n Chrtien's account, the necessary Question is: Who is served by the grail?. so that the profits rise quicker and quicker.. In Arthurian legends, the Fisher King, also known as the Wounded King or Maimed King, is the last in a long line charged with keeping the Holy Grail. n the medieval Grail romances, the hero visits the Grail Castle twice. Andrea Lagomarsino sees echoes of Eliot in the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a self-proclaimed admirer of the poet and The Waste Land. Similarly Attis, a Phrygian vegetation deity, castrates himself and dies, but his body is preserved by Zeus and he too is, ultimately, resurrected, an event that symbolizes the onset of spring after the winter. The Four Conditions: Blessed, Broken, Given, Received. Today, the moral code is ignored as industrial fishing fleets, owned by a wealthy minority, wipe out the fish stocks on which many subsistence fishermen rely, so that the many are impoverished for the wealth of the few. For members of the Hip Hop generation who came of age during the Black Power era, reality rap was an entry into the political power of Black history. This version of the story comes from the 1991 movie, The Fisher King, directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Robin Williams. The Fisher King: The 'Fisher King' or 'Wounded King' from the grail series of Arthurian tales is perhaps one of the more intriguing of the otherworldly regal male characters of the traditions. In Arthurian legend, the Fisher King is a man tasked with guarding and keeping the Holy Grail. Thanks a mill. In it the character Madame Sosostris, a fortune teller, pulls from her tarot deck, the man with three staves. In his footnote, Eliot writes that this man is one [he] associate[s], quite arbitrarily, with the Fisher King himself.. he myth of Perceval is part of a larger tradition of stories about young heroes who are brought to a test or trial. Fisher King The story of the Fisher King varies, depending on the author, but in general he's a descendant of Joseph of Arimathea, and the last protector of the Grail. Character Name Variants: Roi Pescheor, Rich Fisherman Background Essay Author: Alan Lupack. On his first meeting with the Fisher King, he is afraid to ask. The other is The Golden Bough by James George Frazer (1890), which tracks the connections between organized religions and early fertility rituals. Over the last century, it is likely that 95 percent of them have been killed, driven to the verge of extinction. It is, in William Sayers words, a traditional Celtic royal death-tale recounting the fate of an elderly king who is wounded in the leg by a domestic implement in a maritime setting, he wrote in Arthuriana. land. We have caught the prevailing wind of technology and have sailed right past the truth. Myth is the collective emotional past on which the actions of mankind are often unconsciously based. Somehow the issue of human population reduction unleashes a negative reaction in people no matter how obviously connected to the human dilemma it is. In making the story of the Fisher King central to The Waste Land, Eliot drew from rich literary and religious scholarship that goes beyond Arthurian legends. In the Post-Vulgate cycle and Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, the Fisher King's wound was given to him by Sir Balin in the "Dolorous Strok", when Balin grabs a spear and stabs Pellam in self-defense. Worse, its effects creep out, killing everything around him so the abundance and richness of life is reduced to barren waste. This concept of punishment is also seen in Eschenbach's tale where Perceval is told: "your uncle gave you a sword, too, by which you have been granted since your eloquent mouth unfortunately voiced no question there. It is a story that, to this day, survives in adapted form in video games, TV shows, and fiction; some see echoes of the Fisher King in the paralyzed character Bran Stark in Game of Thrones. Chief Seattle had a lot of wisdom to say about this as well. Interesting Literature is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.co.uk. According to Betsey Creekmore, the tarot Madame Sosostris pulls features the image of a man in green vegetation interspersed with rocks, and the three staves he holds are living boughs. Gone! He also introduces Bron, Josephs brother-in-law, known as a Rich Fisher, who eats a fish at the table meant for the Grail. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The enclosures instituted a mere market economy in which absolute rights or property ownership prevailed. document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); JSTOR Daily provides context for current events using scholarship found in JSTOR, a digital library of academic journals, books, and other material. Although such a devastating stupidity has been unleashed on them, the oceans themselves are associated with deep wisdom. Will Jackson's Thranduil need healing? Gurnemanz laughs. The sixth mass extinction, some call it. Rather, its a series of behaviors, which Eliot himself illustrates in the close of What The Thunder Said: Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata Sanskrit for Give, Show Compassion, Act with [self] control. Change is, indeed, a process. Same for all the other stories. This is then followed by Perceval's cousin's prophecy that the sword will break at a crucial moment. In the sacred Hindu text the Rigveda, Indra frees the rivers that had been seized by the giant Vritra, thus restoring the land. In the meantime, a maiden asks Perceval, Did you ask the question Whom does the Grail serve? Perceval admits he did not, and the maiden reveals that because of this failure the king will not be healed. In the Vulgate, Pelles is the son of Pellehan, but the Post-Vulgate is less clear about their relationship. wise becomes the quintessence of Parsifal's character, the question is not based on compassion. The Arthurian legend of the Fisher King illustrates how a crisis can have deeper meaning. and the beginning of survival.. A possible answer would be: The old king, whose heir you are. In other versions, the wound is in the thigh, which may suggest the groin but may not have sexual symbolism. "The Fisher King", was a psychotic budding serial killer, stalker, hacker, bomber, one-time abductor, and one-time proxy killer who appeared in Seasons One and Two on Criminal Minds. Eventually, life loses its reason for him. By the time he finds the Grail Castle again, the hero has achieved enlightenment and is able to ask the Question and so bring healing. "[16] The sword remains as a plot device to both remind Perceval of how he failed to ask the healing question and as a physical reminder of the existence of "Munsalvaesche" (Eschenbach's name for Corbenic). [6] In some early storylines Percival asks the Fisher King the healing question, which cures the wound. The story of the Fisher King is itself an allegory for Parry's quest to find his Holy Grail. 49, No. This entails surfacing the feelings of being wronged, discharging the emotion, clarifying actions and consequences, seeking shared vision and goals, establishing restitution for wrongs, and reaffirming spiritual and human connectedness before ending. I believe "Sir, why do you suffer so?" is another suitable question under the situation. He hunches silently over his fishing rod in a sea of silence, catching nothing except the reflection of his own shroud in the dead water. The Fisher King first appears in Chrtien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail in the late 12th century, but the character's roots may lie in Celtic mythology. In this telling of the story, a fool wanders in and finds the Holy Grail rather than a noble knight. However, I firmly believe there is an even larger item (lesson) embedded within this article. The Fisher King is emblematic of contemporary culture. The only solution is to turn around and sailing windward. all the creatures that are being stripped, sharks of fins are just one The wound will not heal although many learned healers are sent for over the years. Perhaps by the time he has the courage and/or faith to do so, he has matured and is able to fulfill four conditions: to be blessed, broken, given, and received. Eliots Fisher King may appear not only as any hero of myth or romance but also as any hero or anti-hero of literature, history, or real life, writes Patricia Sloane in Arthuriana. He gives this cauldron to the king of Ireland as a wedding gift for him and Bran's sister Branwen. Anyone who is acquainted with these works will immediately recognize in the poem certain references to vegetation ceremonies, Eliot teased. (This is an idea which Monty Python had a lot of fun with in their film about Arthur and the Holy Grail.) Usually, Percival and Galahad are depicted as chaste knights, forgoing all pleasures of the flesh so that they may purify themselves and thus prove themselves worthy of finding the Holy Grail. 908-928, The Centennial Review, Vol. There (In other versions of the legend, Percival is related to the Pelles family). Maybe we should consider some of the ancient methods used to transform deluded people into true humans? It appears that Malory intended to have one Maimed King who was wounded by Balin and suffered until healed by his grandson Galahad, but he never successfully reconciled his sources. But bluefin tuna are a delicacy, particularly in Japan, and Japanese companies including Mitsubishi have been stockpiling them in giant freezers, shoring up their profits from the ruin of extinction. In the UK, the enclosure of common land in the sixteenth century followed exactly this pattern. Barber, Richard (2004). The location of the wound is significant to the legend. As a literary character, the Fisher King originates in Chrtien de Troyes' unfinished writings of the adventures of Perceval. The earliest sources show him suffering a moral woundinga result not of accident but of his own ethical failings. Ive enjoyed them since childhood. The wound does not heal. The land has become barren due to the Grail King's un-healing wound. The Fisher King is a character in Chrtien's Perceval (1180)[5] which is the first of a series of stories and texts on the subject of Perceval and the Grail. As a result the king may appear poorly or not very kingly. The bluefin, said Oppian, lust after the frenzy of mating in the spring. Today, their creation of new life is what kills them: the plumes of surging sexual energy in their spawning grounds are tracked by spotter planes that then send in the fishing fleets. It concerns me that, particularly in the wealthy northern countries, we can use a technically flawed argument on population growth to avoid responsibility for our extremely high resource use. The end of living Impotence. As historian E. P. Thompson put it, before enclosure there was a moral economy, based on reciprocal obligation, customary rights, and mutuality. It is worse now than growing up. For a king that had no son, his nephew might be the chosen heir. Earlier folks just didnt know how to express it right. . What can I say? This is Percival in earlier stories; in later . So at the last world conference of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) there was a call to list the bluefin. In each case, the hero is the son of the king's sister. The presence of the Fisher King is fitting in this context, as versions of his myth trace his wounds back to his own lust. The healing question, the timely question, is this: whom does the Grail serve? The Fisher King is a figure in Arthurian legend, the last in a long line of British kings tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. The Grail is the cup of the Last Supper, a precious, magical food provider, and Percevals question is as mysterious as the wounded kings moral failure. One such condition is the question. Compare also Tristram/Tristan and his uncle King I too consider the Fisher King motif an apposite one. Similarly, of course, the Fisher King must give them the Grail in order to be healed, at least in many versions of the legend. The mass of ocean writing is a heap of broken plastic words: stock, fisheries, industry, offshore, tonnage, commercial fleets, sea cages, fish farms, subsidies. Rossellinis 1950 film Stromboli, with Ingrid Bergman, records an actual celebration of the Mattanza, an ancient Sicilian communal and spiritual ritual of fishing for bluefin tuna. Question would heal both king and land. Yep, you guys are right. [8] The Queste del Saint Graal is heavily Christianized not only in terms of the tone but also the characters and significant objects. Brown, Arthur (1910). In all tellings, the Grail is a coveted object with miraculous power and is pursued by knights on a quest. The Fisher King, keeper of the Holy Grail, is an enigmatic figure in literature: a rich king wounded by his own spear. Sure, Ive seen the raw stats and read the accounts of trawling and it has indeed impacted me Ive scuba dived for scallops and left them on the sea bed because they looked so at home, much to the bewilderment of my fellow diver; Ive stopped insisting on line caught fish, and simply turned vegetarian. In Parzival, specifically, the king is injured by the bleeding lance as punishment for taking a wife, which was against the code of the "Grail Guardians". In Perceval and Parzival, the lance is described as having "barbaric properties" which are difficult to associate with Christian influence. A solution is not so much about drastic cuts in human population (and how ever that might be enacted), but about healing a wound. I know all this. So, while I feel the pain, and mourn the loss, in the dying of the great creatures of the oceans, the loss of the single most effective regulator of climate in the bio-zone is cause for much greater concern. Get your fix of JSTOR Dailys best stories in your inbox each Thursday. The Grail maidens become angels, there is a constant relationship between the knights and religious symbolism; most importantly, the Fisher King is replicated as a priest-like figure. 1180), where the knight Perceval is on his way home to see his mother. 22, No. The wound is extremely painful and prevents the king from doing his duties; all he can do is fish. I like to revisit an article from time to time and focus on something I may not have given much time to. this is to me a very weird article I agree that Callum Robertss book is important, and a rallying call for all of us (plus it is beautifully written). In all, what emerges in most accounts, but mostly in Eliots The Waste Land, though, is the Fisher Kings multi-dimensionality: a character bestowed with power, who has strayed and who explicitly needs help in order to be healed. Good comments He then understands through emotional identification with the suffering Fisher King. When the inaugural issue of the prestigious literary magazine Criterion hit shelves in October 1922, it included a 434-line-long poem by a little-known American author who spent his days as a banker at Lloyds. June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month around the world, so the JSTOR Daily editors have rounded up a few of our favorite stories to mark the occasion. Truly inspiring article. It is also sometimes described as the cup used at the Last Supper, where Jesus entreated his disciples to drink wine in memory of him, the wine symbolising his blood. Yet, upon waking he finds the castle is gone. Given what tendency is winning, despite some nice parks and wilderness areas, obviously something more than nice sentiments is needed. MORE TREES, CORAL AND PHYTOPLANKTON, LESS PEOPLE! In other words, they must show themselves to be devoted to Christ in order to come into possession of the Grail which caught Christs blood. first visit to the Grail Castle. He comes upon a large body of water and two men in a boat; one of them is fishing. [2] He may be derived from the figure of Brn the Blessed in the Mabinogion. I for one appreciated Griffiths use of the Fisher King as an organizing idea and way into her piece. [1] Unable to walk or ride a horse, he is sometimes depicted as spending his time fishing while he awaits a "chosen one" who can heal him. This page last updated (added BASE to meta tags) ---. Thank you for exposing more of their disgusting arrogance, and for connecting it to that which stirs our souls. A ccording to the tales, Parsifal only needed to ask the question in order for healing to occur. The Fisher King was charged by God with the care of the Holy Grail, but when he lost it, he became very depressed. There is a terrible, toxic poetry to this. Ironically, the capitalist countries (while they still survive) will be the people who approach and solve these problems, not the anti-democratic tyrannies where ordinary people count for nothing, because the states run for the top one percent of one percent like North Korea will always have enough for their rulers, even while innocents perish. The Fisher King study guide contains a biography of director Terry Gilliam, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Although it was a last-minute addition, the myth of the Fisher King plays an important part in one of the greatest poems of the twentieth century: T. S. Eliots modernist poem The Waste Land (1922). Its easy to see the reason behind the legends popularity: its archetypal, hence adaptable, and, much like the protagonists of Greek tragedies such as Oedipus, Orestes, and even Medea, he transcends the binary between hero and villain. Thank you Jay Griffiths. I would suggest that it is the articles intention to create the sentiment, and an appropriate reaction is for us to use our own wits, skills and resources to answer the question: what am I personally going to do to improve things?. In the critic Helen Gardners phrase, the Fisher King is behind rather than in the poem. As that marticular need grows, more countries will get involved. 1 (Jan., 1944), pp. Suffice it to recall the Babylonian story of Ishtar, who passes part of the year in the lower world, which leads to general sterility, writes Alexander Krappe in Modern Language Review. Technology has turned us into kings, but intelligent ethics has not kept pace, and humanity itself will suffer from this self-wounding. Aside from passing his days fishing, the Fisher King has little to do except to wait for the coming of a noble knight who might be able to heal his wound for him. The transition from a money economy based on domestic and global exploitation to an economy based on reciprocity and communitarian efforts is slow-going because it is a radical paradigm shift from self-interest to other-awareness and identification. Passing the test may bring a kingdom, riches or some gift; failing the test may bring death or exclusion. The unasked Question is the opposite of a riddle and therefore a more difficult test. The name 'Jmon' means cord-marked, referring to the . In one sense, he didnt: he had written much of the poem before he encountered the myth and decided to use it as a way of bringing together many disparate elements of his poem: social and spiritual decay, sexual pleasures unaccompanied by a deeper sacred significance, and, of course, the motif of a waste land. Thoreau, John Muir, William Blake, Native Peoples, on and on have cried out against this destructive inclination to commercialize everything. And yes there is a huge desensitation to natures ways that goes with the process. We publish articles grounded in peer-reviewed research and provide free access to that research for all of our readers. Many in his line are wounded for their failings, and the only two that survived to Arthur's day are the Wounded King, named Pellehan (Pellam of Listeneise in Malory), and the Fisher King, Pelles. With Perceval the matter stands differently. Will the Green man save the oceans? . Jay Griffithss books include A Sideways Look at Time, A Country Called Childhood, and Savage Grace, originally published as Wild: An Elemental Journey, winner of the Orion Book Award. "Bran, Odin, and the Fisher King: Norse Tradition and the Grail Legends." To return to Monty Python, the Fisher King myth is given a modern twist in ex-Python Terry Gilliams 1991 film The Fisher King, in which Jeff Bridges character can only be psychologically and spiritually healed for his past sins by encountering Robin Williams character, who tells him about the legend of the Fisher King. He cannot be king, but he cannot die, and von Eschenbach explicitly depicts his pain, which can temporarily be relieved by the touch of a spear. I too appreciated the lyricism of this postings call to whatever, while also appreciating David Ms critique of its rather rough opening myth metaphor, and his banging on the population problem. Callum Roberts says bluntly that fishing needs to be curtailed to half its current level and abundant, interconnected, well-policed marine reserves established. The fish is raised in densely populated ponds and fed corn and testosterone (to reverse sex and assure a population of exclusively male, larger bodied fish). Privacy Policy Contact Us 1, Wagner and the Arthurian Legend (SPRING 2001), pp. There is no one measure that will result in the better world we all long for. In Parzival, the lance is "poisonous" which contrasts sharply with the general trend of healing Christian themes. We all know that 70+% of the earth is covered with oceans. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); King Arthur's knights, gathered at the Round Table to celebrate Pentecost, see a vision of the Holy Grail. Mind if I go on with my illusions that it is? The simple act of asking the question immediately heals the Grail King and the entire Castle erupts in celebration! (great article by the way). And it is not a knight or even the fool who asks a question to discover the source of healing, it is the King. After the Great Flood the mythical fish did not return, so human scholars took on their role, dressing in fish cloaks with fins and tails. Neil, This is another example of the tragedy of the commons . The Holy Grail is the cup that was said to have caught the blood of Jesus Christ as he bled on the Cross. Both he and the land will only become well when a knight asks the right question. He is distinct from Pelles, who has just been sent out of the room, and who is, anyway, at least mobile. In part because of this overfishing, tilapia (until recently considered a junk fish) is now the second most eaten fish in America. Where will the thicket be? He resides in the castle of Corbinec in Listenois. Cambridge: Harvard University. And in Norse myth, it is the god Odin who shares similarities with the Fisher King: the poem Hvaml, which appears in a 13th-century manuscript, relates how, in order to acquire the knowledge of the runes, Odin hung on the World Tree for nine days and nights, pierced by a spear, not eating or drinking, until he saw the runes and took them. A character from the Arthurian literary cycle dating as far back as the 12th century, the Fisher King is the guardian of the Grail, originally conceived of as a platter; later versions of the story explain it as a chalice from which Christ drank at the Last Supper, ergo its holiness. . [11] In Chrtien's Perceval, the lance takes on a dark and almost evil persona[11] and also seems to overshadow the Grail, which, were this a Christian story, would be rather odd. There are some historical reasons for this but whatever the reasons it has become the elephant in the room that almost everyone wants to ignore or deny. On the other hand, The Fisher King covers more of Thranduil's character a great king that is strongly linked to his kingdom. Pelles and his relative Pellehan appear in both the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate cycles and in later works, such as Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (in which Pellehan is called Pellam). Japan lobbied against it. Just to get it on the record, I have no problems with myths and stories. I guess through doing what we can -making an effort, writing articles,laying bare the facts and lobbying wherever appropriate. What is important is not the question, but the recovery of the But for me, not a familiar treatment of it and I find it has a different impact. Today, the market economy is king, and the moral economy is wounded. ITHAKA. In medieval times, acknowledging the actual type of wound was considered to rob a man of his dignity, thus the use of the substitute terms "groin" or "thigh", although any informed medieval listener or reader would have known exactly the real nature of the wound. spear (Cosima's Diary, 30 January 1877). Joseph founds a religious community that travels eventually to Britain and entrusts the Grail to Bron (who is called the "Rich Fisher" because he catches a fish eaten at the Grail table). original thinker, again. That being said, there are two interesting exceptions to this case. In most medieval stories, the mention of a wound in the groin or more commonly the "thigh" (such as the wounding of the ineffective suitor in Lanval from the Lais of Marie de France) is a euphemism for the physical loss of or grave injury to one's genitalia. The noble knight usually does come: it is either Percival alone or, in later versions, Percival accompanied by Galahad and Bors, knights of the Round Table of King Arthur, who have come seeking the Holy Grail, for which they have been on a quest for some time. Very simply, we serve something far greater than ourselves. ELIOT'S "THE WASTE LAND", An Archaic Tale-Type Determinant of Chrtien's Fisher King and Grail, Prisoners Like Us: German POW and Black American Solidarity, How Rap Taught (Some of) the Hip Hop Generation Black History, Hysteria, Indigenous Identities, and Cocaine Bear, Fast and Pluribus: Impacts of a Globalizing McDonalds, About the American Prison Newspapers Collection, Submissions: American Prison Newspapers Collection. What a rare and beautifully written article. The injury is a common theme in the telling of the Grail Quest. Final Jmon dog () earthenware figure (c. 1000 - 400 BC) ( CC BY-SA 4.0) The Jmon period in Japanese history extended from circa 14,000-300 BC and represents an epoch when diverse hunter-gatherer groups merged with early agriculturalists through a common Jmon culture. As an aside, some might be more familiar with the trope of fertility and land restoration being associated with goddesses. Sure, there are some Celtic elements in the story. The Grail is the cup of the Last Supper, a precious, magical food provider, and Perceval's question is as mysterious as the wounded king's moral failure. And there are also Christlike parallels in the Fisher King himself: in his wound inflicted by a spear (the Gospels tell us that, at the Crucifixion, Jesus was wounded in his side by a spear), in his kingliness (Jesus was Crucified as King of the Jews), and even in his pastime, fishing in the river, which recalls the importance of the fisherman in Christianity (Simon Peter being a fisherman, in whose honour the Papal ring is known as the Fishermans ring). And the night before the vote, which Japan won, the Japanese embassy served delegates a grail supper, a last supper, a banquetof bluefin tuna. I suggested we remove the 20% and see what happens. Eliot acknowledged his debt to Westons book (as well as to a work of comparative mythology by James Frazer, The Golden Bough) in his notes to The Waste Land. As in Perceval, Eschenbach's story does not have Parzival ask the healing question initially, which results in him Questing for years. The two pieces that hold particularly stronger Christian themed deviations than prior works are the Quested del Saint Graal and the Sone de Nausay. The mystery is generally that of the hero's descent which, most A possible answer would be: Sometimes there is another, older king who remains hidden from the Eliot encountered the story of the Fisher King in Jessie L. Westons 1920 book From Ritual to Romance, which discusses this and other Arthurian legends. Knights travel from many lands to heal the Fisher King, but only the chosen can accomplish the feat. When the young knight Perceval arrives, he has the opportunity (which he misses) to pose the right question to the king. There is a moment in the story when the woundof both the king and his environmentcould be healed, not by medicine or technology but by insight. [9], The bleeding lance has taken numerous forms throughout the Arthurian literature chronology. In itself, deliverance as the result of the right kind of question is a universal, i.e. Who heals the Fisher King? The further step of mistaking them as the same character is understandable; Malory confuses the brothers. There is something unhallowed in the extinctions we cause knowingly, a devastation of the soul when the holy grail of profit is pursued at the cost of life itself. At the dawn of Western civilization, in the Sumerian period, wisdom was said to come when messengers of the gods in the shape of fish would spend their nights in the sweet water below the ocean and in daytime pass on their knowledgeof the moral code and the artsto humans. The search for identity is also . Whales and dolphins are known to possess enormous intelligence, and the oceans have long symbolized depths of thought and immersive insight. The cry across the globe should be; save the oceans, plant a tree and save the earth! Not just, plant a tree and save the earth. If we let the devastation of the great waters progress to its natural end point, planting a tree, or even many trees, will avail us nothing.. SC you are getting overly literal on me. What question heals the Fisher King? Hi, David M.Somehow the issue of human population reduction unleashes a negative reaction in people no matter how obviously connected to the human dilemma it is. I have no problem with the bloat of the film. Undergirding the action is one of the most well-known, yet enigmatic myths in Western tradition, namely the legend of the Fisher King, which contains elements of your standard heroic quest, the restoration of the land, and cyclical fertility rites. Son of the story of the Grail serve interesting exceptions to this a fortune teller, pulls from her deck! To time and focus on something i may not have Parzival ask the question is based... 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