UKC

Have you read Ulysses? I studied Ulysses, by which I mean I sat in lectures and seminars and listened to academics telling me things about Ulysses, and I wrote them down. I went so far as to read some bits, the usual bits that people read, such as the beginning and the end. I was very interested conceptually in what Joyce was trying to achieve, but it was much easier to read about it than to read it. Other people had done the hard work.

Did get some way into Ulysses many years ago but was lacking in power endurance or something. Never even knew that the magical route name came from the book.

What a crag, what a route - good times. Get that done and get on Black Magic - another brilliant route.

If I remember correctly this face featured on the cover of Mountain with Eroica & Darkinbad given a full write up inside. Though way beyond me the routes were fascinating because of the names - this article adds to the myth. On a slightly different note I wanted to find out the details of first ascents and I will have to go to paper sources as the UKC logbook does not record their details. I think there is a long term project for moderators to add FA information to significant climbs in the UKC logbook.

You don't need to be a moderator. Anyone can suggest edits to a climb. Then the moderator can approve them.

Interesting, was aware of Pat’s quote but didn’t know the route name came from the book. May be it didn’t? Could just be a coincidence... One to ask Pat if you see him!

The real question though is what did Joyce ever do at Pentire?

So you think that Joyce and Littlejohn independently and without awareness of each other both thought of the phrase Darkinbad the Brightdayler?

I’ll never read Ulysses (Hannah might) but I always wondered about the route name. Like Misha I was aware of the Dark’n’bad thing but not that it did come from a book (which I suspected but whoever informed me didn’t mention) 

I do however have fond memories of that main pitch! That start really gets you going, with a section in the middle that very nearly had me off, and the final crack was the icing on the cake in that I found it quite tricky! Really looking forward to going back down to Black Magic! 

Now that's a good little read.

Stranger things have happened... At any rate, I doubt Joyce would have been aware of Littlejohn, unless he had a time machine!

Really enjoyed that. All the better for not being what I expected. 

I onsighted  Ulysees in a similar manner to your flash attempt: over three days whilst spaced-out/jet-lagged in Tahiti. I remember the warm rush of recognition when finally arriving at Sinbad the Sailor ....  Darkinbad the Brightdayler...

My first attempt at the route was less successful: falling with my hands on the belay ledge pumped stupid. Not one to try third day on wearing resoled Lasers (softer than jelly).

Superb. Joyce was writing ahead of his time and it's good to see that, in excellent articles like this, we are still catching-up with him. I don't know about Ulysses but the best way to try and understand Finnegans Wake is to do what the writer Anthony Burgess recommends: sing it out loud. It really does make a difference. I sometimes find myself singing passages from Finnegans Wake when I'm just a bit too high above the last runner and things are getting grim. I don't know whether it helps but, when I come off, at least it's a fall from Joyce, not a fall from grace. 

I have to say, I think the possibility of Littlejohn having thought the phrase up is rather less likely than my likelihood of winning the lottery tonight squared. Someone who knows Littlejohn once suggested to me that the route name was actually proposed by Keith Darbyshire, who was one of Littlejohn's regular partners.

Incidentally, I'm a bit confused by the question of who seconded the first ascent with 5 points of aid - Iain Peters' North Devon and Cornwall guide says K. Goodman while Littlejohn's South-West Climbs says I. Duckworth. Any more candidates?

A very enjoyable read. I started a thread a while back giving Darkinbad as an example of one of the few routes named after a literary quote, as opposed to a title. Very few others came up. Perhaps that's testimony to the verbal music Joyce could create. I'll be in Dublin for Bloomsday next year and it will be interesting to see how many other Joyceans are aware of the climbing connection. Some nice Ulysses-as-route metaphors in this thread - but what grade would it get? 

To Be or Not to Be

Slings and Arrows

Full Fathom Five

Brave New World

All the World's a Stage

Friends, Romans, Countrymen

That's the trouble with Shakespeare - he just took a load of route names and strung them all together.

To be fair to the respondents to my previous thread, I think I may have specified novels!

Homer: The Wine Dark Sea (E1 5a)

I just took a guess and found:

Call Me Ishmael (VIII 9)

The last public logbook entry for that climb, coincidentally, is by "sinbad" (the sailor), which brings us (by a commodius vicus of recirculation, perhaps) back to Darkinbad the Brightdayler.

Well, He Climbs Everything.

More Moles...