HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H01035 3/25/01 "ORIGINS OF HINNOM AND TROY QUESTIONS IN FFMC" ==================================================================================== From: "Patrick Roper" Subject: Hinnom Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2001 18:25:18 +0100 I wondered why Thomas Hardy referred to Hinnom during his description of the storm in FFMC. Indeed, I wondered where Hinnom was, so I did and Internet search and came up with the following from the Catholic Encyclopaedia: "Somewhat farther down, the Tyropoeon valley falls from the right into the Cedron, which now expands down to the Valley of Hinnom. Here, the Cedron is about 200 yards wide, and has on its left the Mount of Offence. Shortly after the junction of the Valley of Hinnom with the Cedron, there is Jobās well, to the south of which Sir C. Warren found, in 1868-69, the shaft of a great rock-cut aqueduct." Did TH use the expression 'as black as a cave in Hinnom' with reference to the aqueduct shaft? Since FFMC was published not long after the aqueduct was discovered, he might have thought that at least some of his readers would be familiar with it. Patrick Rope ==========r Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2001 10:58:12 -0800 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Re: Hinnom Patrick, F.B. Pinion in _A Thomas Hardy Dictionary_, New York Up, 1989, describes it as follows: "Hinnom (FFMC.xxxvii) the valley outside Jerusalem where children were sacrificed. See Tophet and II Chronicles. xxxiii, 6." The latter citation reads: "And he [Mannasseh] caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger." Obviously a dark and evil place metaphorically if not literally. Betty Cortus ========== Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 23:11:43 -0500 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Hinnom Hardy's first reference, in FFMC, to "Tophet" (Hinnom) occurs in in Chapter XXV at the point where Troy is baiting Bathsheba with flatteries: "And probably the devil smiled too from a loophole in Tophet." My own reference for this, in the endnotes of the manuscript edition (Penguin World Classics, 2000), is Kings 23:10. Tophet was a hell-valley near Jerusalem -- also called Gehinnom, Hinnom, Gehenna, where children were made to "pass through the fire to Moloch," their shrieks being drowned by beating drums. Hardy's next reference to Hinnom occurs, as you say, in XXXVI, in the storm scene. The allusion here is to the "sulphurous smell" (of a lightning-struck tree) which fills the air --"then all was silent, and black as a cave in Hinnom." Since this allusion follows shortly after a reference to the "Stygian sound" of thunderous roars in the firmament, and since "Stygian" refers to the river Styx -- river of Hell-- I think metaphors for Hell have to be predominant in the narrator's schema here. In this scene the juxtaposition of Heaven and Hell and of Bathsheba and Gabriel being caught between the two spheres is consistently evoked throughout and appears to have eschatological implications. But what do readers make of the fact that, in the earlier scene evoking "captivity" of a related kind, albeit dominated more by *eros* than by *agape*, Tophet (Hinnom) -- or Hell -- rears its ugly head in Troy's proximity to Bathsheba as readily as it does in Gabriel's (he, earlier aligned with Milton's "Satan" as he spies on Bathsheba) -- except that in Gabriel's case it rears not once but twice? Cheers, Rosemarie ========== Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 08:56:30 -0500 Subject: Re: Hinnom, Gehenna, and Moloch From: "Philip & Andrea Allingham" Re. Moloch and Gehenna (Hinnon) and the destruction of child-like innocence In Dickens's 1848 novella *The Haunted Man* young Johnny's childhood is made less than carefree by the responsibility that his parents have given him--looking after his infant sister Sally, whom he has dubbed "Moloch," after the Canaanite devourer of children. Perhaps Hardy is associating Troy with Hinnon (Gehenna), and therefore with Moloch, one of Satan's less pleasant companions in *Paradise Lost*. There is more than a touch of the pagan (and of course the Satanic) about Troy, whose baleful influence destroys what he loves. In the 8th-6th century BCE, firstborn children were sacrificed to him by the Israelites in the Valleye of Hinnom, south-east of Jerusalem (see also Gehenna). These sacrifices to the sun god were made to renew the strength of the sun fire. This ritual was probably borrowed from surrounding nations, and was also popular in ancient Carthage. Moloch was represented as a huge bronze statue with the head of a bull. The statue was hollow, and inside there burned a fire which colored the Moloch a glowing red. Children were placed on the hands of the statue. Through an ingenious system the hands were raised to the mouth (as if Moloch were eating) and the children fell into the fire where they were consumed by the flames. The people gathered before the Moloch were dancing on the sounds of flutes and tambourines to drown out the screams of the victims. According to some sources, the Moloch in the Old Testament is not a god, but a specific form of sacrifice. Philip Allingham ========== From: "Patrick Roper" Subject: Hinnom, Troy etc. Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 18:55:06 +0100 Philip Allingham's fascinating posting on Hinnom and Moloch started me wondering why TH chose the name 'Troy' for the wicked sergeant in FFMC (I expect there are already many explanations). We have talked before about references to Diana in FFMC and about parallels between this goddess and the biblical Bathsheba, and Diana was, of course, involved in the story of Troy. When the Ancient Greeks set out for Troy they made their famous stop at Aulis, thus inspiring Euripides's play 'Iphigenia at Aulis' with which TH was, I am sure, familiar. In the following summary of goings on there, I am strongly reminded of some aspects of FFMC peeping through like flashes in a Dorset storm: "After two years of preparation, the Greek fleet and army assembled in the port of Aulis in Boeotia. Here Agamemnon, while hunting, killed a stag that was sacred to Diana. The goddess in retribution visited the army with pestilence and produced a calm which prevented the ships from leaving the port. Thereupon, Calchas the soothsayer announced that the wrath of the virgin goddess could only be appeased by the sacrifice of a virgin, and that none other but the daughter of the offender would be acceptable. Agamemnon, however reluctant, submitted to the inevitable and sent for his daughter Iphigenia, under the pretense that her marriage to Achilles was to be at once performed. But, in the moment of sacrifice, Diana, relenting, snatched the maiden away and left a hind in her place. Iphigenia, enveloped in a cloud, was conveyed to Tauris, where Diana made her priestess of her temple." The parallels with FFMC are not at all clear or straight forward, but some do seem to be there. Hardy would, presumably, have been familiar with Schliemann's archaeological work at Troy started in 1870 and, I expect, with Charles McLaren's book 'The Plain of Troy Described' (1863). McLaren says at one point: "Ilium was for a considerable period to the Heathen world, what Jerusalem is now to the Christian, a 'sacred' city which attracted pilgrims by the fame of its wars and its woes, and by the shadow of ancient sanctity resposing upon it. Without abusing language, we may say that a voice speaking from this hill, three thousand years ago sent its utterances over the whole ancient world, as its echoes still reverberate over the modern' This again reminds me, in a shadowy sort of way, of aspects of FFMC. None of these ruminations seem to prove anything very much, but do people think we are glimpsing aspects of the kaleidoscopic pattern of thoughts, memories and impressions that mixed and mingled in TH's mind? Many of these apparent links are, of course, coming to light as a result of our new found ability to interrogate the Web. I suppose some of them, whether in relation to TH or anything else, have some foundation but others must be no more than the coincidental matching of similar patterns. Trouble is, how do we tell which is truth and which chance? Odd to think that the new knowledge technology might make it more difficult to decide what is real and what imaginery. But perhaps that doesn't matter very much either. Patrick Roper ========== Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 15:15:17 -0500 From: jgould@andover.edu (John Gould) Subject: Re: Hinnom, Troy etc. Patrick, There is one very literal explanation for "Troy"; halfway between Dorchester and Puddletown (aka Weatherbury) is a little village called "Troytown." Someone could correct me, but I think the hill where the Troys encounter Fanny Robin on her way to the Casterbridge Union was in Troytown. The literary/mythic suggestions you describe are no less apt, but the name surely rang in his ear as he considered his map. John ========== Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 21:39:29 +0100 From: Birgit Plietzsch Subject: Re: Hinnom, Troy etc. Partick, I'm not sure whether Hardy drew the parallel to Schlieman's Troy when he decided on the name for Sergeant Troy. But the readers of the serialisation of FFMC in the _Cornhill_ would have done. There was an article entitled ćHomerās Troy and Schliemannāsä in the the June 1874 issue of the _Cornhill_ (pp. 663-674) that appeared side by side with the sixth installment (chapters 25-29) of Hardy's novel. Interestingly, these are the chapters that follow Bathsheba's nightly encounter with Troy and in which their developing relationship is described. The installment was illustrated, by the way, with a picture of Bathseba watching Troy's sword exercise. Birgit Plietzsch ========== Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 21:08:24 -0500 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Hinnom, Troy etc. Interestinger and Interestinger -- as Alice-in-W might say!. After all, the 6th installment of FFMC had been composed many weeks earlier and had arrived on Stephen's editorial desk long before June 1874, and at a time in the evolution of FFMC when Hardy was struggling with Troy's characterisation -- attempting to shape him along the lines of Greek decadence by employing allusions to pagan "sacrifices to Venus" (cancelled by Stephen) to invoking concepts of Hellenic libertarianism -- Troy's "natural" birth or illegitimacy --an issue also suppressed by Stephen. No doubt if Schliemann was in the air, whether a month or so aforetimes or contemporaneously, Hardy's catching at topical interest is the point -- (neatly elaborated upon by Birgit)-- Just as Frank Troy could at first be "Alfred" -- the later "Frank" being so much more delightfully ironic! - -- just as he could be named after Hardy's own neighbouring "Troy Town" (identification? and why not? Frank Troy, like his creator, knows his literature, his Bible, his Shakespeare, his poets, as does no other character in FFMC), just as his name could recall the famed Homeric fortress-city, ultimately to be destroyed, just as he could evoke the Cornish word, "Troytown" meaning labyrinthine--a maze of streets, formerly a word used to describe disorder or confusion (a room in disarray would be called a Troy Fair) and so on -- and on.... Thanks Birgit! (timed out..) Cheers, Rosemarie ========== From: "Patrick Roper" Subject: RE: Hinnom, Troy etc. Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 09:40:42 +0100 There are several turf-cut mazes in Britain associated with the name 'Troy' or 'Troy Town'. They are very mysterious, ancient constructions and some, I think, go back to before the Christian era. The remarkable thing is that generations of people have kept them up - without constant attention they would disappear very quickly as they are quite small and insignificant. I am sure TH would have read of these. For details of those in North Yorkshire and Oxfordshire see this web site: http://www.maze-world.com/BritainAncTurf%26Stone.htm Patrick Roper ========== From: "Patrick Roper" Subject: More on Troy Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 19:21:46 +0100 Following our discussion on the name 'Troy' in FFMC, I remembered that it also hovers about in TH's previous book 'A Pair of Blue Eyes' First, there is the curious passage: "'I could live here always!' he said, and with such a tone and look of unconscious revelation that Elfride was startled to find that her harmonies had fired a small Troy, in the shape of Stephen's heart." Does TH mean Stephen's heart was aflame? If so, it seems a curious way of putting it. Secondly there is the character in PBE of Charlotte Troyton, reflecting the Dorset 'Troytown' we discussed. I have always thought, in the passage below, that TH might have been thinking of Lady Charlotte Guest, translator of the Mabinogion, who lived at Canford Manor in Dorset in Hardy's day and was a wealthy widow whose husband had spent most of his time away at his steel works in South Wales. On her second marriage she travelled widely and, I think, to the Middle East, which may have linked her with Troy. Anyway, this is the passage from PBE: "'That, sir, is Mrs. Troyton, a widder wi' a mint o' money. She's the owner of all that part of Endelstow that is not Lord Luxellian's. Only been here a short time; she came into it by law. The owner formerly was a terrible mysterious party--never lived here--hardly ever was seen here except in the month of September, as I might say.'" Does anyone know if Canford Manor is near the Dorset Troytown? Patrick Roper ========== From: "Patrick Roper" Subject: RE: Hinnom, Troy etc. Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 10:56:54 +0100 s: According to the map, Troy Town Farm (rather than village) is near the top of Yellowham Hill between Dorchester and Puddletown and about 1 mile north east of Hardy's Cottage at Higher Bockhampton. This fits in well with your suggestion, John. I wonder why it was called Troy Town Farm? Since it is in an elevated place, it could be to do with ancient earthworks of various kinds. Patrick Roper. ========== From: "Patrick Roper" Subject: Arthur's return Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 16:31:34 +0100 Since we have been talking about Troy and Troytown recently, I thought subscribers might get a small frisson from this which came in an e-mail from a Cornish wildlife group this afternoon. "A chough has been spotted on the Isles of Scilly for only the second time in more than 100 years. It was seen by birdwatcher Nigel Wheatley and island postmaster Doug Page on the coastal path at Troytown Maze, then later at Wingletang, St Agnes." King Arthur is currently supposed to be incarnated as a chough and, as everyone knows, he will return as "the future king" in the country's hour of need which, in view of the foot & mouth disaster, is probably now. The implications of his first being sighted at Troytown Maze, a remnant of sunk Lyonesse, would, I am sure, have appealed to TH just as much as it does to me. Patrick Roper ========== From: "Patrick Roper" Subject: Troy again Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 19:08:48 +0100 I think I have disentangled most of what there is to disentangle on Troy and Troytown. I had not thought before of looking in Hermann Lea's _Hardy Guides_. He says: "In Troytown, a handful of houses lying at the bottom of Yalbury Hill, we recognise 'the road-side hamlet called Roy-town.' It was once a place of Celtic occupancy, and we may still trace the remains of a miz-maze, or labyrinth, where ancient spectacles were produced." An enquiry on Arthurnet has brought forth the very plausible suggestion that the 'troy' in these troy-town mazes derives from Welsh (Brythonic) 'troi' meaning to 'turn' or 'upset'. The assertion by Hermann Lea that the Dorset Troytown was once a place of Celtic occupancy suggests that he and TH may have been aware of the origin of the word. The other meaning of 'troy', that of a scene of disorder or confusion, is consonant with the 'upset' sense of the Welsh word and also, it seems to me, perfectly describes the scene in FFMC where Sergeant Troy is shot, though this is, perhaps, coincidental. In wonder if anyone knows what the 'ancient spectacles' were that were produced at the miz-maze? Patrick Roper ==========