Registration Open: Conference of the Australian Early Medieval Association #medieval #earlymodern www.anzamems.org/?p=...

The much-anticipated news is now here. I am very excited to announce that my book, soon out with York Medieval Press, is now available for pre-order! Hats off to @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social and the awesome Mont-Saint-Michel design team for the cover! boydellandbrewer.com/book/robert-...

The way this article is framed positions the loss of the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences as of secondary importance. This both reflects and entrenches attitudes towards these as 'lesser' disciplines, which is what got us into this mess in the first place.

Such fun choices for tomorrow morning! I can attend a meeting to discuss the impending dissolution of the college of HASS at my university. Or I can take a cat who has been with me since my 20s - three cities and careers ago - to be euthanised. I will, naturally, be farewelling my boy.

Early English Queens, 850-1000 has just been reviewed in @jaema.bsky.social 20.2. McLeod states that it 'finds an ingenious structure to tell a difficult and timely story' & 'is highly recommended'. Links to the review & the book (all formats): Review → search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/... Book ↓

While the Call for Papers for our annual conference may be closed, we are still open to submissions for our Journal! JAEMA publishes scholarly articles on the Late Antique and Early Medieval world, see our website for details: aema.org.au/journal/

Fabulous guest lecture in #ENGL3115 Medieval and Early Modern Women's Writing from @flindersuniversity.bsky.social DECRA Fellow, @mattfirth.bsky.social

My latest article is out in the a Journal of Medieval History (open access). It examines depictions of viking activity in the Sagas of Icelanders and the perceived moral implications of raiding in pre-/post-conversion settings. Quickest proofs turnaround ever...

www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-08... Pleased that this is now out! See the Bedale hoard as part of the Viking North exhibition at York Museum. @yorkmuseumstrust.bsky.social @unioxarchaeology.bsky.social

My latest article is out in the a Journal of Medieval History (open access). It examines depictions of viking activity in the Sagas of Icelanders and the perceived moral implications of raiding in pre-/post-conversion settings. Quickest proofs turnaround ever...

Proofs! One of my increasingly rare forays into saga literature. I question how pre- and post-conversion settings affect the social acceptability of viking activity in the Sagas of Icelanders. Look for it in the next issue of the Journal of Medieval History.

The production editor of a T&F journal just sent me proofs in which they had deleted every parenthetical dash in the article (and hasn't replaced them with brackets or commas either). Is this a reaction to the 'AI uses hyphens' thing? Is my honour being impugned?

Issue 42.1 is in press! Cosimo I de' Medici graces the cover in full armour, giving some side eye. This is an open issue so there are great articles on a range of topics. Follow the link for the TOC and book reviews. We'll feature each article over the coming month. www.parergon.org/index.php/pa...

The first review of Early English Queens has appeared! Dr Tomas states it 'provides new methodological approaches to the study of histories with limited surviving sources and adds much to the growing research on female rule and representations of female power'. Can't ask for more than that! (1/2)

Ready for @imc-leeds.bsky.social 2026? Submit an abstract to Dan Reeve and I's CFP: "BEYOND TOUCH: New Queer and Trans Temporalities" We invite submissions for 15-20 minute papers that examine queer and trans temporalities from new and unexpected angles. #IMC2026. Full CFP below 👇

CFP for @imc-leeds.bsky.social for July 2026: "Old English in the Long Nineteenth Century". Please share widely! Deadline for abstracts 1 September 2025. #IMC2026

Do I know anyone that currently has access to the DUO Research Archive (Oslo)? They have recently shut down external access pending a migration to Nasjonalt vitenarkiv. I need copies of two master's theses that I was foolishly accessing direct through DUO but never downloaded.

Trains have been a disaster this trip. I've managed to run into the NATO summit in The Hague, race day in York, and an Oasis reunion concert in Manchester. All of which saw me standing for hours on end in hot, overcrowded (over intimate?) trains. The UK experience included lads with beers...

A copy of my edited collection in the (sort of) wild, at the @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social stand at @imc-leeds.bsky.social. You too could own a copy of 𝘗𝘳𝘦-𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘭 𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 - 50% off and free shipping at the B&B website with code BB094.

Manuscript research is done. IMC paper is written (and I get it out of the way on Monday afternoon). So a relaxing week of catching up with people in Leeds lies ahead. Six weeks away from home has been a long time...

Oh oh, here come the vikings. The martyrdom of King Edmund of East Anglia in pictures and Anglo-Norman verse (Manchester John Ryland, French MS 142). Side note: I wonder why Hinguar is balding in contrast to everyone else's luxurious locks.

How to convince my university that I do serious research while also running receipts through for a Hamibal Lecter sandwich at a pub called The Trembling Madness?

The Leiden Glossary and Leiden Riddle on display for the second day of the Leiden Ælfric conference.

Oxford yesterday, Leiden today. Here for a two-day Ælfric-a-thon (which is exactly as niche as it sounds). www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/20...

This is fun: Roger Alban's mid-15th c. roll chronicle (Ox Queen's MS 168). A real shift in presentation with the ascension of Ecgberht to the West Saxon throne. There is a real trend in 14th/15th c. chronicles of positioning him as the progenitor of English kingship.

Very strong suspicion that Bodleian Laud 730 (1st pic) is a less than spectacular copy of Queen's College 304 (2nd pic). Both Peter of Ickham, into whose rabbit hole I appear to have descended...

Peter of Ickham says hello from this fabulous illuminated initial that opens Ox Queen's College MS 304.

Hello, new followers. These are the types of vikings I research and write about. Feel free to stick around for medieval history and manuscripts. I'm afraid I don't know much about even the football codes that are played in my own country.

William of Malmesbury's autograph of Gesta pontificum Anglorum (Oxford Magdalen MS Lat 172). Nice to meet it in person...

This scribe is not my friend. Don't like him at all...

Alfred with a giant illuminated 'A' to start chapter 6 of Higden's Polychronicon - Ox Lincoln Lat 107 (all the chapters start with an illuminated letter). Probably a presentation copy of the text given to the college by its founder, Richard Flemming.

Marginal evidence of a bored history student? Medieval doodles from the margins of Ox Lincoln Lat. 151 (a prose Brut). I'd like to think they got caught by their teacher just as they got to work on their third creature (there are about 15 of these guys doodled throughout the manuscript).

Alfred's family is of particular interest for writer and reader in this copy of Peter of Ickham's Chronicle. An index inserted at a later date also terms Alfred 'primus monarchia Anglie'. Another part of the historiographical tradition I discuss in my EHR article. academic.oup.com/ehr/article/...

William the Conqueror's lineage in BL Royal 20 A.XVIII - one of three copies of the Anonimalle Chronicle, a northern version of the Anglo-Norman prose Brut distinct enough to need its own edition...

My article on Charter S221 and the involvement (or not) of Æthelflæd is officially out in N&Q. Which basically means it now comes with a volume number and page numbers - if you've already read it, nothing else has changed!

Finding a copy of my queenship book in the wild never gets old (this one at Waterstones Gower St). But it is also 20% cheaper to buy it through the Routledge website with the code 25SMA2. Don't tell Waterstones, I guess?

Finding a copy of my queenship book in the wild never gets old (this one at Waterstones Gower St). But it is also 20% cheaper to buy it through the Routledge website with the code 25SMA2. Don't tell Waterstones, I guess?

My article on Charter S221 and the involvement (or not) of Æthelflæd is officially out in N&Q. Which basically means it now comes with a volume number and page numbers - if you've already read it, nothing else has changed!

I'm always struck by he glorious subtlety of a British Museum stamp, in this case adorning a 12th c. copy of Osbern's Vita Dunstani. At least Dunstan's looking good...

Ready for some Day 4 photos of #KQ14? Don’t forget you can share your photos with us to be featured here! Thank you, André Teixeira and Margarida Póvoa, for capturing today!

What a great Day 3 of #KQ14! Thanks to Marta Justiniano Santos, Catarina Azevedo Silva, Ana Francisco, and Catarina Coelho for their photos 🤩 If you’ve got the photos you’d like us to feature send them our way 📷

Made it to Lisbon for #KQ14...

Charter S221 - an original single leaf invariably linked to Æthelflæd. But did you know that, due to damage to the document, her name doesn't appear in the text except as a later addition to the witness list? Some observations on S221 in Notes & Queries. academic.oup.com/nq/advance-a...

👸 "This book set a benchmark in the study of #medieval queenship." Queen Emma and Queen Edith by Pauline Stafford was chosen as Matthew Firth's must-read book. Which #medievaltudies book had the most impact on you? Read more: buff.ly/jGIsQBL #kzooicms #ICMS #kzoo2025 @mattfirth.bsky.social

I'm in this blog, answering this tricky question (I chose Pauline Stafford's Queen Emma & Queen Edith for anyone wondering)...

Charter S221 - an original single leaf invariably linked to Æthelflæd. But did you know that, due to damage to the document, her name doesn't appear in the text except as a later addition to the witness list? Some observations on S221 in Notes & Queries. academic.oup.com/nq/advance-a...

20% off code for my two Routledge books - 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝗲𝗻𝘀, 𝟴𝟱𝟬-𝟭𝟬𝟬𝟬 and 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱: 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗴𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀. They do what they say in the titles (but also check their blurbs through the link!). www.routledge.com/search?autho...

Started the day in Newcastle, ending it in the Adelaide women's and children's hospital with a kid with appendicitis. An election day to remember (quite apart from the emphatic Labor victory).

🚨Job alert 🚨 Delighted to advertise the first position on my ERC Project: a 4.5-year Digital Humanities / Computer Science Postdoc (with or without a background in Viking studies). Come and work in a super department in the real capital of Ireland! Details at ore.ucc.ie Job ref: 085873