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VEDA crossed the immaculately manicured lawn of Jennyfield College to the Victorian Jumble that was the Faculty of Cultural Studies. She had come to visit
JEQUIRITY JIMP, MA PhD FMLS
JORUM PROFESSOR OF CULTURAL STUDIES
On the door was the poster advertising Jump, or the Divil Will Take Ye, a photo of Iestyn Thomas lashed to an iron ring cemented into a dungeon wall, his bruised, bloodied face raised to the Vision of Jerome illuminated by the golden radiance of a shaft of sunlight flowering through the prison bars.
Veda remembered the Great Escape, Iestyn and A. N. Other Actor disguised as sheep, the (slowly sensual) wrapping of each other in wool ("Wrap ourselves in a golden fleece and then/We'll away to the shore where the Argo/Awaits), the bleatings and baaings as they had tried to "talk" their way out of the gates, the "will he? won't he?" comedy when they were accosted by an Italian guard with ovophile tendencies... The moral of the story was not to be sheepish. She knocked on the door.
The office was very untidy, with
Papers spilling out of a green wire basket, cascading over the scratched, ink-blotted surface of an old wooden desk and threatening to sweep away in a veritable flood telephone, blotter, pencil pot, calendar and all;
An olive green filing cabinet dented with the kind of tiny pocks you find in metal that can only have been made by a sharp pointed implement like a pair of dividers (N.B. it is a curious fact that such marks invariably exist in the filing cabinets of outwardly respectable people, like academics, if such can be considered people);
Shelves creaking and groaning under their burden of books;
Colour postcards and newspaper cuttings, yellowing, ageing, frayed at the edges, postcards and pictures of obscure Flemish painters and charnel houses, and a photograph (in colour) of Jimp dwarfed by several huge black men against a "tall grass" background.
"Do find yourself a seat." Jequirity plucked at her jackdaw's nest hair. She meant it literally. The once-varnished wooden chairs were occupied by thick, dust-coated books. As she struggled to contain a sneeze, Veda appraised the fragile sparrow.
JEQUIRITY JIMP, Jorum Professor of Cultural Studies at Jennyfield College,
is a leading authority on cross-cultural mythology. She was a founding member of the Faculty of Cultural Studies, and marked the silver jubilee of her appointment with a series of lectures under the collective title of "Jack, Jill, the Bean Stalk and Me". She has conducted extensive research on the beliefs of the people of Java and was the first Western scholar to identify the link between the Javanese legend of Pithecanthropous (qv) and our own Jack and the Beanstalk. Her thesis on the subject, "Jack and The Bean Stalk - The Allegory of Anti-Capital", won the Jorum Institute's Gold Medal and an appointment to the Jorum Chair of Cultural Studies. Her translations of Lewis Carroll's 'Jabberwocky' into French, German, Javanese, Old Church Slavonic and Frisian were acclaimed both at home and abroad. She is currently translating Jurat Jarkman's story of Rome's response to the Reformation From the Vatican to Janiculum into Old Norse having won international recognition for her rendering of the same scholar’s Vitriol and Jealousy: Theatre, Writing and Rivalry in the Renaissance into Dravidian and her own Jabbering Wockies: Fact and Fiction in the World of Myth (all published by Jackdaw Press). Additionally, she has published major papers on the original "Jack and Jill" story, a story of Viking Jarls (or "earls"), vast wooden vessels, treachery and blood feuds which she found engraved in a rock face at Jarlshof. It is Jequirity's great regret that the first stanza of this majestic saga:-
Haakon, Jarl from Upsalill,
Set out to cross the waters.
Haakon drowned
and lost his crown
And Bushbeard ruled thereafter.
has been reduced to playground doggerel.
Jequirity Jimp collects languages like some collect chamber pots. She also collects myths, legends and tales. She is a cultural predator, a jackdaw of the academic world. But she paid a price. She returned from Java with jaundice.
Es brillig war. Die schlichten Toven
Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben;
Und aller-mümsige Burggoven
Die mohmen Räth' ausgraben.
Bewahre doch vor Jammerwoch!
Die Zähne knirschen, Krallen kratzen…
TCHOOOO!!!
"I'm sorry," said Veda, stifling another nose-rasping sneeze.
"I'm sorry," said Jequirity. "I get carried away some times. Now you wanted to talk about Jump, or the Devil?" She brushed the dust from a dog-eared copy of Jankyn's three masterworks which she was preparing for a new edition and opened it up at a dust-crusted page. "This," she said, "Is a plan of the Jubilee. Wasn't it wonderful?"
Veda thought it looked like any other playhouse of its time, but wisely didn't say so. Instead she asked where the Jubilee had been situated.
"No-one is really sure," Jequirity said. "Probably somewhere near what is now Charing Cross Station. It's believed that the Jubilee Line of the London Underground, which starts there, is named after the theatre. Sherry?"
"I always thought it was named after the Queen's Silver Jubilee," said Veda. "Yes please."
Sherry comes from the dry wine 'sack'. It originated in the Spanish town of Jerez-de-la-Frontera, a
fortress on the southern frontier between the Moors and the Christians. The name sherry is from
scheris, the Moorish pronunciation of Jerez.
"I suppose Hieronymo is a tribute to Kyd's Spanish Tragedy."
As in WHY THEN ILE FIT YOU; HIERONYMO'S MAD AGAINE.
"Your supposition may, or may not, be correct." Jequirity Jimp folded her hands. "Italian names were very popular at the time. Remember, my dear, you sometimes have to search beneath the text for the truth."
"I'd like to check a line I thought I'd misheard," said Veda. "The jay will come. The actors said you confirmed this was accurate."
"Of course," said Jequirity Jimp. "It's a reference to the jay bird."
Jay, n.
l. Garrulus glandarius, a bird with brilliant plumage related to the crow. It has a pinkish-brown body, blue-black wings and a black and white crest. It is renowned for its noisy chattering;
2. A foolish or gullible person, found in Shakespeare's Cymbeline ("Some jay of Italy … hath betrayed him." (Cymb. III. Iv.));
3. Jay, John, (1745-1829), American statesman, and first Chief Justice (1789-95). Signed Anglo-American settlement (Jay's Treaty) 1794;
4. Garrulus glandarius has no proper song, but sometimes makes a crooning, warbling subsong. Silent during breeding season apart from harsh scolding "skaaak skaaak" sounds. Flight markedly undulating. Hops on ground. Usually found singly. Fond of acorns which it collects and buries. Found in parks, forests, orchards, large gardens, and, occasionally, in towns. (C13th from OF jai);
The messenger of the Devil is said to appear in the form of a jay.
"Given the context," said Jequirity Jimp, "It seemed entirely appropriate."
"There was a reference to Jason and the Golden Fleece," said Veda.
"The myth of Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece was very well known," said Jequirity Jimp. "It connects Jankyn's play with its classical heritage."
"Could you tell me a little about Giles Jankyn?"
Professor Jimp frowned. "You have the programme. There's enough in my note for a mere review, surely."
"Well," said Veda, "I thought the play was outstanding, the language was breathtakingly brilliant and I'd like to learn more about the creator. I may do a special feature…"
Professor Jimp frowned again. Veda smiled hopefully. "I loved the last stanza - how does it go?" She felt herself floundering.
"The devil is cooking my bones on a spit.
The flames flare up from the fiery… er... fire…
er .. good men bleed while the evil have fun…
so jump or the devil will have you, whoreson.
Oh, I'm a huge fan, you know." She ba
bbled on through Professor Jimp's frown. "What happened to Jankyn? How did he die?"
"Nobody knows," said Professor Jimp. "When he forty-two, he just disappeared."
"But he was a very successful playwright, wasn't he?" Jequirity Jimp inclined her head. "So why did his work disappear as well?"
"It's a total mystery," said Jequirity Jimp. "Shall I tell you about my new book? It covers my Visit to Java."
Java - an island of Indonesia south of Borneo from which it is separated by the Java Sea. It consists chiefly of active volcanoes and is densely forested. It came under Dutch control in 1596 and became part of Indonesia in 1949. It is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Capital: Jakarta. Main port: Jayapura. At Trinil Haeckel discovered the "missing link", Java Man, (or Pithecanthropous).
Veda pursed her lips. "I'd rather learn more about the missing link to Jason."
Jequirity Jimp said nothing.
"I heard the line, saw a map, saw tattoos, saw graffiti, heard a Suites for Jason..."
"It's a common name."
"It's everywhere I go," said Veda. "I think there's a connection."
"It's a coincidence."
"JASON is a secret society, isn't it? And it still exists, doesn't it?"
Jequirity Jimp said nothing.
Veda produced the papers from her pocket with a degree of triumph. "Why did you send me these papers?"
Jequirity Jimp said nothing.
"Shall I tell you what they are?" Veda unfolded them. "One is an extract from Vitriol and Jealousy. It talks about the Prentice Riot which resulted in damage to the Statue of Jachin at the Jubilee. By remarkable coincidence there's a statue of Jachin at the Jorum Gallery, the same Jorum who sponsors your professorship. And by even more remarkable coincidence that statue was damaged last night following a fight at the Jacquard Club after the band played a Suite for Jason."
Jequirity Jimp said nothing.
"The second paper gives an account of a fire at the Records Office in Kilburn which resulted in the destruction of Giles Jankyn's work and the death of a Timothy Thomas at the hands of a group calling themselves JASON."
Jequirity Jimp said nothing.
"What does it mean?"
Jequirity Jimp said nothing.
"Why did you send this to me?"
"I didn't send it," said Jequirity Jimp.
"So who's JJ?"
Jequirity Jimp laced her fingers. "Ask JANET."
"Who's Janet?"
"No," said Jequirity Jimp, "Not Janet. J.A.NET. The Joint Academic NETwork. It's a computer. In the Library." She closed her book with a dust-disturbing thud. The interview was over.
Once a hatchet-faced, middle-aged librarian had helped her log on to the powerful computer, Veda accessed the Joint Academic NETwork and tapped J a s o n into the search engine, cursing herself for being the Voracious Journalist with a twittery sparrow who had effectively given her nothing as a result.
Jason, n. Greek myth. The hero who led the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece (qv). Son of Æson, King of Iolcus, brought up by the centaur Chiron. He was deprived of his rightful kingdom by his uncle Pelias but was told he could win it back by recovering the Golden Fleece. Jason gathered around him the finest warriors in Greece and set sail in the Argo. After many trials, including sowing the teeth of the jabberwock (or dragon), he succeeded in his task with the help of Medea, whom he married but later deserted. He subsequently killed himself, although some accounts suggest he was crushed to death by the stern of the Argo whilst resting beneath it.
So what? She could have learned that from Brewer or any guide to Greek mythology. She cross-referenced and got:
Æson (Bath), a reference to Medea (qv) reviving Æson, father of Jason, with the juices of various herbs. After Æson had been so treated, Ovid remarks, in Metamorphosis VII., 288
Barba comaeque
Canitie posita, nigrum rapuere, colorem.
What?
Argo, n. (from Gr. Argos, swift), the galley of Jason in which he sailed in search of the Golden
Fleece (qv); also a Southern star constellation (the ship).
Argonaut, name given to the sailors who manned Argo under command of Jason (qv), sailing from Iolcus to Colchis; Also the name given to a family of cephalopod molluscs (cuttlefish) (qv)
Medea, n. in Greek legend a sorceress, daughter of Ætes, King of Colchis. She married Jason, leader of the Argonauts (qv) and helped him recover the Golden Fleece (qv)
Golden Fleece. In the Greek legend, Ino persuades her husband Athamus that his son Phryxus is the cause of a famine in the land. Athamus orders that Phryxus should be sacrificed, but Phryxus escapes over the sea on the back of a winged ram, Chryomallus, which possesses a Golden Fleece. On his arrival at Colchis, he sacrifices the ram to Zeus and gives the fleece to the King Ætes, who hangs it on a sacred oak. Jason (qv) subsequently sets out to recover it. The Golden Fleece is a symbol of escape, justice and divine protection.
This was futile. J.A.NET was utterly useless. She had never trusted Internets, World Wide Webs or anything with data stored on computer, because, as had been proven this afternoon, the really important information was never accessible especially when it came to secret societies. J.A.NET was a total and utter dead herring.
Veda froze. Of course it was a dead herring. She'd been fooled. She leapt from the chair and raced back across the lawn towards the Faculty Building. Was it too late?
"I'm terribly sorry," the secretary said. "Professor Jimp has gone to India. She's examining aspects of jabberwock mythology in the cave paintings and temples of the Junagadh."
"But I only saw her half an hour ago!" yelled Veda.
"Professor Jimp has a very busy schedule." The receptionist returned to "Ask Anthea" and her bottle of amber nail-polish. "After Junagadh, she's going to Junggar Pendi."
"And where the hell is that?" Veda growled.
"North Xinjiang. Somewhere between the Altai Mountains and the Tian Shan….. it's in Western China."
Veda decided the receptionist was being deliberately provocative and stormed out of the building. She had been fooled. Jimp had sent her off to the Library and made her escape.
Bollocks. There was only one route now: Julep Jejune.
And then an idea came to her. She returned to Professor Jimp's office, and, with a cheery "forgot something", she lifted the dusty edition of Jankyn's plays and a copy of Vitriol and Jealousy and fled from the building.
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