catwl twis: Catalyst.
diwyt: Divided. The divvy roof at How Fents is a roof on poles, open on all sides, where meat from the hunt or anything that has been gathered or gained is divided.
[Master] Chaynjis: The big transformations; also means infinity and the mysterious origins of everything. When Brooder Walker dies he goes ‘into the dark, into the 1st knowing and the Master Chaynjis.’
nebyul: Used only with ‘eye’ to mean nebulae; the flaming nebyul eye sees everything.
nexter: One who is next in authority or command.
No rumpa no dum / No zantigen Eusa cum: No trumpets, no drums / No dancing when Eusa comes. (See also Notes for May 28, 1974)
oansome: That thing ‘whats in us lorn and loan and oansome’ is forlorn, alone, and all on its lonesome own.
Parments: Parliament’s, as in ‘Tarments in the mud you know.’
pirntowt: Printout.
Plomercy: Diplomacy; looking for mutual accommodation. In some cases Plomercy is a plea for mercy. When the old dog makes his Plomercy he isn’t negotiating—he’s been crowded out of his pack and he’s favouring Riddley with his death.
poasyum: ‘Some poasyum’ means symposium.
reqwyrt: Required, but has a little more weight depending on the context. Also resonates with ‘helping the qwirys,’ which derives from the current formula ‘helping the police with their enquiries.’ Helping the qwirys on someone in Riddley’s time usually leaves bruises. ‘Time and reqwyrt’ in the Eusa show talk means that the crowd will go down that road with Eusa as many times as necessary. Helping him (bruiselessly) with his enquiries.
revver newit: ‘[T]hey all ready ben Shorsday Week which they revver newit the fraction for the Ram… . ‘Translation: ‘[T]hey [Goodparley and Orfing] had already been here in the week of the shortest day of the year when they raised the tax to be paid to the Ram… . ‘The word ‘revenue’ has been broken down into ‘revver new’ and is used here as a transitive verb. The Ram has revved up the tax engine to demand a new tax.
rizlas: Cigarette papers (made at the local paper mill). In 1974 the widely used brand in England was Rizla.
Sarvering Gallack Seas: Sovereign Galaxies. Gallack Seas would suggest to Riddley’s people sky-seas that might be crossed by boats in the air. Readers might think of galleons, carracks. ‘Sarvering’ is the participle of ‘sarver,’ which hints at severing, cutting off something for oneself, saving it for one’s people, claiming a territory.
sess men: Assessment men, assessors.
sharna pax: Sharpen the axe. There is some irony in this for the U.K. reader because ‘Pax!’ (’Peace!’) has for generations been a schoolboy expression (in public-school circles) of surrender that ends a fight. The sound here is important—’Sharna pax and get the poal when the Ardship of Cambry comes out of the hoal!’ falls naturally into a chant.
suching waytion: Situation; such is the way things are.
thinet: Pronounced thigh-net, means twined. ‘We thinet hans roun the fire’; harks back to ‘thine’ in hymns.
wotcher: A cockney greeting; derives from ‘What cheer?’ Here it means ‘Wotcher [What have you] got for me?’ This part of the pre-show ritual is called the wotcher.
wud: Means wood as in forest; also ‘would,’ intention, volition or desire. The hart of the wud is where Eusa saw the stag who was the hart of the wud. The heart of the would is also the essence of one’s wanting, the heart of one’s deepest desire. The crypt in Canterbury Cathedral with its stone trees is the spiritual hart of the wud.
Notes
I found that I needed to write a lot of notes in order to get my head around Riddley’s world. Here are a few of them. I did some drawings of Punch too, for the same reason. I’ve reprinted the one that worked best for me.
28 May 1974
[Riddley when he was still thinking and speaking in standard English.]
No rumpa,
No dums,
No zanting
When Eusa comes.
Street Rhyme
They sing it now the same as I did when I was a child, hopping slowly and chalking the pavement: the stag and the cross and the ship, the river, the wolf and the lion and the rest of it. The Garble Time is long past, everything goes by its straight name now but the children still sing it the old way. The straight rhyme is:
No trumpets,
No drums,
No dancing
When Eustace comes.
Rumpa by now has come to mean any kind of vigorous noise-making. Zanting is not only dancing but running, jumping, fooling and larking about in general. Children are sifters and shapers, the words they keep are mostly useful ones.
30 May 1974
Eusa wants to make and he wants to unmake. He wants to live and he wants to die. He wants to “win” and he wants to “lose.” He wants to stay and he wants to go.
Innana’s descent
A long time after the devastation the Eustace pictures and the sparse text of the legends are found. In time the name of Jesus stops being used. He is just a man with outstretched arms. The idea of a man being pulled apart develops, and with it the idea of the coming together of what has been pulled apart, the dynamic blending of opposing forces.
Eusa as a space voyager. At the same time of the book people are living at a primitive level. There is in them a collective memory of a time when man could do anything, go to the stars even. Collectively they are like the individual who blots out what is too painful in his memory. Their minds turn away in fear from man’s past accomplishments and the disaster that came from them.
The race of man haunted by the thought of what it used to be, ashamed of what they are, afraid of what they were.
The myth:
Eusa works for Mr Devvil. He destroys the world, looks for a new one with his wife and sons. Sees little man pulled apart. He tries to get away on an airship. The Captain says money is no good any more, takes Eusa’s wife and leaves Eusa behind.
Eusa wanders with his two sons.
The action of the play:
Eusa with Mr Devvil. War and bursting fire.
Eusa leaves Mr Devvil, looks for new place, sees little man pulled apart by dogs, doesn’t help him. Little man says, “My turn now, your turn later.”
3 June 1974
The Connexion Man
Sometimes I just sit and bang my head with my fist. My head is harder than my fist. I know there’s more to being human than what we have. I know there was a time when people could think better. I’m a stronger thinker than most of them here. I think in pictures that change faster and I think in words as well, often for long stretches without pictures. A lot of my thoughts are on things that there aren’t any pictures for. Most of the people here, most of their thoughts you could draw a picture of. Most of mine you couldn’t. I have that. Sometimes that’s what I have to do, think of what I do have. Another thing I have more than others, I can think how things would be that haven’t been that way yet. Like the overwater thing. The river was too wide, we didn’t have anything we could put across it that was long enough. There wasn’t any tree that we could cut down that would be long enough. It came into my mind how you could do it with ropes. Two ropes across the river and other short ropes slung between them, hanging down in a belly. Then we laid short pieces of wood tied together all the way across the river in those belly-ropes. Everybody laughed when they saw it, nobody had ever thought of hanging an overwater thing. Everybody said, “How did it come into your mind?” Well, it just did. I’ve never looked at any pictures of what was before. Maybe I will sometime.
There was more, there was more, I know there was more. Sometimes you find bits and pieces of things, mostly you throw them away. Bad luck. Pieces of paper with words and pictures that crumble into ash and blow away. Paper, what about that? There’s a paper mill in Cambry. I haven’t seen it but that’s where the rizlas come from. Well, they say you have to have something for trading, you can’t always carry everything with you. So they have rizl
as and matches and tobacco as the trading things mostly. But how come they know how to make paper and matches? All that kind of thing is bad luck. What was I thinking, yes, the more. Starboats, you hear about that. Sometimes someone will draw a picture in the dirt to show what they looked like. The boats we use on the river are made of skins stretched on bent wood frames. People say what if there were starboats, that doesn’t mean they were more or better long ago. They were just different. But if you look up at the sky, look at the stars, what a load of cobblers that is. Just different! To think out a boat to go to the stars! To make one, to actually go in it!
There’s a shame I feel. Draw a picture of that, hey? We live in huts and holes in the ground and our minds are slow. People know there was more but they’re ashamed and they say we’re just different from the people long ago. The gulls on the beach, I think a long time ago those were flying birds, not just walking ones like now. I’m sure of it although I don’t know how I’m sure. They must feel something like the way I do.
VIEWS OF PUNCH
Footnotes
1 Iwl write down the Eusa Story when I come to it.
A Note on the Author
Russell Hoban (1925-2011) was the author of many extraordinary novels including Turtle Diary, Angelica Lost and Found and his masterpiece, Riddley Walker. He also wrote some classic books for children including The Mouse and his Child and the Frances books. Born in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, USA, he lived in London from 1969 until his death.
By the Same Author
NOVELS
The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz
Kleinzeit
Turtle Diary
Pilgermann
The Medusa Frequency
Fremder
Mr Rinyo-Clacton’s Offer
Angelica’s Grotto
Amaryllis Night and Day
The Bat Tattoo
Her Name Was Lola
POETRY
The Pedalling Man
The Last of the Wallendas and Other Poems
COLLECTIONS
The Moment Under the Moment
FOR CHILDREN
The Mouse and His Child
The Frances Books
The Trokeville Way
First published in 1980 by Jonathan Cape
This electronic edition published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Copyright © 1980,1998 by Russell Hoban
Views of Punch by Russell Hoban
Introduction copyright © 2002 by Will Self
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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London WC1B 3DP
ISBN: 9781408834473
Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New York and Berlin
www.bloomsbury.com/russellhoban
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Contents
Map
Introduction
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Glossary
Notes
Footnotes
A Note on the Author
By the Same Author
Imprint
Riddley Walker Page 24