This is a really weird fantasia of Edinburgh (and its geography) as it never was and is *full* to the brim of the sorts of simple yet glaring errors and anachronisms you would never have gotten if you hadn't left it to a computer to just barf out an averagised slop answer.

"And that was Lawn Chair Armöur, the up and coming Norwegian black metal band from Croydon..."

#medievalism at its finest 👌

One of our survey respondents characterised present-day popular viking outfits as 'lawn chair armour', and there is frankly no better description out there.

Following the earlier Oseberg and Gokstad ship relocations, the Tune ship, snug in its steel rig, has started its journey into the new Museum of the Viking Age (@uio.no) today. Over the course of three days, it will travel a total of 130 metres at a top speed of c. 24 cm per minute.

Some Friday wisdom from our Great Viking Survey dataset:

The UHI Archaeology Institute is looking for a post-doctoral researcher to record and analyse the human remains from a Pictish/Norse cemetery in Orkney.

I propose to make universal the old policy of the Blackfriars conference at the American Shakespeare Center: If you do not end your paper on time, you will be forced to exit, pursued by a bear. Literally, a bear will come take your paper from you.

Capitalism ouroboros: Paying someone else to pull you up by your bootstraps

Capitalism ouroboros: Paying someone else to pull you up by your bootstraps

🧪🏺 Update - authors have new paper showing how useless gen- #AI is for archaeological illustration. All 400 images were multiply inaccurate (physically, socially, technologically, environmentally), even with improved prompts. JUST USE HUMAN EXPERTS & ARTISTS www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Storm on the horizon when we made it to the Ness of Burgi, one of only few attested Iron Age 'blockhouse forts', all of which are in Shetland. The site feels very exposed and secure at the same time, with steep coastal cliffs on three sides and landward ditch/rampart. Its exact function is unclear.

When Musk said the "cumulative sum of human knowledge has been exhausted" for training AI, what he was really saying is that he would not pay for digitisation, and had reached the limits of useful data he could scrape for free. The GenAI house is built on sand.

Over the next few weeks, the NACBS blog will feature a series of pieces on artificial intelligence. Check out the opening essay by @amywb.bsky.social and stay tuned for more! www.nacbs.org/post/the-ai-...

Not the best weather for it, but good to have made it to Britain's northernmost castle, Muness (Unst, Shetland). Construction started in 1598, on the orders of the dubious figure Laurence Bruce. It was attacked by Dunkirk privateers in 1627, sold in 1718, and ruined by the end of the century.

Trouble with Reviewer 2? Why not carve your alternative theory into the side of your house instead? (seen on a facade on New Street, Scalloway, Shetland)

Probably my favourite shot from Shetland, looking out from the sea-facing doorway at the Late Norse farm of Sandwick South, Unst. Once much further out from the water, it is now rapidly eroding on the beach. The 'cow-shaped' form of this doorway (as this was a byre) is now no longer apparent.

Well worth the waterlogged boots to see the remains of the early Viking-Age longhouse at Hamar, overlooking the Balta Sound at Unst, Shetland.

Every instance of "AI democratizes the arts, you're classist and ableist and a gatekeeper for trying to stop it" is a slap in the face to the literally centuries of poor, disabled people making art on the margins and a crass lie in service of a machine that strips down and regurgitates dreams

A very exciting find, but already seeing people throwing caution to the wind and reaching the foregone conclusion that these were definitely vikings. Just hang on a second for the osteology, folks - wanting them to be vikings doesn't automatically mean they are.

Today's vikingism: the former Viking Cinema in Largs, Scotland, which first opened in 1939. Awash in art-deco viking decor, complete with viking ship out front, it could host up to 1,300 viewers. The cinema closed in 1973, with the building demolished a decade later.

The search effectiveness and utility of both Google Books and Scholar have been declining for years, and both may well be at risk of discontinuation in the coming years as GenAI continues to be pushed over traditional search. Not a brilliant prospect for scholarly research and teaching.

What a delight to have met this little fella in the flesh a few weeks ago! Found in northern North Holland province in 2024, the tiny 10C/11C gold and enamel fibula is thought to represent a saint or secular elite figure. Leiden, @rmoudheden.bsky.social, g 2024/3.1

Tato considers raiding an overseas monastery* *for biscuits 🍪

Tato considers raiding an overseas monastery* *for biscuits 🍪

For #FindsFriday Scandinavian imitations of Frankish deniers, found at Castricum in Noord-Holland, for a chapter in a book ed. by @ccooijmans.bsky.social. One copies a coin of Louis the Pious, one Lothar I: we know #vikings were settled in this area. Find report at www.academia.edu/43960277/2020

An open letter to @theguardian.com about their article last week about the Crown’s Silence, requesting that the Black scholar of Caribbean heritage who did the years of archival research behind this claim, and published it in 1979, Roger Norman Buckley, be acknowledged as the source of this reveal:

Tato has been sniffing out some Norse heritage at Jarlshof

Today's vikingism: the 2024 seinen manga 弱虫ロロ (Yowamushi Rollo aka 'Weakling Rollo'), reimaging the foundational Scandinavian ruler of the Duchy of Normandy as a soft-natured, cowardly figure.

Cold and rain be damned - glad to have seen Up Helly Aa up close this year!

Apardjón is pleased to present its newest special volume, Connections and the Church in Late Norse Scotland, edited by Caitlin Ellis and Tom Fairfax. We would like to thank all authors for contributing, and Caitlin Ellis and Tom Fairfax for their work. #MedievalSky www.abdn.ac.uk/dhpa/researc...

Tomorrow - livestream of a #Viking evening at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, with talks in Dutch but then at 20:00 UK time in English! rijksmuseum-van-oudheden.webinargeek.com/vikingverhal...

The past is a foreign country selectively summarised by an outside author in a sponsored travel guide

Dutch pals! Er zijn nog enkele laatste tickets vrijgegeven voor de (gratis) 'Vikingverhalen'-avond @rmoudheden.bsky.social deze donderdag. Lezingen van Eleanor Barraclough, Nelleke IJssennagger-vd Pluijm, Annemarieke Willemsen, en ikzelf.

Dutch pals! Er zijn nog enkele laatste tickets vrijgegeven voor de (gratis) 'Vikingverhalen'-avond @rmoudheden.bsky.social deze donderdag. Lezingen van Eleanor Barraclough, Nelleke IJssennagger-vd Pluijm, Annemarieke Willemsen, en ikzelf.

You'll love academic publishing, where it's quite common for publishers just not to pay royalties if they fall below £50, as they say the admin costs of paying them are uneconomic

'Save time by depriving your text of substance, nuance, and humanity.'

Five Gazan scholars welcomed by @liverpooluni.bsky.social as part of its Humanitarian Postgraduate Scholarship programme 🎓

Five Gazan scholars welcomed by @liverpooluni.bsky.social as part of its Humanitarian Postgraduate Scholarship programme 🎓

No idea where all the new followers are coming from, but hi everyone! You've come to the right place if you like vikings, random medieval(ist) stuff, and scrappy Border Terriers named Potatoes 🐶🥔

For #FindsFriday a map of Danish single finds of Carolingian coins from 2016 to 2025, most unpublished. This is for a chapter in a book being edited by @ccooijmans.bsky.social. It shows that Frankish coins were reaching all parts of Denmark, not just trading centres or royal estates.

📖 | First six months have come and gone already! What a privilege to work with such amazing collections, inspiring colleagues, and lovely readers and visitors. Fair to say I love my job @natlibscot.bsky.social!

A week into 2026 and we're off to a great start.

A week into 2026 and we're off to a great start.

'Reclaiming academic publishing as a public good will require a return to not-for-profit models and sustainable open-access systems. Quality, accessibility and integrity need to be put ahead of profit.'

Due to popular demand, 'Traversing the Inner Seas' is available in print again, in case you missed it the first time around!

A much-deserved reissue for this volume. I got my copy at Govan Old in 2018 and it's been heavily thumbed since then...

Due to popular demand, 'Traversing the Inner Seas' is available in print again, in case you missed it the first time around!

Today's vikingism: the various team badges for NASA's 1976 Viking Mars lander missions. 🚀🌕

Today's vikingism: illustrations from Edmond Neukomm's 'Les dompteurs de la mer' (1897, published in English as 'Tamers of the Sea'), offering an archaic and heavily romanticised imagining of the viking presence in North America.