Wishing you a season full of delights!

Fragments of decorative wall plaster from Roman Lincoln (Lindum). The fragments came from the Greetwell villa site in Lincoln (sadly destroyed by quarrying during the C19th), and are now part of the collections at Lincoln Museum. 📷 My own. #FrescoFriday #RomanBritain

Not pictured: the home made chicken soup I had today that reminded me of how true this is.

Egyptian Arabic idiom of the day: daʿawātkum "Pray for me", lit. "your supplications." E.g. قدامي امتحان صعب، دعواتكم uddāmī imtiḥān ṣaʿb, daʿawātkum "I have a hard exam, pray for me."

For the feast of Saint Edmund Martyr, here is one of my favourite depictions of the wolf that guarded Edmund's head - a marginal drawing appearing by the lesson before the one in which the wolf is mentioned. Or so I interpret this figure. [MS Pierpont Morgan 736, f.187]

TFW you try to say what people expect you to say instead of what you really think and you end up tripping all over your words.

Remember: they used thousands of academic books too! If you’re a scholar, check for your books too. This isn’t just novelists and pop writers, it’s academic books too!

TFW you realize people will show you who they are if you pay attention.

Beware of the Salamander! BL Royal 12 C XIX; Bestiary; 13th century; England; f.68v

TFW: you see the cracks starting to spread and then you remember…

The Supermoon is rising…

Happy Halloween!

Wishing you a safe and happy e’en, despite everything…

This week’s proverb gets straight to the point:

🎃Time for the Halloween Bash #Raffle! 🗓The raffle runs from October 1-31 @ 11:59 PM. 1 lucky winner will be randomly selected on November 1 👻#Donate and Enter for a Chance to a SASA Halloween Gift Basket!!! ➡️Click here to purchase a raffle ticket now! saveancientstudies.org/halloweenbash#Raffle

"Öd Teŋri yaşar; kişi oglı kop ölgeli törümiş."

TFW it’s autumn, it’s getting cold, the wildflowers are gone, and the trees are bare.

The Snorri Sturluson Icelandic Fellowships invite writers, translators, and scholars in the humanities from around the world to spend at least three months in Iceland. Fellows receive support for travel and living expenses during their stay. Apply by 1 December. arnastofnun.is/en/snorri-st...

I got distracted by some fragment work this evening, & I was happy to revisit this little detail from a fourteenth-century German breviary, containing the feast of the dedication of a church. [Syddansk Universitetsbibliotek, RARA Musik M 4]

Current mood:

… it doesn’t sit back and weigh its options, it doesn’t hedge its bets. Love is always all in.

The eagle of justice with open wings, made by the congregated souls in Paradiso Canto XIX Bodleian Library MS. Holkham misc. 48; Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri; 1350–1375; Italy, Genoa (?); p.137 @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

And right now is the perfect time to start. Need a book? Don’t let that hold you back — sign up for our online library via the link in my bio/pinned post. It’s full of free language resources and I add to it all the time!

We’re putting the finishing touches on our class schedule today, so it’s your absolute last chance to sign up for one of our classes! DM or click the link in my pinned post to reserve yours!

That’s it — that’s the tweet.

In celebration of World Octopus Day, we wanted to revisit one of our favorite cephalopod sightings, the glass octopus — Vitreledonella richardi filmed during a month-long #PhoenixIslandsCoral expedition in 2021.

If you want to pick up (or dust off) your Russian this fall — it isn’t too late! Click here to reserve your spot: forms.gle/VD3W3x9ut4SE...

There’s still time to sign up for our Farsi + Akkadian reading groups! I wouldn’t want you to miss out - they promise to be lots of fun!

Time is running out! If you’ve been thinking about registering for one of our Proto Indo-European courses, don’t wait — stop scrolling and sign up here: forms.gle/VD3W3x9ut4SE...

Currently watcing an Italian TV series with automated texting in English, & this is yet another example of how translation requires human agency, & also of how automated language conversion - which is not the same as translation - really suffers from the overwhelming dominance of English.

Registration for fall classes ends tomorrow, Tuesday, October 7th! Don’t miss out — go to the link in my pinned post/bio to save your spot!

Check out our new homepage: drvalerieisin.wixsite.com/welcome Register for classes, join our online library, and sign up for our email list all in one place!

Our Total Beginners class will take you from the alphabet to composing your own sentences in 8 weeks (yes, really)! Classes meet on Zoom for 1 hour per week. Click here for more info + to sign up: forms.gle/VD3W3x9ut4SE...

If anyone has any questions about our language classes, we’ll be hosting a Space on That Other Platform this Sunday, October 5th at 3 PM Eastern.

The first English language account of traditional Native stories written by a Native author, by David Cusick, a Tuscarora.

TFW I download a colleague’s book because my budget just won’t stretch that far:

Ελευθερία στην Παλαιστίνη!

We’re updating our tech behind the scenes, so we’re extending our fall registration deadline to next Tuesday, October 7th! Want to learn more about our courses? Check out my pinned post. Questions? My DMs are open

29th September is the feast of St Michael and All Angels; and here St Michael is slaying the dragon, and pulling a soul from the dragon's mouth BL Egerton 3763; 'Prayer book of Archbishop Arnulph II of Milan'; between 998 CE & 1018 CE; Italy, N. (Milan); f.104v

29th September is the feast of St Michael and All Angels. BL Yates Thompson 2; 'The Ottobeuren Collectar'; 12th century; Germany, S. (Ottobeuren); f.37r

Another Saint Michael for September 29, this time from the collection of saints' lives Der Heiligen Leben, printed by Lucas Brandis in Lübeck in 1478. [München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek -- 2 Inc.s.a. 780, f.1r]

I was getting along fine with my self-study Russian book … until I got to participles. Don’t be like me and let yourself get stuck — — click here and reserve your spot in our Russian 1 course: forms.gle/VD3W3x9ut4SE...

If Proto Indo-European is your favorite kind of pie, (heh) then you’re in luck — we’re offering two courses in it this fall! Find out more about them here: forms.gle/VD3W3x9ut4SE...

New open-access book from @brepols.net with comparative studies on elites in medieval Poland in Norway, including contributions by @hopesteffen.bsky.social and many others: www.brepolsonline.net/action/showB... #medievalsky

Whether it’s a grammar of a lesser-taught language, an academic article, or a book on chess strategy, our Russian courses will get you on the road to reading it faster than a university class! Click here to learn more: forms.gle/VD3W3x9ut4SE...

October is the time for sowing the seed. #medievalcalendar Bodleian Library MS. Rawl. D. 939; Astrological and ecclesiastical calendar in six pieces; 14th century; England; section 2ar @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

There are only a few days left to register for one of our fall Arabic courses…! Click here to register: forms.gle/VD3W3x9ut4SE...