MRS BREEN: (Gushingly.) Tremendously teapot! London’s teapot
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MRS BREEN: (Gushingly.) Tremendously teapot! London’s teapot and I’m simply teapot all over me! (She rubs sides with him.) After the parlour mystery games and the crackers from the tree we sat on the staircase ottoman. Under the mistletoe. Two is company.
Episode 15. Illusion and reality are mingled. As in Fellini's film 81/2, the characters from other Episodes are brought together. Mr. Bloom's ex-girlfriend, Mrs. Breen, appears and converses with Mr. Bloom.
She recounts an event at Georgina Simpson's housewarming party on Christmas Eve, when she and Mr. Bloom were lovers.
Teapot is a game with that kind of name. According to The Book of Games by Mary White (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York NY 1896), the game is as follows.
One player walks out of the room and the other players think of words. Suppose he choose the word "train". When the player who was outside enters the room, the other players, in turn, say the sentence in which "train" is used, using the word "teapot" instead of "train". For example, "I like to ride in the teapot." or "I go to football games in the teapot." If a player guesses the word, the guessed person walks out of the room and the game proceeds as before.
“London's teapot" is a phrase formed by substituting "teapot" for "burning" in the lyrics of the children's song London's Burning (Scotland's Burning in Scotland version).
So the answer to the game is "burning".
In a passage a short time before this, Mr. Bloom intoned "London's burning". (U355.172) It is further altered to "Dublin's burning". (U488.4660)
Crackers are not the cone-shaped crackers, but rather the crackers used at Christmas in the UK. They are like large cylindrical candies, and when two people pull on either end, the cracker bursts and a present pops out.
I am not sure what "the staircase
ottoman" is. I assume it is a sofa placed in the empty space under the
staircase.
In Western Europe, there is a tradition that couples kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas. On Christmas, a young woman under the mistletoe cannot refuse to kiss. If she refuses the kiss, it is said that she will lose her chance of marriage the following year.
In England, it is customary to use
mistletoe to make spherical decorations, which are called kissing balls,
Christmas-boughs, mistletoe-boughs, etc.
I suppose that a mistletoe ornament was hanged on the back of staircase and a sofa was set up under it for the couple. Mr. Bloom and George sat on that sofa.
I mentioned the symbolism of the hawthorn in 17th post of blog, and the mistletoe
has a similar symbolism.
- In Celtic legend, mistletoe is a symbol of immortality, vitality, and physical regeneration. It was said that the
tree in which the mistletoe grew was sacred. Rituals performed by druids took
place under the mistletoe-parasitized oak tree.
- Legend of mistletoe in Norse mythology.
Baldur, the god of light, who was believed to be immortal, is killed by a spear
made of mistletoe. Balder's mother, Frigg, had made all the beings of the world
promise not to harm him, but only mistletoe was too young to make a pact. When
the god Loki learned of this, he taunted Baldur's brother Hez and made him
throw the mistletoe at Baldur. This brought Baldor to his death
- Mistletoe was coiled around the tree that
made the cross on which Christ was executed. Or, the mistletoe was originally a
large tree, and the cross was made from mistletoe, which incurred the wrath of
God and could only live by parasitizing other trees.
- Lore discussed in James Frazer's The Golden Bough. There was a rule handed down in the village of Nemi in Ariccia, Italy. At the foot of the mountains of Alba there was a sanctuary called "Diana of the wood," and in its sanctuary was a single sacred mistletoe that could not be folded. The priests were also called "kings of the wood" and had great authority, but those who wished to become the next priest could do so only after they had broken off a branch of the sacred tree and killed the priest.
The phrase "two is company" comes
from the saying “Two is company, three is a crowd.” or “Two is company, three
is a none.”
File:Great Fire London.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
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