An chéad léacht i sraith léachtaí an earraigh The first lecture in our spring series Pádraic Moran (Gaillimh/Galway) Sun, moon and stars in the Reichenauer Schulheft 5pm, 19 Feabhra/February DIAS, 10 Burlington Road www.dias.ie/celt/ @dias.ie

a day late but it’s always fun to make St. Brigit’s crosses :)

Lá ‘le Bríde sona dhaoibh ! Very lovely to see my whole feed celebrating and discussing Brigit today.

For St Brigit’s Day, there’s a feast of writings for you by Maynooth scholars such as @niamhwycherley.bsky.social @davidstifter.bsky.social amongst others, and by UCD Early Irish historian @elvabjohnston.bsky.social Here’s her fascinating paper muse.jhu.edu/pub/423/arti...

Ottid eiry ar warthaw reo. gosguipid g[u]int blaen guit tev. kadir yscuid ar yscuit glev. Snow falls atop ice wind sweeps the tips of sturdy trees powerful a shield on the shoulder of the brave "Llym awel", NLW Peniarth MS 1 (The Black Book of Carmarthen, mid. 13th century)

Tá áthas orm a bheith páirteach sa Chomhdháil Aiteach a reáchtálfar in @ucdscoilglcb.bsky.social sa Mheitheamh. Seo an chéad chomhdháil da leithéid ina dtabharfar le chéile an taighde faoin aiteacht agus na healaíona aiteacha sa Ghaeilge. Gach eolas sa ghairm ar pháipéir.

Here's your daily dose of weirdness for today!

Seventeenth-century squirrel, looks like it’s eating a little nut. On an embroidered binding from a 1641 psalter, SSS.34.27 @theul.bsky.social. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekBforBooks 📷 #photography

“Paws on Parchment” - this exhibition looks amazing as do the visiting kittens. (Image below of four foster kittens who visited the exhibition at the Walters Museum shortly after it opened). www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a... #medievalsky

Some good news, though, if anyone has mislaid medieval Britain.

wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage

Let's focus on the detail of the text walking mesenger: first up, he is a "Postbott" (German for postal messenger). In short he is a "Bott" (or "Pott"), ein Bote. And the thing positioned before him is a German "S". So this reads as "S pott" meaning "Spott": mockery.

#HappyBirthdayTolkien According to Ryszard Derdziński, the surname "Tolkien" is probably Low Prussian meaning "son of Tolk", ultimately from Slavic *tъlkъ Slavic *tъlkъ from PIE *tlkʷ-: "talk". The form *tlokʷ- also survives in Latin "loquor", as in "loquacious", "eloquent", "locution", etc.

New insights from archaeology, genetics and early inscriptions are helping to uncover the story of Celtic languages in Britain and Ireland.

As medieval Christmastime adventures go, Gawain & the Green Knight may be the most famous. But I submit that the most amusing is Taliesin winning a bardic contest at the court of Maelgwn Gwynedd by getting other poets to go before the king, put their fingers to their lips, & babble: ‘Blerum blerum’

‘hart y uart y uvrt nadolyc’ ‘beautiful to a bard his Christmas table’ Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr (fl. 1155-1200) in his elegy for Owain Gwynedd (d. 1170) 🎄

The MS of the Week is on display in the Reading Room of the Library this week from 10.00-13.00 & 14.00-16.30 Monday & Tuesday & until 12 noon on Wednesday. No appointment or reader’s ticket is required to view. For more information about upcoming closures, visit www.ria.ie/library.

🌲2️⃣0️⃣🎁 Cisalpine Celtic literacy Dr Corinna Salomon (Vienna) is an expert on ancient, pre-Roman writing systems in northern Italy (e.g., www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLwT...). She investigated the origin of the runes and contributed to Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum (tir.univie.ac.at/wiki/). 📖

2 scoláireacht ar fáil i Scoil an Léinn Cheiltigh 2 scholarships available in the School of Celtic Studies Sprioc: 5 Eanáir 2026 Deadline: 5 January 2026 www.dias.ie/2025/12/05/v... @dias.ie

It's time! Behold the Christmas hedgehog! From Verdun, Bibl. mun., ms. 0107, f. 008. Our thanks as always to @etreharne.bsky.social who found her.

'Is acher in gaíth in-nocht...' in Scots: The wind is snell the nicht, It forfluther’s the sea’s white hair. A dreid-na the rinnin o the Sheuch By fell kemps frae Noroway. [Old Irish isn't one of my languages but pleased with forfluther for fo-fúasna.] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_ache...

hremn, m.n: raven. (H’REH-mun / ˈhrɛ-mən) Image: Psalter of Isabelle of France; England (York), 1303-1308; Munich, @bsbmuenchen.bsky.social Cod.gall. 16, f. 52r. #OldEnglish #WOTD

Calendrier l'avent d'enluminures médiévales #calavhist, jour 12 ! Un magnifique dragon bleu pour mettre de la couleur dans votre week-end ! Harley 1662 f. 104, manuscrit copié vers 1470

Today’s the final day to submit your abstracts!

Stop press! I have a new entry in the “worst medieval attempt to draw an elephant” competition! 🐘

'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.' Photograph by Daniel Ibanez

#EpigraphyTuesday This small vase, inscribed with the twenty-six letters of the #Etruscan alphabet, may have been a container for ink. The head acts as a stopper and could be attached to the bird’s body by a cord. The missing tail no doubt curved downward to form a third foot.

Linguists start compiling first ever complete dictionary of ancient Celtic

Calendrier l'avent d'enluminures médiévales #calavhist, jour 7 ! Jonas avalé par la baleine... Bible Porta, enluminée vers 1275, Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire, Lausanne, f. 351

This is the feast of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, d. 397. 🕯️ BNF lat. 1732 is an early-8th-c. Uncial MS of several of his works. The headings to the various items have lovely colors and some fun beasties. The Uncial is very mannered: look at the loops on those As! #medievalsky

Students and staff at Trinity College Dublin have produced the world's first film in the ancient - and dead - Sumerian language

Peacocks are great, but how about this absolute unit from NLW Peniarth MS 28, a Latin copy of the Welsh laws? 🐖

Calendrier de l'avent d'enluminures médiévales, jour 1. Une petite marginalia (= dessin dans une marge de manuscrit) représentant... un lapin dans une camisole de force 😅?? BNF, ms. Francais 95, fol. 138v ; un roman arthurien copié vers 1270-1290.

Reminder: The deadline for our CFP is coming up on the 12th of December! Papers on any aspect of Celtic Studies in English or any Celtic language are welcome from current students and recent graduates. More information and the submission forms can be found here: linktr.ee/celticstuden...

"Here Frank, cad atá, you know, REALLY Cornach?" "Cén fáth?" "Don alt seo amárach faoi Kernewek." "Pastaetha." "Bingo Frank, sin an fáth go dtuilleann tusa na big bucks."

This is the feast of Andrew the Apostle and, this year, the first Sunday in Advent. 🕯️ For his day, here is the Old English prose life of St. Andrew from CCCC 198. With bonus Tremulous Hand of Worcester! #medievalsky

Bígí linn | Join us for the 2025 Paul Walsh Memorial Lecture, the final Early Irish research seminar this year, Thursday 4 December at 17:00, Room 2.31 IONTAS. *Law and Narrative in Fifteenth-Century Petitions to the Irish Parliament* Dr Sparky Booker (Trinity College Dublin) Fáilte roimh chách!

📚 Second Acallam publication alert this week! 🔔 Dr Nina Cnockaert-Guillou's latest article, "A Reassessment of the Manuscripts of the Reeves Agallamh na Seanórach and a New Version of Acallam na Senórach", was just published in Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 72 (2025).

Foilseachán nua - New publication 1 Bodach an Chóta Lachtna Eagrán nua de scéal Fiannaíochta Deirdre Nic Chárthaigh (Coláiste na Tríonóide BÁC) a chuir in eagar. shop.dias.ie/product/boda... @dias.ie

A bilingual Dano-Norwegian/northern Sámi catechism from 1728, afaik the first printed book in Northern Sámi

🚨Eleanor Knott Memorial Lecture next Thursday! 🦅 Dr Emma Nic Chárthaigh (University College Cork) will speak on "Intertextual weavings in the Colloquy between Fintan mac Bóchrai and the Hawk of Achill". 🗓️ 27th November, Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, 6pm 🔗 www.tcd.ie/Irish/gaeilg...

Gwefl son of Gwastad: when he was sad he would let his one lip droop down to his navel and the other would be a cowl on his head. Gỽeuyl mab gỽestat. y dyd y bei drist y gollyngei y lleill weuyl idaỽ y waeret hyt y uogel. ar llall a uydei yn pennguch ar y penn.

Join us online for this year’s Breandán Ó Buachalla Lecture, organised with the support of @nlireland.bsky.social. The lecture, “The harp and the harper in Classical Irish Poetry” will be given by Dr Deirdre Nic Chárthaigh. Registration now open www.nli.ie/exhibitions-...

@scs-dias.bsky.social Tionól 2025 Day 1, was opened by Olly Dorgan-Hughes @grainneoga.bsky.social with an extended talk about her new edition of the Middle Irish "Dúan in chethrachat cest" (The Poem of 40 Questions), with a number of new insights. @ceilteachomn.bsky.social

Chéad lá an Tionóil, 2025. First day of Tionól. www.dias.ie/2025/10/22/t... #DIASdiscovers @dias.ie

And thou mayest aske thyself, 'How do Ich werke thys?' And thou mayest aske thyself, 'Wher ys that large destrier?' And thou mayest telle thyself, 'Thys nys not my beautiful castle!' And thou mayest telle thyself, 'Thys nys not my swift goshawk!'

Olly Dorgan-Hughes @grainneoga.bsky.social wrote an MA about "Dúan in chethrachat cest: a Middle Irish poem of questions" under my supervision last academic year; her conferal was last week. She will present an extended version of her talk next week at the Tionól of @scs-dias.bsky.social. /4

TOMORROW! Looking forward to welcoming everyone to Maynooth for an exciting new two-day conference, put on by the @ceilteachomn.bsky.social! See below for more information! www.maynoothuniversity.ie/school-celti...

Reject modernity, embrace tradition

The upcoming postgrad conference *Widame in the Department of Early Irish @ceilteachomn.bsky.social @maynoothuniversity.ie has a very interesting & diverse programme ⬇️. Two of my students, Paul Le Meur-Bouthemy & Olly Dorgan-Hughes will be speaking. Registration at: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...