Introduction
This is a work in progress. Its purpose is to give readers of Finnegans Wake information not found in the latest edition (as of this writing, the fourth) of Roland McHugh’s Annotations to Finnegans Wake. My method has been to read through a given FW chapter, making notes, then to turn to McHugh’s Annotations, crossing out everything in my notes already included there, then to work with the remainder. Although of course I have learned from other sources over the years, McHugh has been my one benchmark throughout. Without doubt, some of the following will also be available elsewhere. Essential as Annotations is, McHugh’s decision to have the layout of each of its pages match that of the corresponding page in FW means that, sometimes, relevant material must be severely abbreviated. So, this. It can be an advantage to have more scope.
July 15, 2020: I have completed the second and in all probability my last page-by-page run-through of FW. Still, still a work in progress. Future changes will be a matter of review-and-correct. Also, let me see if some bells and whistles - links to pertinent pictures, songs, etc. - can be added to the program.
As is customary, entries are by page and line number, for instance 43.7: page 43, line 7. Because, in FW, the difference between what is a name and not, what is a quotation and not, is frequently blurred, I have followed a policy of minimizing capitalizations not in FW and of quotations marks for any words not directly from FW. Perhaps needless to say, this has required some judgment calls along the way, and I make no claim for any high degree of consistency.
Note for those reading this on a cell phone: clicking the three horizontal lines on the top left of the screen will give access to the rest - Books I, II, III, and IV.
Later news:
A number of sources are cited in the text – often given their full documentation on the first appearance, and, also often, abbreviated thereafter. To avoid any confusion, following will be a list of the most frequently occurring.
First, of course, “McHugh” refers to the fourth edition of Roland McHugh’s Annotations to Finnegans Wake, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Roland McHugh died in October of 2025, and I would like to think of my project as both supplement and tribute. Certainly the sentence occurring most often will be some version of “See McHugh.” My purpose is to enlarge on and add to, not duplicate, listings in Annotations, but in any number of cases that will involve checking with what McHugh recorded first. Any reader without access to Annotations may sometimes get the impression that my own offerings have a peculiar knack for missing the main point.
In alphabetical order, the other sources are as follows.
Sources:
AWN: A Wake Newslitter, published between 1965 and 1980
Bonheim: Helmut Bonheim, A Lexicon of the German in Finnegans Wake, edited by Lidia Vianu, available online
Brewer: Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Revised and Enlarged
Christiani: Dounia Bunis Christiani, Scandinavian Elements in Finnegans Wake
Luca Crispi and Sam Slote, How Joyce Wrote Finnegans Wake: A Chapter-by-Chapter Genetic Guide
Digger Dialects: W. H. Downing’s Digger Dialects, edited by J. M. Arthur and W. S. Ranson
Ellmann: Richard Ellmann, James Joyce: the revised (1984) edition
Encyclopedia Britannica: published 1911, eleventh edition
Epstein: E. L. Epstein, A Guide Through Finnegans Wake
Genetic Joyce Studes, available online
Glasheen: Adaline Glasheen, Third Census of Finnegans Wake
Green’s Dictionary of Slang, available online
Hart: Clive Hart, A Concordance to Finnegans Wake
Hayman: David Hayman, A First-Draft Version of Finnegans Wake
Irish Times: the Archive of the Irish Times, available online with subscription
JJA: James Joyce Archive
JJDA: James Joyce Digital Archive, available online
L, I, II, III: James Joyce, Letters, edited by Stuart Gilbert, Richard Ellmann
Mink : Louis O. Mink, A Finnegans Wake Gazetteer
OED: Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford editors: "Selected Variants" in the appendix of 2012 Oxford University Press Finnegans Wake, edited by Robert-Han Jenkes, Erik Bindervoet and Finn Fordham, pages 631-646
O Hehir : Brendan O Hehir, A Gaelic Lexicon to Finnegans Wake
Partridge: Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
Škrabanek: Petr Škrabánek, Night Joyce of a Thousand Tiers, edited by Louis Armand & Ondřej Pilný
SL: James Joyce, Selected Letters, edited by Richard Ellmann
February 2, 2026: This continues to be a work in progress. Most recently, through the help of Professor Layne Farmen, of the University of Tulsa and Langston University, many errors, misprints, etc. have been eliminated, and some links from one annotation to another have been added. (One thing as clear as ever is that the best guide to any one passage in Finnegans Wake is the rest of Finnegans Wake.) Any corrections, comments, questions, etc., sent to the email address given below, will be appreciated.
John Gordon
[email protected]
July 15, 2020: I have completed the second and in all probability my last page-by-page run-through of FW. Still, still a work in progress. Future changes will be a matter of review-and-correct. Also, let me see if some bells and whistles - links to pertinent pictures, songs, etc. - can be added to the program.
As is customary, entries are by page and line number, for instance 43.7: page 43, line 7. Because, in FW, the difference between what is a name and not, what is a quotation and not, is frequently blurred, I have followed a policy of minimizing capitalizations not in FW and of quotations marks for any words not directly from FW. Perhaps needless to say, this has required some judgment calls along the way, and I make no claim for any high degree of consistency.
Note for those reading this on a cell phone: clicking the three horizontal lines on the top left of the screen will give access to the rest - Books I, II, III, and IV.
Later news:
A number of sources are cited in the text – often given their full documentation on the first appearance, and, also often, abbreviated thereafter. To avoid any confusion, following will be a list of the most frequently occurring.
First, of course, “McHugh” refers to the fourth edition of Roland McHugh’s Annotations to Finnegans Wake, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Roland McHugh died in October of 2025, and I would like to think of my project as both supplement and tribute. Certainly the sentence occurring most often will be some version of “See McHugh.” My purpose is to enlarge on and add to, not duplicate, listings in Annotations, but in any number of cases that will involve checking with what McHugh recorded first. Any reader without access to Annotations may sometimes get the impression that my own offerings have a peculiar knack for missing the main point.
In alphabetical order, the other sources are as follows.
Sources:
AWN: A Wake Newslitter, published between 1965 and 1980
Bonheim: Helmut Bonheim, A Lexicon of the German in Finnegans Wake, edited by Lidia Vianu, available online
Brewer: Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Revised and Enlarged
Christiani: Dounia Bunis Christiani, Scandinavian Elements in Finnegans Wake
Luca Crispi and Sam Slote, How Joyce Wrote Finnegans Wake: A Chapter-by-Chapter Genetic Guide
Digger Dialects: W. H. Downing’s Digger Dialects, edited by J. M. Arthur and W. S. Ranson
Ellmann: Richard Ellmann, James Joyce: the revised (1984) edition
Encyclopedia Britannica: published 1911, eleventh edition
Epstein: E. L. Epstein, A Guide Through Finnegans Wake
Genetic Joyce Studes, available online
Glasheen: Adaline Glasheen, Third Census of Finnegans Wake
Green’s Dictionary of Slang, available online
Hart: Clive Hart, A Concordance to Finnegans Wake
Hayman: David Hayman, A First-Draft Version of Finnegans Wake
Irish Times: the Archive of the Irish Times, available online with subscription
JJA: James Joyce Archive
JJDA: James Joyce Digital Archive, available online
L, I, II, III: James Joyce, Letters, edited by Stuart Gilbert, Richard Ellmann
Mink : Louis O. Mink, A Finnegans Wake Gazetteer
OED: Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford editors: "Selected Variants" in the appendix of 2012 Oxford University Press Finnegans Wake, edited by Robert-Han Jenkes, Erik Bindervoet and Finn Fordham, pages 631-646
O Hehir : Brendan O Hehir, A Gaelic Lexicon to Finnegans Wake
Partridge: Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
Škrabanek: Petr Škrabánek, Night Joyce of a Thousand Tiers, edited by Louis Armand & Ondřej Pilný
SL: James Joyce, Selected Letters, edited by Richard Ellmann
February 2, 2026: This continues to be a work in progress. Most recently, through the help of Professor Layne Farmen, of the University of Tulsa and Langston University, many errors, misprints, etc. have been eliminated, and some links from one annotation to another have been added. (One thing as clear as ever is that the best guide to any one passage in Finnegans Wake is the rest of Finnegans Wake.) Any corrections, comments, questions, etc., sent to the email address given below, will be appreciated.
John Gordon
[email protected]
