FW 1.6a --his coat of arms tells his story--

1.6a: Of the first was he to bare arms and a name: Wassaily Booslaeugh of Riesengeborg...
1.6b: Hootch is for husbandman handling his hoe. Hohohoho, Mister Finn, you're going to be Mister...


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synopsis: his crest of heraldry — his fate

FDV: "The first was he to bare arms and the name. His creast a hegoat, horrid, horned. His shield, fessed, helio of the second." →
"The first was he to bare arms and the name. His creast in vert with ancillars: a hegoat, horrid, horned. His shield, fessed, helio with archers strung, of the second."

there's two themes strongly associated with Leopold Bloom that may be introduced here, ambiguously:
HCE as cuckold: huroldry, ancillars, horned
HCE as victim: troublant, poursuivant, horrid, fessed


Of the first was he to bare arms and a name: Wassaily Booslaeugh of Riesengeborg.

Hamlet V.1.27-35: 'CLOWN:... There is no ancient gentlemen but gard'ners, ditchers, and grave-makers. They hold up Adam's profession... 'A was the first that ever bore arms... The Scripture says Adam digg'd. Could he dig without arms?'

Virgil: Aeneid: (opens) 'I sing of arms and the man'

archaic wassail: a salutation used when drinking to someone's health, the liquor thus drunk
Irish uasal: Mr, gentleman

Vasily Buslaev aka Vasili Buslaevich: hero-warrior-giant of 15thC Russian ballad cycle of Novgorod (Vasily derives from Greek basileus: king)

vassal, boss

boos/ laugh
Dutch boos: angry, evil, malicious (cf 'boast')
Irish sliabh: mountain (eg Slieve Bloom)

there was a folklorist named Buslaev

Riesengebirge: German giant (riesen) mountain range (gebirge) on Czech-Polish border famous for waterfall

German geboren: born

(it's remarkable/atypical that this prominently positioned name: "Wassaily Booslaeugh of Riesengeborg" is so unfamiliar and literally far-fetched)


His crest of huroldry, in vert with ancillars, troublant, argent,

coat of arms
Vico assigned heraldry to be the language of the heroic age

heraldry: crest: a figure borne above the shield in a coat of arms

German Hure: whore
cuckoldry?

heraldry: vert = green
invert = gay

Latin ancillae: handmaidens, maidservants (two female supporters on the Dublin coat of arms

antlers? (cuckoldry)

French troublant: perturbing, disturbing, alluring

heraldry: argent: silver, white

urgent?


a hegoak, poursuivant, horrid, horned.

which pronunciation? he-goat or hedge oak

oak tree (on the O'Reilly of East Breffny coat of arms)

French poursuivant: suitor, pursuer
pursuivant: a junior heraldic officer

AngloIrish horrid horn: fool ('Horrid-horn, a term of reproach amongst the street Irish, meaning a fool, or half-witted fellow, from the Anglo-Irish omadhaun, Irish and Gaelic amadan')

obsolete horned: cuckolded


His scutchum, fessed, with archers strung, helio, of the second.

heraldry: escutcheon: the shield on which a coat of arms is depicted
scrotum?
FW1 had "scutschum" (no comma)

heraldry: fesse: a third of the field, enclosed by two horizontal lines
French fesses: buttocks
French fesser: to spank
first

handmaidens/archers = maggies/ soldiers (important sigla)

German Arsch: arse

strung: fitted with strings; tense

he-lion (lions on the Finnegan coat of arms)

Greek hêlios: the sun
helium is the second element of the periodic table

heraldry: 'of the second': of the second colour in the description of a heraldic object (ie argent)


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