Lovely chat with @profcarolyne.bsky.social about stories, myths, dragons, and more! vikingology.substack.com/p/myth-and-b...

New post! Part two of my series on philology and translation. I look at the challenges of translating even a few lines of an Old English text. Does "wyrd bið ful aræd!" mean "fate is fully determined!", "shit happens!", or something else entirely? nikolasgunn.co.uk/2026/01/13/b...

I did a podcast with @goingmedieval.bsky.social shows.acast.com/gone-medieva...

Als Output einer unserer Cooperative Research Groups ist zum Start ins neue Jahr der von @profcarolyne.bsky.social, Hans Rudolf Velten und @heyouonline.bsky.social hrsg. Band „Popu­la­ri­sing the Middle Ages in Modern Fantasy. Neome­die­va­lism, Video Games, and Vikings“ bei D.S. Brewer erschienen.

Since he isn’t, now’s as good a time as any:

From Facebook

My book on Pan and his journey through myth, story, art, music and pagan spirituality is available in paperback from Reaktion Books or through your favourite bookseller.

If you feel you don't know enought about Richard Cleasby who was the guiding spirit behind the first Old Norse-English dictionary, my new biographical article has just been published in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography -- along with other lexicographers @oxfordacademic.bsky.social

For those Old Norse and Viking lovers, the Norse in the North conference has made it to Bluesky! As we’re finalizing the CFP for 2026 at Leeds, please follow @norseinthenorth.bsky.social for updates! #oldnorse #medievalsky #postgraduate #conference #medieval

I live in Wales and today received my Join Us letter from Reform UK, complete with SAE which I posted back to them, immediately, empty. If every other person in Wales did this, Reform would spend over £1.5 million on postage. Not sorry. Join me Cymru.

Universities: investing millions so students ”develop literacy in the language of AI” Also universities: defunding the humanities so students are illiterate in ordinary languages

Attention creative medievalists! Eleanor Barraclough & I are co-editing a special issue of Public Humanities entitled CREATING THE MEDIEVAL NOW! See the cfp for details: essays of 2,000-3,000 words due 1 May 2026. (Amazing artwork by @hellomizk.bsky.social). 1/ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

For academic friends researching fantasy and mythic/folkloric literature:

Call for papers for a special issue of Humanities journal, edited by Professor Bartłomiej Błaszkiewicz. Here are the details: www.mdpi.com/journal/huma...

Up here in Elgin we have a real witch on a new estate.

Consider the following before adopting a Manticore for your family

Burn it all down

It’s that time again - the M. R. James ghost story Christmas countdown! 👻 There are 31 days until Santa arrives, so if you read one* story a day, you’ll finish the Collected Ghost Stories in time to get merry. Like a haunted advent calendar! ❄️ #Christmas #GhostStories

Goodnight. 🖼️ Tove Jansson

In this compact volume, @profcarolyne.bsky.social explores how dragons have captured the human imagination across time and space. Discover The Little Book of Dragons: bit.ly/47SWqjc #ArtHistory #LiteraryStudies

Excellent piece of journalism here. Puts the mainstream media to shame. The findings are what you might expect, and here's the proof. www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/the-men-who-...

Lost grave of daughter of Black abolitionist Olaudah Equiano found by A-level student

Come and hear me talk Trolls and Dragons next Tuesday! checkout.square.site/merchant/ML2...

After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results: - AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2% - ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1% - ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%

Oh man, the New York Young Republicans implicated in the Nazi groupchat scandal ran up a $23,000 tab eating filet mignon and drinking at a hotel in Syracuse -- a city with one of the highest child poverty rates *in the nation* -- and then refused to pay the bill.

Our OWC/English Faculty #Shakespeare webinar series continues! Next up, Henry VIII on 3 Nov at 6pm. Join @oldfortunatus.bsky.social and @laurajaynewright.bsky.social to explore the play & how we might approach it differently in the twenty-first century. All welcome! FREE but registration required

Worth saying that despite asking for more than 12 hours we’ve had nothing back from Labour on this

Trolls and Dragons in Frankfurt!

Thanks @goingmedieval.bsky.social, @mattlewishistory.bsky.social and @profcarolyne.bsky.social for the norse myth eps of Gone Medieval. Perfect listening for drawing pictures of Loki. On the qu of "is loki a drinker", I think Lokasenna at least proves he's a MEAN drunk, whatever his liquid capacity

The Bloomsbury Oxford Summer School in Fantasy is in full swing. A wonderful first day with exploration of fantasy past. Tomorrow the present and Thursday is fantasy future. Livestreamed and recorded too.

The Vestmannaeyjar in glorious weather. Spot the sheep who must have been wearing crampons. And a pufflingur awaiting a launch out to sea.

Coming next spring ... yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

The west fjords looking particularly splendid today

The trolls are in Reykjavík!

Tomorrow you can watch the livestream of the Oseberg viking ship being moved to its new home in Oslo's Vikingtidsmuseet!

“The chances of my first three books (all of which are out of print anyway) going into profit are roughly akin to my marrying Taylor Swift, or Travis Kelce for that matter.” @alexlarman.bsky.social on the grim economics of publishing:

You might assume “Anglo-Saxons” is a simple phrase with a simple meaning, but it’s meant various things during the past centuries. This is a brilliant open-access summary of those evolutions by Prof Rory Naismith @rorynaismith.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Step through the gates of St John’s this weekend! From 10am to 5pm, explore our stunning quads, gardens, and historic buildings, attend expert lectures, and see a whole new side of college life. Free entry, no booking required. #OxfordOpenDoors

Off to Iceland tomorrow there to circumnavigate the island with #RoadScholars floating campus in the good ship Ocean Albatros. Looking forward to it immensely— if it’s half as much fun as last year I am in for a terrific time.

Word of the day is ‘tamalou’: a French name for an older person who no longer greets their friends with ‘how was your holiday?, but with ‘t’as mal où ?’, ‘where does it hurt?’. There follows an enthusiastic account of aches and pains and doctor’s appointments.

The Little Book of Dragons is published today (though you wouldn't know it from the British Library shop website). But all good retailers should be able to supply, unless you're in N. America where you have to wait a whole month for lovely dragon pix ..

We have eight medieval courses coming up in the next several weeks - this week you can use the code 'backtoschool' to get 15% off - go to medievalstudies.thinkific.com to check out all the courses #medieval

Amazing story: one of the organisers of the group putting Union Flags up around Manchester previously did time for being part of a people smuggling gang. manchestermill.co.uk/manchester-f...

We are the only developed country where mass shootings happen on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Christ, some of Farage's joke made-up migrants 'policy' fell apart within 24hrs. Clownshoes grifterism to the max. Will someone, anyone, please start taking these people on - and apart?

Our medieval offerings for #InternationalDogDay: 1. Dog leaps over an initial in Ms Bodl 264. 2.'Drop it!': a dog with a rabbit in its mouth runs away from its owner. MS Bodl 264. 3. Dog jousts a monkey MS Douce 131. 4. Lapdog sits by their ailing mistress MS. Douce 195.

This podcast episode with @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social offers a very lively and interesting interview with the author of a very well-researched, well-written, and informative book. What more could you want? Well done @themerl.bsky.social! #Booksky

A piece in The Conversation, contextualising our results from the Bedale hoard theconversation.com/vikings-were... @unioxarchaeology.bsky.social @yorkmuseumstrust.bsky.social @bgs.ac.uk

{New book} Medievalism in English Canadian Identity and Literature by M. J. Toswell www.arc-humanities.org/978180270267...