Finnegan's fall echoes man’s original sin and his redemption. It happened on the exact spot where HCE had an encounter with the two peeing girls and the three soldiers in the Phoenix Park ("where our maggy seen all, with her sisterin shawl.") It is also the site of a museum dedicated to the memory of the Duke of Wellington, another representation of HCE. The following three pages will take us inside the museum, where we will encounter artefacts from the Battle of Waterloo.
This oil painting depicts the two girls being spied upon by the three soldiers in the park. The Egyptian hieroglyphs for "woman" and "soldier" echo the references to the Book of the Dead that occur throughout Finnegans Wake. In the background, symbols of our Irish ancestors--in the form of the carvings on kerbstone 52 at the passage tomb Newgrange--appear out of the mist, together with the Eye of Horus. The two ancient civilisations created markings on their respective burial tombs in the same era.
Since the beginning of time, man has been preoccupied with death and regeneration. Some incredibly powerful images are found in the artefacts connected with these themes. Keep an eye out for different kinds of death and regeneration as you progress through the wake.