This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
-T.S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men"
I struggled trying to leave my post at just that. I failed.
This
video from September 26 was linked to the SGP
previously (thanks, Enigma) and establishes an ODST-"Hollow Men" connection via backwards-recorded references during the "Windward" Firefight Level. Eliot's poem has a storied past in relation to the Halo series. A similar backwards audio reference to the same poem exists in Halo 3 and is linked to the search for an "Assassin Skull" which was identified as existing in the game through inspection of its code. If you have nothing else to do for a week, you could catch up with this 9-month old 130-page
thread on B.net.
The presence of another hidden audio reference to "The Hollow Men" in ODST is a remarkable discovery. YouTube poster ReadyUpLive provided an informative video that serves as a useful document of the easter egg, but what the video lacks is an analysis more penetrating than "Epic Creepiness." Despite the abject failure of Halo 3 investigators to turn up any results analyzing T.S. Eliot's poem in the context of the Assassin Skull, I'm going to delve into a little bit with respect to ODST.
Popular criticisms of "The Hollow Men" link it to Dante's
Inferno. 'Nuff said, there! (For details regarding the connection, this
Wikipedia article might be a good start.) I'll leave it up to
Danves and the other
Librarians to provide further Inferno enlightenment!
Eliot's poem is divided into five sections. According to the aforelinked Wiki article:
Some critics read the poem as told from five perspectives, each representing a phase of the passing of a soul into one of death's kingdoms
In ODST, we witness the story from five different perspectives (Rookie, Buck, Romeo, Dutch, Mickey.)
The Windward message doesn't quote the poem verbatim. It merely refers to it. According to the video, the message is:
Eyes From Death's Dream Kingdom
Appear as sunlight on a broken column.
There- in Death's other kingdom-
Walking alone,
Trembling lips form prayers to broken stone
We can map each of these lines to the original poem to extract the source material for the recording:
Lines 1 and 2 of the recording map to the first stanza of Section II:
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
Lines 3-5 of the recording map to the second stanza of Section III:
Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
A significant alteration is the substitution of "walking" for "waking" in the fourth line of the recording. From the ODST story's standpoint, the Rookie both wakes
and walks alone (until Date Hive, anyhow.)
My theory is that locations in New Mombasa have been built in homage to "The Hollow Men." Specifically, I believe the stanza I opened this post with refers directly to Squidhenge, where:
- "This is the dead land" is represented by the courtyard Squidhenge resides in (a "dead" area where combat doesn't involuntarily occur.)
- "This is cactus land" is represented by the stone slab filled with needles, making it appear like a cactus.
- "Here the stone images / Are raised" is represented by the structure of Squidhenge
- "Here they receive / The supplication of a dead man's hand" is represented by the fallen Elites
- "Under the twinkle of a fading star" is represented either by the Superintendent (fading due to corruption and imminent shutdown) whose sad glyph is above the fallen Elites, or by the literally twinkling Engineers hovering above
If I am correct then other parts of the poem might suggest ODST Easter Egg clues. Is the "broken column" the Space Tether? Are the ubiquitous "eyes" those of the SI? If I am not mistaken, in Mombasa Streets tall moving grass is only present in courtyard areas. How might that be important given the following:
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer--
Or what about these lines:
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
It just so happens that there are no cameras in the Squidhenge courtyard. Nor in D08's Engineer Courtyard. D03's Courtyard does have them.
Finally,
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
Could this foretell the reappearance of eyes in the Circular Glyph that is beaming in District 08's courtyard? Are Engineers perpetual stars and/or multifoliate roses? Do in-game dialog quotes such as "Don't shoot anything pink!" and "...perfume over here..." along with the visual appearance of the Engineers support an Engineer-rose link? If so, the eyes reappearing "as the perpetual star / multifoliate rose" could be symbolized by the SI's "death" being overcome by Vergil the Engineer's assimilation of him.
Could this be the conceptual easter egg key we have been missing? Or are we just hopeful empty men?
