#thunderword

[paperhound]

Those who remember our 100-letter Finnegans Wake Thunderword holiday garland will be unsurprised that we’ve bedecked the shop with Stephen Daedelus’s deathless utterance “History…is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake” for Bloomsday on Monday, June 16th. Our poetry dispenser will be stocked with poems by Irish luminaries, twenty of which are marked as winners, entitling the lucky punter to a FREE BOOK by James Joyce, courtesy of our friends at the Consulate General of Ireland Vancouver, who join us in encouraging everyone to rejoice and Read Joyce! You can almost smell the grilled mutton kidneys….

[imaginefinneganswake]

The fall (bababadalgharaghttakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian minstrelsy.

Finnegan’s Wake - James Joyce

ChatGPT40 explanation:

This passage from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake—specifically, "The fall (bababadalgharaghttakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian minstrelsy."—is both famous and complex, characteristic of Joyce’s dense, multi-layered style. Let’s break this down for university students:

Overview

This passage appears early in Finnegans Wake and sets the tone for the entire novel, which is concerned with cycles of history, storytelling, and myth. The text is notoriously difficult, blending languages, sounds, and references from mythology, history, and religion. This particular passage references one of the central themes of Finnegans Wake: the fall—whether it be the fall of man (in a biblical sense), the fall of civilizations, or the cyclical rise and fall of individuals and nations.

Breaking It Down:

“The fall (bababadalgharaghttakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!)”:

The phrase “The fall” is a central theme of this passage and the novel as a whole. It likely refers to multiple falls:

The Fall of Man from the Bible (Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden).

The fall of empires or civilizations.

The fall of characters in personal or mythical stories.

The cyclical nature of human downfall and renewal.

The long, almost unpronounceable word inside the parentheses is a portmanteau—a combination of many words, sounds, and meanings. This gigantic word mimics the sound of thunder, signifying something cataclysmic, like a crash or fall. Joyce called this the "thunderword," and it is repeated in different forms throughout the novel, symbolizing pivotal moments of collapse or transformation.

This word blends multiple languages and references:

"bababadal" can suggest Babel from the Bible, symbolizing the confusion of language and human downfall.

"bronntonnerronntuonn" and other syllables seem to mimic the sound of thunder or an explosion, a symbolic rendering of catastrophic events.

The word also reflects the Tower of Babel, which fell because of linguistic confusion, tying into Joyce's exploration of language's instability.

“of a once wallstrait oldparr”:

“wallstrait” refers to something that was once strong and unbending, like a wall or fortification. It suggests the collapse of something firm and enduring, perhaps an ancient civilization, a historical figure, or a social structure.

“oldparr” could be an allusion to Old Parr, reputedly the oldest man in England (who supposedly lived to be over 150 years old). This character might symbolize longevity, tradition, or a connection to the past. However, even he eventually falls, suggesting that no matter how strong or enduring something may seem, it will ultimately face decline or death.

“is retaled early in bed and later on life”:

“Retaled” is a play on “retold,” meaning this fall or collapse is part of the endless cycle of history and myth, retold again and again. The pun on "retail" also suggests that history is sold, exchanged, or commodified.

“early in bed” could refer to bedtime stories or oral traditions that pass down stories of the past. It might also signify the storytelling nature of human life, where legends and histories are passed down informally, often before sleep.

“later on life” could refer to how these stories influence us throughout life, shaping our understanding of history and identity. It reflects how history and myth are interwoven into our lived experience, guiding our sense of destiny or morality.

“down through all christian minstrelsy”:

“Christian minstrelsy” evokes the tradition of medieval minstrels, who would sing ballads and stories, often with Christian themes. This phrase suggests that the story of the fall has been passed down through Christian history, becoming part of the cultural memory preserved in songs, stories, and religious teachings.

The reference to Christianity places this fall within the grand narrative of Christian theology, particularly the fall of Adam and Eve, but also the fall of kings, empires, and even Christ’s death and resurrection.

How to Explain This to University Students:

The Theme of the Fall:

This passage is about cycles of rise and fall—whether it be an individual, a civilization, or humanity itself. Joyce is deeply concerned with the cyclical nature of history, where empires rise, fall, and rise again.

The fall of "wallstrait oldparr" evokes the collapse of something once strong, but it also implies renewal. Joyce was influenced by Vico’s theory of history, which suggests that societies go through cyclical patterns of growth and decay.

Joyce’s Language Play:

The massive “thunderword” is an example of Joyce’s love of wordplay. It’s not meant to be read in a traditional sense but rather experienced as a sound effect, conveying the idea of a monumental crash or fall.

Joyce combines sounds from different languages, creating a universal moment of destruction that mirrors the confusion of Babel, the thunderclap of Thor, or the collapse of ancient civilizations. This shows how Joyce layers multiple meanings into single words, making his text a deeply multilingual, intertextual experience.

The Oral Tradition and Retelling of Stories:

The idea that the fall is “retaled early in bed” suggests that it’s part of the oral tradition—stories passed down from generation to generation. In Joyce’s world, history is always being retold, reshaped, and reinterpreted.

The fall is also “later on life,” showing that these stories shape not just childhood but our understanding of history and society as adults. These cycles of storytelling reinforce the mythical and eternal nature of human experience.

Christian Imagery:

The reference to Christian minstrelsy places the story within the Christian tradition of storytelling, where the fall of man, as well as other collapses (such as the fall of empires or figures), is a central theme. Joyce is constantly engaging with religion, history, and myth, showing how they shape human culture.

Big Ideas for Students:

Cyclical History: Finnegans Wake suggests that human history is not linear but cyclical. We rise and fall, civilizations collapse and are reborn, and individuals face moments of triumph and downfall in endless cycles.

Language as a Vessel for Meaning: Joyce uses language as more than a tool for communication—he pushes it to its limits, creating words that blend multiple meanings, sounds, and references. His language becomes multisensory, asking readers to engage not just with the meaning of words but with their sound and texture.

Storytelling and Tradition: The passage shows how stories are passed down through generations, from oral traditions to Christian minstrels, and how these stories shape our understanding of the world and our place in it.

Encourage students to engage with the sound, rhythm, and flow of Joyce’s language and to appreciate how his text blurs the boundaries between myth, history, and personal experience. Finnegans Wake is about the universal cycles of human experience—our falls, our rises, and how we retell these stories across time.

[youandmebeingsadistrouble]

Developing my first draft of the thunderword for the web graphically in MAYA. The word falls and collapses in front of your eyes.

[danielvandernoon]

“The disruption of the skies above unwound parts inside of my infant self, which Nan couldn’t possibly have been aware of.” 👁️‍🗨️👁️‍🗨️👁️‍🗨️ Coal, pastel, acrylic ‘n’ collage shards on primed linen 110cm x 150cm #thunderwords #lowqualityimage #multimedia #portrait #words #imagism #realityeffect #joycean #painting https://www.instagram.com/p/Crk6dqAsdJY/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[a-queer-seminarian]

[image description: a brown box with goldenrod banners reading “Cultivating your own faith while embracing religious pluralism, Blessed Are the Binary Breakers, a multi-faith podcast of trans stories.” Between the banners is a quote from Eboo Patel in his book Acts of Faith reading, “Brother Wayne didn’t see boxes or borders. He happily taught us mediation techniques and introduced us to Hindu and Buddhist writers. He had spent years studying both traditions, and the encounter with them had served to strengthen his Catholic faith and help him rethink it along the way. ...The tradition you were born into [or converted into] was your home, Brother Wayne told me, but...it should be a home with the windows open so that the winds of other traditions can blow through and bring their unique oxygen. ‘It’s good to have wings,’ he would say. ‘but you have to have roots, too.’” / end id]

________________________

"It's good to have wings, but you have to have roots too": Cultivating your faith while embracing religious pluralism

In this episode of Blessed Are the Binary Breakers, Avery reiterates how opening oneself to glimpses of the spiritual outside of one's own perspective can enrich one's connection to divinity and to humanity -- rather than being a threat to one's own tradition.

The passages Avery shares in this episode come from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' Making Space for Difference, Philip Vinod Peackock's "Some Insights on Imago Dei," Rev. Jonathan Thunderword's From Christendom to Freedom, and Eboo Patel's Acts of Faith.

​Talking Points:

(3:31 - 9:01) Peering out from our own boxes to avoid stagnation - seeking knowledge is an act of faith, not fear

(9:02 - 11:31) Rabbi Sacks and Philip Vinod Peacock on no one person or group fully representing the Image of God

(11:32 - 16:02) Introducing Rev. Jonathan Thunderword - a Black, trans, omni-faith, multi-spiritual practitioner and author of From Christendom to Freedom: Journeymaking with a Black Transgender Elder

(16:03 - 21:03) Engaging in multiple religions in his search for faith that nourishes rather than harms; being shaped by all of them

(21:04 - 22:50) Introducing Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core and author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation

(22:51 - 28:25) Choosing between religious totalitarianism and religious pluralism - active commitment

(28:26 - 36:52) It's okay to personally prefer and maintain your own tradition as your "home" - but leave the windows open "so that the winds of other traditions can blow through and bring their unique oxygen." ​

Find links for where to listen / read the transcript here.

[a-bright-ray-of-sunshine]

hii so i wrote some poems because i struggle to say my emotion out loud. it’ll mean very much to me if u could check it out:)) thank uu have a nice day!

That sounds awesome!! I'll be sure to check them out when I get a chance and if anyone else wants to check them out they can over at @thunderwords :) have a fantastic day 💛

[hedh-draws]

Selections from a series based on James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake

© Haley ED Houseman 2014

[hitbyspacejunk]

#4!

[4. What is your favorite word?]Oh, I have a lot of those... I like big words that roll off the glossa, like falderal and quockerwodger, but my favorite words have to be the thunderwords from Finnegan's Wake. It's quite a challenge to say, so here goes! Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk.

[blindrapture]

Did you think I was kidding?

Here’s an incomplete inventory of the shit I’ve been able to get my hands on during my trip to America:

Top-left: A Penguin Classics edition of the Wake’s first edition (not to be confused with a different Penguin Classics edition-of-the-first-edition I used to have), which I bought in a heartbeat even though...

Top-right: ...I already brought my hardcover Faber third edition with me from England (my favourite copy-- word of advice for anyone else crazy enough to want to start reading the Wake, the ideal copy is one based on the third edition, not anything earlier; Joyce spent the last two years of his life correcting misprints, third edition makes use of those corrections)

Middle-left: Watchmen (always wanted my own copy of this), and a box of two Sonic posters that are really fucking cute (it was at the register at Half Price Books and it was like two bucks)

Middle-right: THE FAMILIAR VOLUME 5, THE SEASON 1 FINALE (I am so fucking excited to read this, oh my god I finally have the bookkkk)

Bottom-left: Quinn took me to his university’s library, where we found several shelves devoted to Joyce scholarship. I promptly grabbed all these and checked them out. From top to bottom: Epiphanies (pretty sure this is an annotated transcription of Joyce’s eponymous things he wrote over the course of his life), The Role of Thunder in Finnegans Wake (wherein Marshall McLuhan’s son compares the Wake to Menippean satire, and of course devotes many pages to the ten legendary thunderwords as changes in global technology), A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake (wherein Joseph Campbell and another dude provide the first ever in-depth analysis of a ‘plot,’ and in doing so Campbell discovers the theory of a monomyth which inspires him to study what would become Hero with a Thousand Faces), Stephen Hero (basically the first draft of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, albeit in the third-person and much longer), Ellmann’s Joyce biography (super fucking thorough and really fucking fun to read, includes the gem that JOYCE LITERALLY WAS GOING TO WRITE A SEQUEL TO THE WAKE, also includes every instance where Joyce offended a famous writer), and Joyce’s Book of the Dark (wherein John Bishop basically puts all Wake scholarship to shame, this thing is the most engaging study I’ve read about the book, mainly focuses on the Wake as an actually-accurate representation of a full night of unconsciousness, and all the mythological and historical and even accidentally scientific significance of that, INCLUDES A FUCKING MAP OF THE WAKE’S LOCATIONS, actually includes two, one for dream-Dublin and one for all of dream-Europe, both are microcosms of each other and penises are prominent). You can tell what I’ve been reading most as of late. I will be so sad to have to return these.

Bottom-right: Other books I’ve gotten! From left to right: MARKS MADE: Prints by American Women Artists from the 1960s to the Present (the back, instead of a blurb, is a piece by Guerilla Girls. I’m in love), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (this is a gorgeous hardcover copy with gold-gilded pages and IT WAS FIVE BUCKS), The Complete Maus (I’ve been meaning to read this for so long), Crossover (I have no idea who Cecil Balmond is but this is one big book of modern art with fascinating theory and collaborations and I’m super happy to take a look), The Old Man and the Sea (dad’s been recommending this Hemingway to me for a very long time, finally managed to find a copy), and the CliffsNotes on Ulysses (it was the closest thing to Joyce scholarship that Half-Price Books had, don’t judge me).

So. I already had a hard enough time carrying my suitcases on the way over to America, and I’d only brought two books. It’s gonna be fun to get back, but it will be 100% worth it.

My god, I am in heaven.

[intransheart]

The Tribe #3 : Jonathan Thunderword

[itwasmoonglow]

There are ten thunders in the Wake. Each is a cryptogram or codified explanation of the thundering and reverberating consequences of the major technological changes in all human history. When a tribal man hears thunder, he says, “What did he say that time?” as automatically as we say “Gesundheit.”   - Marshall McLuhan

[newsuburbanism]

RT @thomasmurphy__: The McLuhans on their discovery that the Thunderwords in Finnegans Wake point to the emergence of new technologies https://t.co/X7Aoezoxde

The McLuhans on their discovery that the Thunderwords in Finnegans Wake point to the emergence of new technologies http://pic.twitter.com/X7Aoezoxde

— Thomas Murphy (@thomasmurphy__) April 9, 2017

from Twitter https://twitter.com/newsuburbanism April 09, 2017 at 08:43PM via IFTTT

[outofthedarkness]

The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunnt-rovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian minstrelsy.

James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

[youandmebeingsadistrouble]

My website to create a Thunderword for the Web....

[youandmebeingsadistrouble]

Download AR-t now on the Google Playstore! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Muireann.ARt