Alice L. Trupe To be presented at Children’s Literature Association conference, June 2018

1. Confronting Binaries in the Liminal Spaces of Beach and Adolescence in Maggie Stiefvater’s Turbulent Water Horse Novel Alice L. Trupe To be presented at Children’s Literature Association conference, June 2018

2. Laytown, Ireland, Beach Racing From DailyMail.com, 5 Sept. 2014

3. What if the Horses Were Monsters? Source: “NA PÚCAÍ” AN SIONNACH FIONN

4. CapailleUisce From MacKillop’sA Dictionary of Celtic Mythology: • each uisce(Irish) or each uisge (Scottish Gaelic) = a “malevolent water-horse” • sea inhabitant or from large bodies of fresh water (unlike kelpies) • “a sleek and handsome steed” • “most likely to emerge from the water during the month of November” • Seeing the sea causes it to “[bound] into the water with its helpless rider on its back.”

5. The Scorpio Racesby Maggie Stiefvater Source: MaggieStiefvater.com

6. Take a Girl Named “Puck”(Kate Connolly) • “Illustration from the title page of Robin Goodfellow: His Mad Pranks and Merry Jests (1629)”— “Puck.” Wikipedia. • Name dates to Old English; Etymologically related to terms in Celtic languages and Old Norse

7. And a boy named Sean “From Old Irishsen (compare Manxshenn), from Proto-Celtic*senos (compare Welshhen), from Proto-Indo-European*sénos (“old”) (compare Latinsenior/senex, Lithuaniansẽnas).”--Wikionary

8. Put them on a Beach, on Horseback • Sean’s mount is the capaillUiscestallion, Corr. • “This interesting name, also found as (O)Corry, (Mac)Corry, (O)Corr and Curry, is of Irish origin and is the Anglicization of the Gaelic 'O'Corra', which translates as the descendant of 'Corra' (the 'O' denoting son of), a personal name from 'corr', a spear, or pointed object.”—Surname DB • Kate’s mount is her land horse, named Dove.

9. Other Characters in The Scorpio Races • Kate’s (Puck’s) brothers, Gabe and Finn • Benjamin Malvern, wealthy owner of Malvern Yard, horse breeder, holder of the mortgage on the Connolly home • Matthew “Mutt” Malvern, his bastard son • Peg Gratton, the butcher’s wife, knowledgeable about Scorpio Race lore • George Holly, the American, buyer of horses • Dory Maud, owner of a souvenir/antique shop, and her sisters, Elizabeth and Annie

10. Why “Scorpio” Races? • Oct. 23-Nov. 21, one of the Water signs • In the novel, the race is run on Nov. 1, Samhain • Death, blood sacrifices?? • The gods become visible to humans but play tricks—a dangerous time • Also considered a propitious time for women to become pregnant Image from http://www.astrology-zodiac-signs.com/zodiac-signs/scorpio/

11. Liminality in Rites of Passage Victor Turner, drawing on Belgian folklorist Arnold Van Gennep: • “betwixt-and-between established states of politico-jural structure. . . . neither-this-nor-that, here-nor-there, one-thing-not-the-other. Out of their mundane structural context, they are in a sense ‘dead’ to the world, and liminality has many symbols of death . . . . As against these emblems of death, other symbols and symbolic actions portray gestation, parturition, lactation, weaning.” • My paper: Initiates undergo a “grinding down process” that is “accomplished by ordeals” that may include “impossible physical tests in which failure is greeted by ridicule.” A simultaneous rebuilding process develops the initiate’s new identity through instruction in both “practical skills” and “tribal esoterica,” this instruction often coming from masked figures (Quoted phrases from Turner 37-38).

12. Binaries in the Novel • The island itself is a liminal space, always buffeted by the sea while hosting a land culture; • The island offers limited opportunities to its inhabitants, in contrast to the mainland that lures away so many of its youth to an easier life; • Kate and Sean are both rooted on the island, in contrast with their contemporaries who follow the mainland’s siren call; • The roles of men and women are defined by their elders as sharply divided, and the men resist Kate’s entry in the race; • The islanders’ beliefs are rooted as much in the ancient religion of horse worship as in social tradition, and the Scorpio Race’s rituals are pitted against the Roman Catholicism that the islanders practice the rest of the year; • The horse cult is visibly symbolized in the water horses, creatures of myth that compete, in this race, against an ordinary land horse, in a manifestation of the continuous sea vs. land conflict manifested in every high tide that seeks to reclaim the beach; • On the personal level, Kate has pitted herself against Sean in the race, against Gabe in her determination to race, against Malvern in her gamble on winning her home; • Sean’s personal battle for survival is waged against Mutt Malvern, who sees him as the supplanter of his rightful place as son of the island’s most powerful man.

13. Liminality in Communal Rites of Passage • My paper: In the liminal stage of rites of passage, the “’liminaries’” are “provok[ed] . . . into thinking hard about the elements and basic building blocks of symbolic complexes they had hitherto taken for granted as ‘natural’ units” (Turner 38). In tribal societies, festivals that mark the changing of seasons involve the community, all of whose members “become liminaries for the occasion” (Turner 39). • The Scorpio Races: the Riders’ Parade and oath on the cliff above the sea

14. Epona, the Horse Goddess “epos” = horse Goddess worshiped in Gaul, spread to Rome and Britain Akin to Welsh Rhiannon and Irish Macha, one of the Morrigan (earth mother and slaughterer of men) Source of image: Britannica.com

15. Rethinking the Natural Units of the Symbolic Complex on Thisby • The “natural order” is perceived by the islanders to be inverted when Kate Connolly enters, and ultimately wins, the race on the steady little mare that neither tries to drown her or kill the humans around her. By the time they race on the beach, Sean and Kate are likely to come out winners, whichever of them actually takes the prize, because their fates are bound up with each other’s. Oppositions are reconciled, though not without loss, in the liminal space. • The structure of the novel itself, moving between Kate’s and Sean’s points of view, also suggests that resolution and growth occur in the place between, in relationship rather than opposition. By challenging tradition, Kate and Sean lead the community in a new direction, modeling it in a win-win situation that establishes a new equilibrium as the festival ends. The celebration of renewal enacted by Kate and Sean, Dove and Corr, promises a future stability of home and family life, as they enter adulthood as a couple.

16. Works Cited MacKillop, James. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, e-book. Oxford UP, 2004. Segal, Robert A. “Victor Turner’s Theory of Ritual.” Zygon18.3 (Sept. 1983), pp. 327- 335. Turner, Victor. “Variations on a Theme of Liminality.” Secular Ritual. Eds. Sally Falk Moore and Barbara Meyerhoff. Van Gorcum Ltd., 1977. Pp. 37-45.