NPPF Comm3: Misc notes (4)

[Jasper Fidget]

p. 130
"the huge oils of Eystein"

There's the obvious pun on eye and painting, but also Eystein is the name of
several kings celebrated in Norse sagas.

http://www.gersey.org/heathenry/lore/heimskringla/king_inge/

Archbishop Eystein Erlendsson was an architect who commissioned and designed
the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway (inaugurated 1152/3), and a
translator of the writings of St. Olaf (/Passio et Miracula beatu Olavi/),
the manuscript for which was found at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, England,
where Eystein had spent several years in exile (1180-1183).  

http://www.nd.edu/~acasad/papers/THEO_673_5.pdf

See also note to line 12.

Links also to steinmann and buchstein.

p. 130
"trompe l'oeil"

"Deception of the eye; (an) optical illusion; esp. a painting or object
intended to give an illusion of reality" (OED).

The joke here of course is that the illusion of the walnut kernel hides
nothing more than a walnut kernel, so the real illusion is the assumption
that it signifies something more, similar to Shade's mountain.  There's an
inverse duality between the hunt for the crown jewels and Shade's search for
something beyond life, the former digging inward and destroying, the latter
peering outward and creating.

p. 131
"an iron curtain had gone up"

Implying the "iron curtain" of the Soviet Union, a phrase coined by
Churchill on March 5, 1946, considered the inauguration of the Cold War.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/churchill-iron.html

p. 131
"nenuphars"

"A water lily; esp. (a) the common white water lily, Nymphaea alba; (b) the
yellow water lily, Nuphar luteum" (OED).

p. 131
"half past nine"
9:30 doubled becomes 18 - 80 (half mathematically, half visually -- using
both halves of the brain here)

p. 132 (and elsewhere)
"Thuleans"

Thule (pronounced too-lee): The Farthest Land; a geographical region
believed to be six days' sail north of Britain, the most northern region of
the world.  Also the northwestern peninsula of Greenland pointing towards
Canada, and a town there.  Site of a WWII United States Navy base.

Photos of Thule: http://jackstephensimages.com/Merchant/index.html
Map: http://jackstephensimages.com/Merchant/mappages/map2.html

See VN's "Ultima Thule"

http://www.libraries.psu.edu/iasweb/nabokov/wultima.htm

p. 132
"Mt. Kron"
German for "crown."  Also implies time, but maybe more significant is that
Kronenberg Castle in Copenhagen was once known as Elsinore (the setting for
some famous soliloquies).

http://www.dbtravel.co.uk/baltic.htm

See Kronberg in the Index (p. 310).

Jasper Fidget
[probably one more after this]