{"id":"01KG8AJQ5Q80S7YSVV6NX67Z7A","cid":"bafkreigpq7itqcqbtrp4cs3tmwu4rhubxxyjqzr2g4lteksr4zzk4qi5fq","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# CHAPTER XI. Jarl Afflicted With The Lockjaw\n## Overview\nThis is a chapter from the novel [Mardi: And a Voyage Thither](arke:01KG8AJA6157W2830190N652KA) by Herman Melville. It is labeled as \"CHAPTER XI. Jarl Afflicted With The Lockjaw\". The chapter appears in lines 1300-1355 of the source file [mardi_vol1.txt](arke:01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK).\n\n## Context\nThe chapter is part of [Mardi: And a Voyage Thither](arke:01KG8AJA6157W2830190N652KA), which is included in the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. This chapter is preceded by [CHAPTER X. They Arrange Their Canopies And Lounges, And Try To Make Things Comfortable](arke:01KG8AJQ680Z852R9H71X1V36E) and followed by [CHAPTER XII. More About Being In An Open Boat](arke:01KG8AJQ5SKNKHHHFSG39BT7CE).\n\n## Contents\nThe chapter describes the narrator's reflections on his taciturn companion, Jarl, a Skyeman. The narrator contrasts Jarl's quiet demeanor with the lively silliness of others, questioning the source of Jarl's gravity and speculating about his inner thoughts. The narrator longs for some vivacity from Jarl and wonders if Jarl's intellect steps out, leaving his body to itself.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:09.867Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"CHAPTER XI. Jarl Afflicted With The Lockjaw","end_line":1355,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:39.468Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"CHAPTER XI. Jarl Afflicted With The Lockjaw","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":1300,"text":"CHAPTER XI.\r\nJarl Afflicted With The Lockjaw\r\n\r\n\r\nIf ever again I launch whale-boat from sheer-plank of ship at sea, I\r\nshall take good heed, that my comrade be a sprightly fellow, with a\r\nrattle-box head. Be he never so silly, his very silliness, so long as\r\nhe be lively at it, shall be its own excuse.\r\n\r\nUpon occasion, who likes not a lively loon, one of your giggling,\r\ngamesome oafs, whose mouth is a grin? Are not such, well-ordered\r\ndispensations of Providence? filling up vacuums, in intervals of social\r\nstagnation relieving the tedium of existing? besides keeping up, here\r\nand there, in very many quarters indeed, sundry people’s good opinion\r\nof themselves? What, if at times their speech is insipid as water after\r\nwine? What, if to ungenial and irascible souls, their very “mug” is an\r\nexasperation to behold, their clack an inducement to suicide? Let us\r\nnot be hard upon them for this; but let them live on for the good they\r\nmay do.\r\n\r\nBut Jarl, dear, dumb Jarl, thou wert none of these. Thou didst carry a\r\nphiz like an excommunicated deacon’s. And no matter what happened, it\r\nwas ever the same. Quietly, in thyself, thou didst revolve upon thine\r\nown sober axis, like a wheel in a machine which forever goes round,\r\nwhether you look at it or no. Ay, Jarl! wast thou not forever intent\r\nupon minding that which so many neglect—thine own especial business?\r\nWast thou not forever at it, too, with no likelihood of ever winding up\r\nthy moody affairs, and striking a balance sheet?\r\n\r\nBut at times how wearisome to me these everlasting reveries in my one\r\nsolitary companion. I longed for something enlivening; a burst of\r\nwords; human vivacity of one kind or other. After in vain essaying to\r\nget something of this sort out of Jarl, I tried it all by myself;\r\nplaying upon my body as upon an instrument; singing, halloing, and\r\nmaking empty gestures, till my Viking stared hard; and I myself paused\r\nto consider whether I had run crazy or no.\r\n\r\nBut how account for the Skyeman’s gravity? Surely, it was based upon no\r\nphilosophic taciturnity; he was nothing of an idealist; an aerial\r\narchitect; a constructor of flying buttresses. It was inconceivable,\r\nthat his reveries were Manfred-like and exalted, reminiscent of\r\nunutterable deeds, too mysterious even to be indicated by the remotest\r\nof hints. Suppositions all out of the question.\r\n\r\nHis ruminations were a riddle. I asked him anxiously, whether, in any\r\npart of the world, Savannah, Surat, or Archangel, he had ever a wife to\r\nthink of; or children, that he carried so lengthy a phiz. Nowhere\r\nneither. Therefore, as by his own confession he had nothing to think of\r\nbut himself, and there was little but honesty in him (having which, by\r\nthe way, he may be thought full to the brim), what could I fall back\r\nupon but my original theory: namely, that in repose, his intellects\r\nstepped out, and left his body to itself.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"CHAPTER XI. Jarl Afflicted With The Lockjaw"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJA6157W2830190N652KA","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJQ680Z852R9H71X1V36E","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJQ5SKNKHHHFSG39BT7CE","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:40.727Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:11.074Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}