The Sigla Constellation & Dialectical Graph
In his working notebooks preserved at the University at Buffalo (MSS VI.B), James Joyce abandoned alphabetic names and encoded the dramatis personæ of Finnegans Wake into hieroglyphic sigla. These archetypes operate through Giordano Bruno’s coincidentia oppositorum—where opposing polarities collapse into singular mythical forms.
HCE
Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker
Mountain & River (Static Mass ↔ Dynamic Flow)
Archetypal Role
The primordial father and sleeping giant whose dormant body forms the Dublin landscape from Howth Head (his head) to Castleknock (his feet). Embodies universal human guilt (the Phoenix Park incident), civic architecture, and cyclical regeneration.
Scholarly Significance
Synthesizes Adam, Noah, Tristram, Duke of Wellington, Tim Finnegan, and Finn MacCool. He is the mountain that stands while the river washes his feet.