Burgess: "Joyce takes the historical character of Grace O'Malley who called at Howth Castle for a night's lodging and, because the family was at dinner, was refused entrance. In revenge she kidnapped the son of the Earl of Howth and kept him until the Earl promised never again to close the doors of the castle at mealtimes. Joyce makes the Earl into a Scandinavian- Jarl van Hoother- and gives him two sons, Tristopher and Hilary [Shem and Shaun?]... Grace O'Malley, who is called "the prankquean", is twice refused "a poss of porterpease" and, in revenge, kidnaps each son in turn, turning the "jiminy" or twin Tristopher into a blackguard and Hilary into a Cromwellian. The third time she comes, the door is shut in her face with a thunderclap hundred-letter word."
From Campbell: "In the present version [of the Grace O'Malley tale] the events are recounted thrice with modifications, after the manner of the fairy tale, and under the influence of the family pattern of HCE. There is also a play on three historical attempts to reshape the beliefs and institutions of Ireland: the Elizabethan Anglican, the Cromwellian Puritan, the modern socialist."
I especially love this section because when the prankquean is making her kidnappings and escapes it's always described as "... and she rain rain rain" -- ("she ran ran ran" but made all annalivvial--) and of course because this section is blessed with the second thunderword.
Burgess: "Joyce takes the historical character of Grace O'Malley who called at Howth Castle for a night's lodging and, because the family was at dinner, was refused entrance. In revenge she kidnapped the son of the Earl of Howth and kept him until the Earl promised never again to close the doors of the castle at mealtimes. Joyce makes the Earl into a Scandinavian- Jarl van Hoother- and gives him two sons, Tristopher and Hilary [Shem and Shaun?]... Grace O'Malley, who is called "the prankquean", is twice refused "a poss of porterpease" and, in revenge, kidnaps each son in turn, turning the "jiminy" or twin Tristopher into a blackguard and Hilary into a Cromwellian. The third time she comes, the door is shut in her face with a thunderclap hundred-letter word."
From Campbell: "In the present version [of the Grace O'Malley tale] the events are recounted thrice with modifications, after the manner of the fairy tale, and under the influence of the family pattern of HCE. There is also a play on three historical attempts to reshape the beliefs and institutions of Ireland: the Elizabethan Anglican, the Cromwellian Puritan, the modern socialist."
I especially love this section because when the prankquean is making her kidnappings and escapes it's always described as "... and she rain rain rain" -- ("she ran ran ran" but made all annalivvial--) and of course because this section is blessed with the second thunderword.