Chapter　4　Roads that move

Rivers are roads that move and carry us whither we wish to go.

Blaise Pascal（1623-62）

（French mathematician and philosopher）

Rivers have interested humankind for millennia.They feature prominently in many facets of culture，providing liquid inspiration to diverse sectors of artistic society，from poets to musicians.The currents of a river have been harnessed not only to embody the bucolic mysteries of nature but to carry ideas and motifs，and to propel writers into the past.As an ever-flowing symbol of God's work，the river combines both the spiritual and the physical，offering an insight into humanity's place in the order of things.The long history of the river's importance to literature and the arts stretches from the poetry of Virgil to the celluloid of Francis Ford Coppola.

Rivers and language

The long，rich cultural relationship with rivers has many interesting linguistic connotations.The names of numerous rivers are in themselves descriptive.The awe-inspiring scale of flow seen in some large rivers has simply resulted in them being called‘big’or‘mighty’，such as the Ottawa River in Canada，which derives its name from the Algonquin word.Others are a bit more graphic.In England，the River Thames'name is believed to come from an Indo-European word meaning‘dark river’；the River Wellow was winding，the Swift fast-flowing，and the Cray was pure or clear.Names of Celtic origin abound in Britain：the River Dart is a Celtic river name meaning‘river where oak trees grow’，and the River Iwerne is thought to mean‘lined with yew trees’.Conversely，however，lots of rivers have names that simply mean‘river’.The Avon in the west of England gets its name from a Celtic word meaning river，so that River Avon literally means‘River River’.Similarly，the River Ganges in South Asia takes its name from the Sanskrit word ganga，meaning current or river.

Rivers have also had their names appropriated for use as place names.Cities named after their rivers include the capitals of Russia（Moscow：Moskva River），Lithuania（Vilnius：Vilnia River），Central African Republic（Bangui：Ubangi River），and Malawi（Lilongwe：Lilongwe River）.Belmopan，the capital city of Belize，was named after two rivers：the country's longest，the Belize River，and one of its tributaries，the Mopan.On a still larger scale，a number of countries are named after their major rivers.They include Paraguay in South America，Jordan in the Middle East，Gambia and Senegal in West Africa.Further east in West Africa，the Niger River flows through both Niger and Nigeria，and Central Africa's Congo has given rise to both the Congo Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.India is named after the Indus River，although it no longer flows through India.A country of sorts was created in northern Europe in 1806 by Napoleon Bonaparte when he established the Confederation of the Rhine，but it disintegrated after Napoleon's abdication in 1814.

Equally，numerous place names are linked to rivers in less direct ways.Oxford means a crossing place，or ford，used by oxen.Cambridge is traced back to‘Bridge on the River Granta’with the change from Grant-，a Celtic river name，to Cam-thought to be due to a Norman influence.Many names of settlements located at the mouth of a river have an equally simple etymology：Yarmouth and Falmouth lie at the mouths of the Rivers Yar and Fal.Of course，the same principle also applies in many other languages.Aberdeen，the port in northeast Scotland，has a name of Celtic origin（‘aber’，or mouth，of the River Don，now Deen）.Similarly，Aarhus，the port in eastern Denmark，simply means‘river mouth’in Old Danish（aa，river，and os，mouth）.In the USA，a number of states have names derived from Native American words associated with rivers.Connecticut comes from a Mohican word meaning‘long river place’；Mississippi is thought to mean‘great river’in Chippewa；Missouri is an Algonquin term meaning‘river of the big canoes’；and Nebraska is from an Omaha or Otos Indian word meaning‘broad water’or‘flat river’.Not all place name links to rivers are reliable，however.A good example is the Brazilian coastal city of Rio de Janeiro，named by Portuguese sailors who first discovered the spot on New Year's Day 1502.They called it‘January River，thinking-wrongly-that the large bay on which Rio now stands was the mouth of a great river.

Some terms derived from rivers have been adopted for more general use in the English language.Meander is a good example；as both verb and adjective，it has entered the vernacular to indicate a winding path.The word‘rival’-someone competing with another for the same objective-also has its origin in riverine terminology.It is derived from a Latin word，‘rivalis’，that means‘using the same stream’.The well-known phrase‘crossing the Rubicon’has its roots in history.The River Rubicon marked the boundary between two parts of the Roman Empire，and no Roman general was allowed to bring his forces south over the river because to do so was a direct challenge to the authority of Rome.Hence，when Julius Caesar decided to cross the river and march on Rome，he passed a point of no return in crossing the Rubicon.

Landscape painting

Rivers and their valleys have provided a rich source of stimulation for landscape painters in numerous parts of the world.Twisting channels wind their way through the long history of landscape painting in China.Probably the best-known painting from the Sung Dynasties，for instance，is the scroll entitled‘Along the River during the Qingming Festival’created by Zhang Zeduan in the early 12th century.Its panoramic depiction of daily life at the Sung capital，Bianjing（today's Kaifeng），is famed for its great detail of people，buildings，bridges，and boats clustered around and along the river.The painting has been mimicked by more than twenty other artists of subsequent dynasties.The most recent of these was a computer-generated animated version produced for the World Exposition in Shanghai in 2010 and shown in the Chinese Pavilion.

Some early examples of landscape painting in Europe are traced to the beginning of the 16th century，when a number of German and Austrian artists became associated with the Danube School of Landscape Painting.Based largely in the imperial city of Regensburg，their work combined Upper Italian Renaissance influences with German Gothic traditions.More than 300 years later，many of the French Impressionists drew inspiration from the transient colours and effects of light playing on the waters of the River Seine.They include Auguste Renoir，Claude Monet，Edouard Manet，and Gustave Caillebotte.Monet chose to live near the river in the village of Giverny，not far from Paris.The Seine also features in the work of later French artists，including one of Georges Seurat's best-known pointillist paintings，A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte-1884（La Grande Jatte is an island in the Seine，at that time used as a bucolic retreat from the grimy centre of Paris）.The Seine also provided early inspiration for the Fauvist painters Henri Matisse and Maurice de Vlaminck before they moved to the warmer climes of the Mediterranean.

Elsewhere in Europe，John Constable，the English Romantic painter of the early 19th century，is intimately associated with the River Stour particularly.Constable was born in East Bergholt，a.village on the Stour in East Anglia，and the area around the river-Dedham Vale-has become known since the artist's lifetime as Constable Country.At more or less the same time，the work of the Chernetsov brothers on the River Volga sparked a greater appreciation of landscape in Russian art（see below）.

In North America，an artist named Thomas Cole made his first trip up the Hudson River to Catskill in 1825 and the paintings that resulted from this foray created a sensation in the nascent New York art world.The resulting Hudson River School lays claim to being the first coherent school of art in the USA.The group's members initially focused on panoramas along the Hudson in New York State，in celebration of the untamed landscapes，but their scope later widened to include subjects as distant as South America and the Arctic.Another US artist whose work is closely associated with a river，in this case the Mississippi，is John Banvard.In 1840，Banvard began painting large panoramas of the Mississippi which eventually culminated in a canvas some 800 metres in length（about half a mile，although it was advertised as being three miles long）.Banvard put his work on display to the paying public and later took the Mississippi panorama to Europe，where he gave a private view to Queen Victoria in Windsor Castle，near London，in 1849.

The Volga：soul of Russia

Europe's longest river，the Volga，occupies a special place in the Russian psyche as a beloved symbol of national culture.Venerated in folklore，song，poetry，and painting，‘Mother River’or‘Mother Volga’represents the country's vast open spaces and embodies the lifeblood of Russia's history.The river was portrayed as a symbol of Russia in the sentimental poetry of several 19th-century writers，including Nicolai Karamzin，Ivan Dmitriev，and Nicolai Nekrasov.Prince Pyotr Viazemskii，a leading figure in the so-called Golden Age of Russian poetry during the first half of the 19th century，celebrated the Volga‘as a marker of nationality’.The lives of Volga river people were also vividly portrayed in the novels and stories of Maxim Gorky，one-time dishwasher on a Volga steamship whose early years were spent in the city of Nizhny Novgorod，at the confluence of the Volga and the River Oka.

Esteem for the Volga is a familiar focus of Russian folk songs，epitomized by the‘Song of the Volga Boatmen’，a shanty traditionally sung by the river's barge-haulers who，in the era before steam，used to haul vessels along certain stretches of the river using ropes from the shore.The song was popularized by the operatic bass singer Feodor Chaliapin，himself born in the Volga region.It is intimately linked with the famous oil painting of the same name，by Ilya Repin，a striking depiction of the peasantry's terrible working conditions in Tsarist Russia，echoed in a Nekrasov poem：‘Along the river there were barge-haulers，/and their funereal cry was unbearably wild.’Repin's work，completed in 1873，also managed to capture the dignity and fortitude of the barge-haulers，and represented a key stage in the development of the national realist school of painting.The latter half of the 19th century was a time when the river，its towns，villages，and surroundings were increasingly depicted on canvas by such celebrated Russian artists as Isaac Levitan，Ivan Shishkin，and Boris Kustidiyev.The work of Levitan particularly is known throughout Russia for its propensity to reflect the soul of Russian nature.He spent several summers on the river，and some of his best-known paintings capture the changing light，rhythm of life，and the beauty and serenity of the Volga's scenery.

Serious appreciation of the rural landscape in Russian art has been traced back to 1838，when two brothers，Grigory and Nikanor Chernetsov，were dispatched by the Ministry of the Imperial Palace under Tsar Nicholas I to travel the length of the Volga from Rybinsk to Astrakhan on a‘voyage of discovery’，commissioned to draw panoramic views of‘the beautiful places on both banks of the Volga’.The result was a cyclorama some 600 metres long that was put on display in St Petersburg，in a room decorated to resemble a ship's cabin and equipped with sound effects to simulate the river journey.Sadly，the epic work did not survive the numerous unwindings of these viewings，but the Chernetsovs'journals and travel notes remain，along with some of their working sketches and oil paintings.

On film，a classic movie from the Soviet era is the musical comedy Volga，Volga，said to have been a favourite of the leader Joseph Stalin.The film tells the story of a talented folk singer who overcomes petty bureaucrats to travel to Moscow for a music contest and is set largely on a Volga steamboat named The Josef Stalin.First released in 1938，its light-hearted escapism stood in stark contrast to the economic hardships and political purges occurring in the Soviet Union at the time.

Music

Three water nymphs from the River Rhine are central characters in the monumental four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen（usually known in English simply as the Ring Cycle）by Richard Wagner.The Rhine maidens（nixie borrowed from Germanic folklore-see Chapter 2），are guardians of the Rheingold，a treasure hidden in the river which is stolen and turned into the ring at the centre of the mid-19th-century epic.They appear in the first and last scenes，eventually rising from the waters of the Rhine to reclaim the ring from the ashes of Brünnhilde's funeral pyre.

The charm and romance of the Danube is evoked in The Waves of the Danube，a waltz composed in 1880 by the Romanian Ion Ivanovici，but the waltz written 14 years earlier by the Austrian conductor and composer Johann Strauss the Younger is more widely acclaimed.An der schönen blauen Donau，better known in English as the Blue Danube，has been one of the most consistently popular pieces of classical music ever since.

Johann Strauss lived and worked in Vienna，then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire，a centre of high culture and classical music.In Bohemia，at the time part of the empire，the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana wrote a cycle of nationalistic symphonic poems entitled Ma vlast（My Country），of which his portrait of the Vltava River remains the most popular piece.The musical depiction of the river's course across Bohemia flows through forests and meadows，past ruined castles and a peasant wedding，before sweeping majestically through Prague to join the River Elbe.The evocative piece cemented Smetana's position as one of the founders of the Czech nationalist movement and‘Vltava’is considered by many to be the unofficial national anthem of the Czech Republic.

The Mississippi is another river with a very strong musical tradition，particularly along its lower reaches where the river flows through that region of the USA known as the Deep South，a culturally cohesive farming area dominated by cotton plantations during the 19th and much of the 20th century.The various styles of music that originated along this part of the Mississippi have been enjoyed all over North America and beyond.The blues were created on the Mississippi Delta，the alluvial floodplains that stretch between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers，while further downstream the city of New Orleans gave rise to boogie-woogie and jazz.The blues became fused with gospel music to spawn rhythm and blues，rock‘n’roll，and soul music.Louis Armstrong，B.B.King，Chuck Berry，Jerry Lee Lewis，Elvis Presley，and Aretha Franklin are among the internationally renowned musicians of the 20th century born and raised on the banks of the Mississippi.

Rivers in literature

Authors and poets have used rivers in numerous ways.A river can serve not only as a geographical feature but as a literary device，its constant movement and direction giving impetus to a narrative.The river journey is one of the most common river metaphors，linking the past to the present，doubling as the journey through life，presenting insights into the experience of growing up.As a setting in fiction，the river bank offers a sense of destiny and hints at the possibility of self-discovery.

An assessment of the various ways rivers are used as poetic devices in Roman literature highlights how this vigorous and variable element of the landscape interacts with the dynamics of poetry.The river can be a mediator between poetry and poet，the flow of the river can become part of the narrative and may form part of a narrative structure.Not least in the epic Aeneid（19 BC）of Virgil，where the river serves as a symbol for directional progress，the journey being simultaneously spatial，temporal，and literary.The River Tiber is where Aeneas begins his travels in Italy and also provides a course for the narrative.

Another example of a river driving a poetic narrative is found in Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem The Lady ofShalott（1833）.Everything in the poem follows the movement of the river.While the lady sits in her tower，the river reflects the world passing her by as it flows downstream to Camelot.When Sir Lancelot trots past on his horse，the lady leaves the tower and joins the reality of the river，unchaining the boat on its bank and writing her name on its prow，effectively discovering herself by establishing her identity.Her boat floats down the river to Camelot，where she dies.

Freedom，change，and metamorphosis，all qualities inherent in the course of a large river，appear clearly as themes in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn（1885），a quintessential river story set on the Mississippi.Huck Finn，the son of an abusive，alcoholic father，flees on a raft with his friend Jim，a runaway slave，down the Mississippi river.Their journey represents escape from oppression，a broken family life，racial discrimination，and social injustice，and the book draws on the author's own boyhood experiences along the Mississippi.Samuel Clemens-Twain's real name-also worked as a riverboat pilot in his twenties，an experience that gave him his pen-name，taken from a frequent call made by the man sounding the depth of the river in shallow places.Relayed to the pilot in order to keep the boat from running aground，‘mark twain’meant‘by the mark two fathoms’.

The change and renewal are more fantastical in The Water Babies（1863），Charles Kingsley's classic children's novel，which begins with the boy Tom，a chimney sweep，seeking a river's cleansing properties.Tom escapes his terrible life to find freedom in the river but，after his adventures as a water baby，he is finally reborn in human form once more，in a moral tale of Christian redemption.One of the most powerful works of fiction centred upon an urban river，Charles Dickens'OurMutual Friend was begun the year after publication of Kingsley's novel.Published in serial form，it uses the River Thames in Victorian London to bestow rebirth and renewal upon several characters and is awash with watery imagery.The Thames is used in a similar way to change identity by William Boyd in his book Ordinary Thunderstorms（2009），a novel he was prompted to write by learning that the police pull a dead body from the river every week on average.

In literature，rivers are also used as agents of transformation through their representation of boundaries or thresholds，so that the practice of crossing a river precipitates some sort of change.Rivers can unify or divide，act as companion or god.Embracing the essential mysteries of nature，rivers can embody the pursuit of wisdom.They can be used to explore the physical world for our moral and intellectual，as well as physical，orientation.And of course，even within a single work，a river has many meanings.

The Congo：Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is considered by many to be the ultimate‘modernist’novel，a work of great complexity designed to reflect the complexity of experience we find in the real world.The thread running through the book，Africa's Congo River，helps to lend both direction and form to its uncertainties.The story is a simple quest，an adventurous journey upriver by one man，Marlow，in search of another，Kurtz.This is a physical journey，into a continent along a river，but also a moral and political journey，confronting the harsh realities of colonialism（Kurtz is a lost agent who works for a Belgian companyinvolved in the ivory trade）.The journey also works on another level still，becoming a psychological trip，undertaken by Marlow and the reader，in which we descend into ourselves to confront our basic drives and impulses，weaknesses and needs，a descent into the underworld that is the‘Heart of Darkness’.

The book is constructed as a tale within a tale，the narrative beginning on the estuary of the River Thames，where four men sit on the deck of a ship listening to Marlow tell his story of a trip to Africa in his youth.The setting allows the implications of what happens in the‘dark places’of a far-away continent to reverberate through the seemingly safe and comfortable world of the audience.

During Marlow's voyage upriver，an image of Kurtz gradually emerges.A man who started out as a force for good has been corrupted by the exercise of power.Kurtz has acquired a status in the local African community that is almost divine，a position consolidated by his use of force：he has plundered the countryside for its ivory，shooting people at will and displaying their skulls on his picket fence as a symbol of his authority.Marlow'a journey into the heart of Africa is an exploration of the shadowy underbelly of the European Enlightenment，the language of reason，and the rhetoric of imperialism.

Conrad's Heart of Darkness was first published in serial form in Blackwood's Magazine right at the end of the 19th century，and as a book in 1902.Towards the end of the 20th century，Marlow's river trip was re-enacted in another classic of fiction，this time on celluloid，in Francis Ford Coppola's spectacular film about the Vietnam War，Apocalypse Now（1979）.The movie，although of course ostensibly set on another continent，showed that Conrad's story still had numerous contemporary echoes almost a century after its creation.Colonel Kurtz，a special forces commander driven insane by power，played by Marlon Brando，still represents the corrupted voice of Enlightenment，humanism，and supposed progress.The film，like the book，develops imagery and characters that can be interpreted as a searing criticism of war，racism，and colonialism.However，both book and film have also been viewed as expressions of the hypocritical values they are trying to expose.

Coppola's film also came with a tale within a tale，simultaneously generating the documentary film Hearts ofDarkness，a record of the making of Apocalypse Now that was a testimony to real-life corruption，decadence，and insanity worthy of the fictional Kurtz.In all cases-the book，the film，and the film about the film-the story is told only from the perspective of the outsiders.No effort is made to understand the alien continent through which the river flows.This can be criticized as emblematic of Europe's mythologizing of Africa in general，and of the Congo in particular，and of the USA's blinkered crusade for freedom and democracy.But this lack of an alternative frame of reference is also essential to the multi-faceted objectives of each story.Each is intended to be an essentially solitary journey involving profound spiritual change in the voyager，a mission to the very centre of things that cannot find simple answers to the questions of human existence.Kurtz's character remains as enigmatic as the darkness in which he has taken up residence.In each case，the river plays a pivotal role，in Conrad's words，as a conduit for the‘dreams of men’and the‘germs of empires’.