Gargantua And Pantagruel

Pantagruel spots land, and everyone’s spirit lifts. Pantagruel says he does not judge Panurge for being afraid; however, he is disappointed that Panurge refused to help during the storm. The ship will have to be repaired, lest it get shipwrecked.

Panurge acts busy once the storm is over, saying he has plenty of courage and very little fear.

Despite Panurge’s sudden resourcefulness, Jean declares that Panurge, “my friendly old bollock” (737), was petrified of the storm. He need not have been as it is his fate to die in air (that is, by hanging) and then in water.

Pantagruel’s party goes to the Isle of the Macraeons to repair their ship. They are welcomed warmly and set to fixing their vessel after a generous feast.

Pantagruel asks the ancient Macrobe—the chief provost of the Macreons—if he knows the reason for the sudden storm. The Macrobe replies that the isle contains a forest that is home to old Heroes from the classics. The death of one may have brought about the tempest, as foretold by a comet seen the previous night.

Pantagruel says omens like the comets are warnings, much as symptoms are warnings about an underlying disease. Wise men and physicians heed these signs. On whether death is final, Pantagruel believes the souls of angels, humans, and daemons are immortal.

According to Pantagruel, the Greek merchant Epitherses sees and hears the earth shake in response to the death of the Great God Pan, son of Mercury and Penelope. Pantagruel thinks Pan referred to the almighty Jesus Christ, as pan means “all” and is a shepherd.

Pantagruel’s party next spots Tapinois, but a crew-member, Xenomanes, deters Pantagruel from visiting as Quaremeprenant, its ruler, though industrious, is severe and mournful. He is always warring against the neighboring Chidlings, who are all female.

Xenomanes describes Quaremeprenant’s internal anatomy in detail: His “brain […] is like the left testicle of a male tick” (752) and “the bones, like cream buns” (754).

Xenomanes next focuses on Quaremeprenant’s appearance, with his face like a mule’s incised pack-saddle.

Next, common proverbs and expressions are used to describe Quaremeprenant’s physical actions, such as that if he belched, it was oysters-in-their-shells.

Pantagruel spots a huge whale approaching the ship. All the gunners and Friar Jean prepare themselves for the encounter. Panurge is afraid.

Panurge cries in fear as the whale disturbs the waves. Pantagruel performs prodigious skills in archery to kill the whale, shooting it with so many arrows that the dead whale represents a centipede with hundreds of legs.

Ile Fraouche is beautiful and woody and peopled by Chidlings, who resemble squirrels. Pantagruel wishes he could end the conflict between the Chidlings and Quaremeprenant.

An army of Chidlings begins to march on Pantagruel’s group, led by war-hardened female veterans. Pantagruel wonders if this is a form of welcome or war.

Pantagruel summons his ship-captains, Colonel Poke-Banger and Colonel Spoilchidling, asking them to stay ready for battle without initiating conflict.

The narrator says that the descriptions of the Chidlings may seem fantastical but are true. Chidlings are related to many ancient beings, such as the serpent that tempted Eve in the Bible.

Jean thinks the cooks of Pantagruel’s party will be excellent in battle against the Chidlings, as they are adept in cutting and slicing. He asks the kitchen-staff to be ready for war on his command. Their watchword will be Nebuzardan.

On Jean’s command, the master engineers of the ship set up the Great Sow (a device like the Trojan Horse) and the cooks and Jean enter its belly.

The Chidlings draw closer with lowered lances; Pantagruel dispatches Gymnaste to find out what they want. The Chidlings assault Gymnaste, and Pantagruel’s forces attack, with Jean and his men jumping out of the sow’s belly. Just then, a great winged pig appears in the sky, crying Mardi Gras. The Chidlings throw down their arms and Pantagruel asks his forces to retreat.

Niphleseth, Queen of the Chidlings tells Pantagruel she attacked because she mistook his forces for that of Quaremeprenant. The pig in the sky was their god, the spirit of Mardi Gras, warning them against the unfair attack. Pantagruel forgives the Chidlings and they promise to serve him.

The group visits the Island of Ruach, where the people survive by only eating and drinking wind. Neither do they spit, urinate, or defecate. However, they make up for all this by copious flatulence!

Podestat, the king of the Ruachians, forbids Pantagruel from bringing any of his people abroad for three hours as someone has stolen a bag full of wind. Pantagruel suggests that Podestat relax, as wind costs nothing, but Podestat says wind is in short supply because rains abate it. Pantagruel reassures him that there is plenty of wind around, since Bringuenarilles, the giant who ate windmills, is now dead.

The next stop is the Island of the Papefigues, where the once-prosperous people known as the Gaillardets are now enslaved and poor under the Papimanes. Moved by the misery of the Papefigues, Pantagruel wishes to pray at a chapel in the island. Here, he finds a man submerged in water undergoing an exorcism by three priests.

The possessed man is a ploughman with whom a little devil struck a deal. The part of the crop above the soil would be the ploughman’s and the part under the soil, for the devil. As the crop turned out to be wheat, the devil got nothing useful and promised to punish the ploughman.

The ploughman is sad, but his wife promises to get the better of the devil. She tells the devil the ploughman is a “savage” person who gave her a great wound, showing him her private parts. Fearing the ploughman, the devil gives up and flees.

Pantagruel’s ship leaves the unhappy island of the Papefigues and stops at the Island of the Papimanes. The people ask them if they have seen the “god-on-earth,” or the Pope, and when they reply in the affirmative, Pantagruel’s party is given a warm welcome.

Homenaz, the Bishop of the Papimanes, shows the party holy relics and scriptures on the condition that they are physically purified; Pantagruel assures Homenaz his group has been fasting for many days.

Homenaz next shows them a portrait of a pope, heavily guarded under lock and key. Pantagruel praises the work out of politeness, but it is crude, though possessing “some hidden and occult energy where pardons were concerned” (809).

Over a magnificent feast served by pretty young maidens, Homenaz says everything they have is because of the decretals or scriptures the Papimanes possess.

Homenaz continues narrating the glory of the Decretals, while Pantagruel’s men gently mock him by recounting the perverse ways in which people soil and corrupt the scriptures.

Homenaz says the Decretals are so great, people in France use them to abstract gold from any substance.

Homenaz hands Pantagruel’s party fine pears. Pantagruel dubs the fruit Good-Christian pears as he has never seen “better” Christians than the Papimanes.

The men return to the ship and soon hear disembodied words in the air at open sea. Pantagruel tries to decipher the words and judges them divine prophecies, as the words of Homer and other greats are always flying in the wind.

The group passes near the Frozen Sea, so the words freeze. Pantagruel throws the frozen words on the floor. The words are beautiful and incomprehensible. Pantagruel does not keep them.

Next, they land at a rocky island where Messer Gaster, the first Master of Arts in this world, lives. Gaster is famed to have great abilities.

At the court of Gaster, Pantagruel discovers the island’s two Indigenous groups: the Engastrimythes and the Gastrolaters. The first are charlatans, while the others—who wear elaborate masks and outfits—idolize Gaster, sacrificing food to him. Gaster refuses their sacrifices.

The Gastrolaters walk toward Gaster carrying his effigy and bearing him many sacrifices ranging from white bread to “chidlings dressed in fine mustard” (839).

Pantagruel is put-off by the obscene display, but Epistemon begs him to witness the farce.

The Gastrolaters leave at last, and Pantagruel discovers Gaster breadmaking, cooking, and doing all kinds of agricultural practices, among other crafts.

To avoid cannonballs, Gaster learned to deploy an iron-like stone, known as herculean, which would make gunshots and cannonballs stop and hover near it.

Back on sea, the crew passes time in repetitive activities and rhetorical questions, such as the meaning of the phrase “to sleep like a dog.” Pantagruel dozes off while reading a book.

When Pantagruel awakens from his nap, he assures his friends the answer to all their questions will be soon shown to them. Friar Jean whips up a huge meal for everyone, and soon they are so lost in eating they forget to ask questions.

Friar Jean wonders in which order of poisonous creature would Panurge’s wife-to-be fall. Epistemon replies that a remedy exists for all kinds of venomous beast, but none for a woman. The topic changes to how to raise good weather so ships can sail faster and smoother. Pantagruel points out they have already done so by consuming rations and making their ship lighter.

The mountainous isle of Ganabin is seen; Xenomanes warns against visiting it as it is filled with thieves. Gargantua still wants to pay tribute to it, since he spies there a mountain like Parnassus, home to the Muses. He has cannons fired in salute.

At the sound of the cannon, Panurge panics and soils himself in fear. Rodilardus, a large cat on the ship, jumps on him and he fights it, thinking it is a devil. Scratched and covered in his feces, Panurge runs to Friar Jean for salvation. Pantagruel asks Panurge to clean himself up.