I usually find it very cringe when modern populations are referred to as Vikings - but when I see Erling Haaland in action I understand why some people inspired the writing of sagas

This is my Glastonbury! And what a line-up!

As it gets harder and harder for people to resist using AI, we need new awards that recognise and celebrate the very worst of human-made writing, saluting people who didn’t know wtf they were doing but had the courage and resilience to press ahead and write without running anything through an LLM

"The Univ. of Hertfordshire has decided to close all eight Humanities undergraduate programmes in English Language and Linguistics, English Literature, Creative Writing, History and Philosophy.... PLEASE sign this petition to support staff and students in Humanities" www.change.org/p/save-the-h...

It’s that time of year again! Heading to #IMCLeeds2026 and work on the Medieval North? NECRON is back for another casual IMC social! 🗓️ Tues 7 July 🕗 20:00 📍 Terrace (LUU) PhDs, ECRs, and medieval North enthusiasts warmly welcome. Come hang out, meet people, and stay as long as you like!

Please share: with @imc-leeds.bsky.social nearly on us, if anyone needs a lift from the east of England roughly on this route (for a very small fee) then do get in touch. I’ll be doing one pickup in Cambridge but could possibly do more on the way

We did it, lads. We banned trans people from toilets. Now to sit back and watch house prices come down and vegetables stop rotting on supermarket shelves and we'll all come together and feast on Cadbury's Creme Eggs as big as your head, m'boy, And we'll watch Morecambe and Wise, who did NOT die

This. God, this. It is such a manufactured panic and it started the moment they lost the fight over gay marriage. Support trans rights because it’s the right thing to do and also because this is all just a fascist push

Resharing what looks to be a really exciting talk (and which is open to everyone)! 💥14th May, 17.00 GMT💥

Very excited to be giving this paper next week! 🇫🇴📝

Next week (14th May) @necron-network.bsky.social will be hosting an online talk by @kakapitan.bsky.social on Internationalisation in Academia! Open to all NECRON members! #medievalsky #oldnorse Follow the link below to register: forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...

It takes time to learn things. This isn't the Matrix, humans are not LLMs, you don't just upload knowledge into your brain. It comes with time and experience and, crucially, a chance for your brain to rest and process what it's learned.

We love to see it!

TOMORROW - 🎥🔴 Timothy Liam Waters, The Ohio State University "Virtual Vikings: A Case of Identity Formation and Techno-Skepticism in the Digital Vernacular" www.youtube.com/live/-pdDizg... More about the Lunch with Digital Humanities lecture series: mshl.is/vidburdir/lunch-with-dh

The conference is almost here! #medievalsky Full Schedule: histudentconference.wordpress.com We can't wait to see you there! #SagaLiterature #medievalstudies

Starting work soon on a new 3 year book project. People keep asking me if I’ll use AI to help me? I would rather wear a hornet’s nest for underpants than ever delegate thought to a plagiarism engine

What a brilliant line-up! Norse in the North also has a proud tradition of being a very welcoming and friendly space for PGRs and is a great first/early conference experience for those cutting their teeth:

This was a lot of fun and I was delighted to be one of the finalists! Congratulations again to Charlotte and I'm so excited to hear her full talk in the summer.

We're hiring! 🌿 The Greenhouse Center for Environmental Humanities at the University of Stavanger invites applications for a 3-year postdoc in Environmental History. See thread for more details. #envhist #envhum

I'll always be obsessed with this edit made by @tommchenry.bsky.social

This looks like a brilliant (and very practical!) series of events:

Islands Matter: #Faroese & #Shetlandic #Folklore 26 Feb, free online via @insuhi.bsky.social Prof Jóan Pauli Joensen: “Water Beings in Faroese Folklore – Tradition & Change” & Prof Andrew Jennings: “From Fetlar to Foula – Norse Roots of Shetland Folklore” www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-...

He just called it "Iceland". We've lost track of which Atlantic island we're extorting Europe for.

www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/no... Sheffield University is under threat and we are doing our best to save it. Please, sign and share this petition to protest against the grotesque assault on university staff #Sheffield #againstculturalvandalism #UCUstrike @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Ok so this is one of those things I guess I knew in theory, but seeing it represented like this 😲 Mexico, I wasn't familiar with your game.

Here in Greenland we are scared, but certain of one thing: our home is not for sale | Malu Rosing

It's probably only come to mind because I was teaching on William Morris last week, but I think this gives a new ring to his famous quote: '[...] the past is not dead, but is living in us, and will be alive in the future which we are now helping to make' (Preface to 'Medieval Lore' by Robert Steele)

A replica of the Norwegian Alstad stone - a rune-stone and picture stone from the eleventh century - has been unveiled in Vytachiv in Ukraine. The copy was made by the well-known modern rune carver Erik Sandquist. www.regjeringen.no/en/whats-new... #runology

If you want to do an MA in London but have 'barriers accessing education or may face greater challenges while undertaking their degree' (specific criteria below), you can apply for a £3,000 tuition grant at Birkbeck. Lots of choices at @bbkhistorical.bsky.social: www.bbk.ac.uk/student-serv...

I do find it interesting that centuries of paleo-Inuit presence in Greenland is often described as ephemeral whilst five hundred years of settlement by the Norse amounts to the "first true ‘ownership’ of Greenland in a formal sense". [Not trying to dunk on this article in particular]

My 2 workshops on academic grant writing start NEXT WEEK—and there are still spaces available! (Pls share!) You get: - access to 2 dozen successful applications for major grants (e.g. ERC, NEH, NSF) - guidance to help you write stronger grant proposals - 1-year subscription to Page by Page 1/5

Norse in the North 2026: Mind and Body Deadline for Abstracts: 2nd February 2026 We welcome postgraduate students from any level with research on any aspect of Old Norse, medieval Scandinavian, and Viking studies that fits the theme. #NitN2026 #medievalsky #callforpapers #oldnorse

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...

CFP for "Nostalgia and Radical Politics, Past and Present," 15 – 16 June 2026 that forms the latest @menysnoweballes.bsky.social exciting series of events and publications on this theme. Deadline 14 February 2026! Details are included on the link below. 🎉 www.northampton.ac.uk/research-blo...

Can anyone recommend any academic essays (that are publicly available online or that you could send me) exploring the parallels between Loki and Ulysses expanding on Snorri's slightly throwaway lines on the topic. Or failing that, general explorations of Troy-as-Asgard? #MedievalSky #ClassicsSky

Julian of Norwich spotted on the new Florence and the Machine album:

I completely understand the ennui experienced by the average person in our modern age but it's very funny to be like "This sucks I wish I was a farmer in the 1400s"

I remember a fairly senior Education policy guy once telling me that this kind of standardisation of universities would be good because people would then respect non-RG degrees (such as the one I have) more. Just gives you a sense of the perspective they're coming from.

My blog post with the ADAM network has now been published. It's about precarity, the future of small subjects, and communal approaches to academic work. I hope it will resonate with some. #IchBinHanna #KleineFaecher #SkandiRetten difficultmedieval.com/2025/10/23/h...

4-year funded PhD in Old Norse-Viking Studies at UCC, working on the Literature & Art strand of the NorseMap Project. www.ucc.ie/en/hr/vacanc...

Call for Papers @imc-leeds.bsky.social Following my recent fieldwork sailing down the Seine in a reconstructed tenth-century ship, @stevedehailes.bsky.social and I are organising a panel on practice-based/experiential research in medieval studies. We welcome abstracts from any field. #Medievalsky

This is also the point that Labour have failed to grasp. They can promise as many deportations and draconian visa rules as they like but all that does is maintain the far right narrative that there's some kind of problem with migrants, the far right don't want anything less than ethnic cleansing

Finally caught up with the BBC's King and Conqueror series 👑🗡️. If you were interested in why shows and films set in the Middle Ages are so often filmed in Iceland, you might consider reading my chapter which touches on this in International Medievalisms (2023): www.cambridge.org/core/books/a...

SSNS has now reopened its funding schemes, offering grants to eligible students and scholars at any stage in their career. Our grants support fieldwork and publications, events, and travel costs. Deadlines in Dec and Jan. For more details, see www.ssns.org.uk/funding/

Call for applications for the British Academy SHAPE Involve and Engage funding scheme to support ambitious projects to engage the public with the humanities and social sciences. www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/shap... Deadline 15 October @britishacademy.bsky.social

This betrays their very middle class approach to university studies - that is, that everyone would be willing and able to move to wherever in the country offers the specialism that they want to do. They claim to want more equitable access to HE but are merrily creating education deserts.