The Marks
2 Nestor
Joyce has Daedalus consult ‘the gorescarred book’ to check where the Pyrrhic battle of 279BC was fought. Almost any history book or atlas has a metaphorical claim to being ‘gorescarred’ but the Sandycove Atlas also has a blood-red stripe from top to bottom of its back cover.
The Texts
- There was a battle, sir.
- Very good. Where?
The boy’s blank face asked the blank window.
Fabled by the daughters of memory. And yet it was in some way if not as memory fabled it. A phrase, then, of impatience, thud of Blake’s wings of excess. I hear the ruin of all space, shattered glass and toppling masonry, and time one livid final flame. What’s left us then?
- I forget the place, sir. 279 B. C.
- Asculum, Stephen said, glancing at the name and date in the gorescarred book.
- Yes, sir. And he said: Another victory like that and we are done for.
Epithet: gorescarred
Discussion
Joyce took particular care to ensure that the unusual word ‘gorescarred’ was printed correctly. But it is very unlikely that the red streak on the back of the Atlas is actual blood. Although it has yet to be tested, spilt marking ink is a much more likely candidate.
On the other hand, here is evidence that the Sandycove Atlas could be the actual book that Joyce used as a “mother of memory”.
