convive: A member of a company who eat together, a fellow feaster."

Page 21:
"lest a serious discussion of literature degenerate into mere facetiation."
presumably from "facetious"?  The OED lists the correct noun form as
"facetiousness":
"1. Of manners etc.: polished, urbane.

 2. Given to or characterized by pleasantry or joking, now esp. where
inappropriate or trivializing; witty, humorous, amusing.
   
J. Cheever The first was a facetious essay, attacking the modern toilet
seat. "

Page 21:
"hoary forelock"
"hoary: 1. (Of hair) grey or white with age; grey-haired; ancient,
venerable. Also, old and trite."
 
"forelock: 1. A lock of hair growing just above the forehead."

Page 21:
"was an extramural lady on crutches"
"extramural: 1. Situated or occurring outside the walls or boundaries of a
town or city.

 2. Pertaining to or designating instruction given under the auspices of a
university or college but intended for people other than its students."

Page 22:
"Parthenocissus Hall": Parthenon, the main temple of Athena build around 400
BCE; and Narcissus, a Greek myth about a beautiful dude who fell in love
with his own reflection and couldn't stop looking at it in a pool.  

I also hear the word parthenogenesis here: "Biology. Reproduction from a
gamete without fertilization, esp. as a normal process in invertebrates and
lower plants. Formerly also, asexual reproduction, as by fission or budding"

Page 22:
"powerful Kramler": presumably referring to Daimler: a German engineer --
Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900) -- who together with Karl Benz (1844-1929) and
others created the first lightweight, high-speed internal combustion engine
for a land vehicle; and an automobile manufacturer: Daimler-Benz (now
Daimler-Chrysler).

Page 25:
"The Hally Vally" and "confusing Odin's Hall with the title of a Finnish
epic": The Norse Valhalla, home of the gods where those they favor may go
when they die, linked with the Finnish Kalevala epic about the folk hero
Kaleva.

Page 26:
"Hogarthian tippler": 
"hogarthian: Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the English satirical
painter and caricaturist William Hogarth (1697–1764) or his style of
painting."

William Hogarth (1697-1764), an English artist whose engravings satirized
the affectations of time.
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/spec/hogarth/main.html

"tippler: A person who tipples; a habitual drinker of alcohol, esp. in small
quantities."

Page 29:
"Oct. 19, 1959, Cedarn, Utana"  Utana is a synthesis of Utah and Montana (on
the border with Idoming -- see 182) and also rings with Ultima (as in Ultima
Thule).  Kinbote is informed by the Shade's (p. 182) that they intend to
vacation here after the completion of John's poem.