PEACE: the tale of the banshee

StoneOx17 · 25 Aug 2002, 13:52 · from urth-v0208.mbox · original
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From: StoneOx17 at aol.com
Subject: (urth) PEACE: the tale of the banshee
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2002 09:52:52 EDT
Message-ID: <urth-v0208-1602 at digest.urth.net>
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Hello,

Despite all the effort spent analyzing many of the embedded stories in Peac=
e,=20
there seems to have been relatively little written in this forum about the=20
banshee story.  I think that the participants in this story can be identifi=
ed=20
with some of the main characters in Peace, and that this story answers the=20
question of "what went wrong?" with Wolfe's relationship to Margaret.  Roy=20
Lackey gave much of the same answer to this question already, without relyi=
ng=20
on the hints hidden in the banshee tale, in=20
http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0030/0104.html
but the banshee story fills in a few more of the details.

My identification in the story is:
Den Weer is Jack,
Margaret Lorn is Molly,
Carl Lorn is Molly's father,
Julian Smart is the banshee.

Let's review the banshee story. =20

Molly's father owns a big farm and Molly is his only child, so whoever=20
marries her inherits the farm.  Jack and Molly are in love, but Molly's=20
father doesn't want Molly to marry Jack, "because Jack had nothing to bring=20
to the wedding but his own two hands and a smile."

In the "what went wrong?" speech, Weer says "I was intelligent and=20
industrious; Margaret and I loved one another deeply."  But when he comes=20
back from college, the Depression has wiped out all of his fortune and made=20
jobs very hard to find.  How is he to make a living?

One possibility would be for Weer to marry Margaret and move to the Lorn's=20
farm.   The Lorns likely still have their farm, since they wouldn't have ha=
d=20
large bank loans, because the farm has been in their family for years and=20
Carl Lorn is naturally frugal. Even though the income from the farm has bee=
n=20
greatly reduced, they can at least grow enough food to feed themselves.  It=20
would be reasonable for Weer to help on the farm if he is to marry Margaret=
;=20
she is the Lorn's only child, and so will inherit the farm. Later in the=20
book, the farmer delivering potatoes to the factory says "When I was a boy,=20
there wasn't anything anybody could have that was better'n a farm.  If a=20
doctor or a banker could marry a widow that had a good one, they'd stop wha=
t=20
they was doing and work it."  This farmer is ten or twenty years older than=20
Weer, but taking this and the banshee story together, I conclude that when=20
Weer was about to graduate, he and Margaret proposed that they get married=20
and that Den move out to the farm and help work it.                        =
  =20
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                   =20

=46rom the banshee story, we see that Carl Lorn didn't want Weer to marry=20
Margaret.  He disapproved of selling the egg, and he's tight with money=20
("only Daddy never gets nothing at the store if he can find something else=20
that'll do") so Weer has two strikes against him, being Olivia's nephew and=20
being penniless.  In the banshee story, Molly's father tells Jack he'd have=20
to spend the whole night in the barn haunted by the banshee and not be thro=
wn=20
out; in Weer's real life, Carl probably told Weer that he wouldn't let=20
Margaret marry him unless he could support her.  So Weer has to take the jo=
b=20
at the factory (the real-life parallel of the barn); unfortunately, the=20
coldhouse prank kills somebody, and Julius blackmails him into staying at t=
he=20
factory until Julius dies.  In this scenario, it doesn't even matter whethe=
r=20
Margaret knows about the coldhouse prank.  Weer can't marry her unless he=20
finds another job which pays better, and he can't leave this job because of=20
Julius' blackmail.  Eventually, Margaret gets fed up with Weer's inaction a=
nd=20
marries Mr. Price (whom we suspect, from his surname, has sufficient money)=
. =20

There are some interesting differences between the banshees in Peace and th=
e=20
banshees in Irish folklore.  Looking on the web, it seems that in Irish=20
folklore, the banshee is a woman sidhe who wails before somebody is going t=
o=20
die (and most important families have an associated banshee that predicts=20
deaths in that family).  In some versions of the legend, if you catch the=20
banshee, she has to tell you who is going to die.  However, she only=20
foretells deaths, unlike Wolfe's banshee, who causes them.  Note that Wolfe=20
is playing off the folklore banshee: when his banshee is caught, she does=20
tell Jack "who's to be born," although one might suspect that she's lying o=
ut=20
of spite.

Wolfe's banshees are ghosts (quite fittingly for Peace) who are "the spirit=
s=20
of midwives that have killed the baby because someone gave gold to them to =
do=20
it that it might not inherit."  This gives grounds for identifying the=20
banshee as Julius: in=20
http://urth.net/urth/archives/v0205/1043.txt.shtml,=20
I speculated that Julius may have killed Mr. Tilly so as to inherit the car=
ny=20
business, which, while not an exact parallel, is certainly similar. =20

Jack stays in the barn haunted by the banshee three nights.  The first two=20
times, the banshee forces him to speak the name of someone whom she later=20
kills, first "the meanest man [Jack] can think of, a man that robbed=20
everybody and never gave poor folk a penny," and second, "a real old lady=20
that was goin' to die anyway."  The third time, he defeats the banshee.  If=20
we identify the banshee with Julius, this is reminiscent of Weer's comment=20
that he recalls uncle Julius clearly "only at three stages of his life."  T=
he=20
first stage is when Julius tells the story of Mr. Tilly.  The second stage =
is=20
at aunt Olivia's funeral.  And the last is when Julius is an old man and th=
e=20
president.  This seems a little strange, because Den lived with Julius for=20
quite a while, and this period doesn't seem included in either of these=20
stages.  However, if we take these three stages as corresponding to the thr=
ee=20
nights in the banshee story, then we are led to suspect that Julius killed=20
both Mr. Tilly and Olivia for their inheritances.  We know (since Wolfe has=20
confirmed it) that it was Peacock who actually ran Olivia over in his car,=20
but there are at least two reasons to suspect that Peacock might have=20
conspired with Julius: first, Julius Smart and Professor Peacock were good=20
friends, and second, there's the mysterious letter from Peacock to Julius=20
that Weer is unable to read.

Is there any more evidence for this correspondence between the banshee stor=
y=20
and Weer's life?  In the other stories in Peace that we know have parallels=20
(the princess and her suitors, and the marid), there is a correspondence=20
hidden in the characters' names.  The link from Molly to Mary to Margaret=20
seems obvious, but I don't see how to get from Jack to Den.  Any ideas?

- Stone Ox

--=20
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