Finnegans Wake begins mid-sentence. The opening sentence, beginning with “riverrun” (3), continues from the novel’s final sentence, creating a complete loop. The opening introduces Porter, an Irish pub landlord who lives in Chapelizod, Dublin, with his family. He sleeps with his family in the rooms above the pub.

A woman named Kate works at Porter’s pub. She scrubs dishes for a living but also hosts tours of “Willingdone Museyroom” (8), a local museum. Kate leads a tour through the park, describing the points of interest and the history of a great man. Outside, the world is changed to the past as an old crone picks through the remnants of a battle and the broken pieces of the nursery rhyme figure, Humpty Dumpty. Two young men (one a Jute, a member of a Germanic tribe, and one a native Irishman) named Jute and Mutt argue at some point in the “intellible” (16) distant past. Jute and Mutt are alternative identities for Porter’s two sons, Shaun and Shem.

Porter dreams. In his dreams, he hears the booming sound of thunder. A voice (belonging to God) describes the fall, in which the giants of the mythological age will disappear from the world.