THE PICTISH ARTS SOCIETY CONFERENCE!! Day 1, Metal and Metalwork Day 2, New research on Pictish Art and it’s Context Book below! facebook.com/events/s/pas...

Today's vikingism: the widely popular 'Immigrant Song', from Led Zeppelin's third studio album (III), released in late 1970. Its lyrics famously reference themes from Norse mythology and describe viking groups journeying overseas ('from the land of the ice and snow').

A paper from Rosemary Power on the founding of an early medieval Iona nunnery has been published in a collection of essays bit.ly/3VaJZcF Rosemary delivered a seminar on Iona's religious foundations for us last year - now availble to watch online here: youtu.be/9iLo_i8g0Ik

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/

The Society has today launched a new funding grant in honour of Dr Ryan Foster, supporting those who have come or returned to academia later in life.

Many thanks to everyone who has helped make this possible. Ryan is much missed, and I'm glad the Society is honouring his memory in a way befitting his own ethos of generosity and curiosity.

The Society has today launched a new funding grant in honour of Dr Ryan Foster, supporting those who have come or returned to academia later in life.

Join us online tomorrow from 7pm for 'How to Read a Hogback' - delivered by @rebekahbeatnik.bsky.social & Ancrum Heritage Society. Register here: bit.ly/HogbackAugustSeminar

Alongside my article on the 'Dane saga' of Breda in MLC, I wrote a little companion piece for the Royal Historical Society (@royalhistsoc.org) blog, introducing this capricious, clumsy, and charming work of premodern imagination. #medievalsky blog.royalhistsoc.org/2025/08/12/d...

Great to see this published by our committee member Chris (@ccooijmans.bsky.social) A Middle Dutch text with some conspicuously Scottish influences!

July 11: Feast of Drostan († early C7th), founder-abbot of the Pictish monastery of Deir (Deer). Several dedications to him in NE Scotland including Episcopal church at Old Deer. The old church at Aberdour, Aberdeenshire, claimed his relics. Also Dec 15. The C10th Book of Deer #medievalsky

Thanks to everyone who came to our stall at @imc-leeds.bsky.social! We were giving away colourful copies of old editions of our journal ‘Northern Studies.’ You can access our back catalogue for free online! www.ssns.org.uk/our-journal/volumes

Congratulations to our winner @erinbenton.bsky.social! Enjoy your copy of Scandinavia Refracted!

Win a copy of Scandinavia Refracted! If you’re at @imc-leeds.bsky.social -take a photo, tag us and follow our account, and use the hashtag #northernstudies - we’ll invite the winner to collect their copy at 2pm!

We're getting set up in the Leeds Student Union for the @imc-leeds.bsky.social Historic Societies Fair - come down from 10:30am and grab some free copies of the Northern Studies journal!

SSNS recently supported the Aberdeen Medieval and Early Modern Conference through its Postgraduate/Early Career Conference scheme. A report on the conference (by @erinbenton.bsky.social) is now on our website. www.ssns.org.uk/featured/ssn...

Waking up out of my slumber on here, but not likely to do a heckuva lot of talking until I hit the road. Anyway, I'm organising a small but fun-packed conference in Orkney on Saturday (funded by @bssh.bsky.social & @northernstudies.bsky.social), and in it I'm discussing Åland in the Island Games.

The Society is saddened to learn of the death of its former President, Ian Fraser. As a dedicated committee member, Ian played a crucial role in the development of SSNS in its early years. Our thoughts are with his wife and family during this difficult time. (Ian is second on left in the photo)

Our event today with heads of selected UK #History societies is a reminder of the dedication, expertise, civic sense, dynamism and, yes, value of these subject societies. If you'd like to keep in touch with them, we've a Starter Pack bit.ly/4jKumCE which now lists 125 such groups #Skystorians 1/2

Having co-organised the online conference on the Pictish cross slab found at Conon Bridge a few years ago (with @northernstudies.bsky.social), it was brilliant to finally bump into the real deal in Dingwall Museum last week!

Standing out in a field at Strathpeffer (Ross, Highlands) is the Class I Pictish stone known as the ‘Eagle Stone’, featuring bird, horseshoe, and fuzzy-looking Potato.

The Tarbat Discovery Centre and Museum at Portmahomack is highly recommended. It has an excellent collection of local Pictish sculpture and lots of information on the first Pictish monastery to be excavated here in the 1990’s where vellum manufacturing for producing illuminated manuscripts was found

Ik heb niet vaak de kans om in het Nederlands over vikingen te praten, maar had er een mooi gesprek over voor de nieuwe Middeleeuwen podcast! 🎙️ Veel dank aan @timoepping.bsky.social! (I don't often get the chance to chat at length about vikings in Dutch, so had a great time recording this podcast)

We've received word that our online submission form for funding applications has not been working properly for some people. Should you have been unable to submit your application, please do send this to [email protected] instead!

Last call for the Great Viking Survey - final chance to weigh in at vikingsurvey.org before the survey closes later this month!

Returning to #IMC2025 Historical and Archaeological Societies Fair is Scottish Society for Northern Studies ☺️ Make sure to visit their stall in between exploring Making Leeds Medieval! 😁 www.ssns.org.uk www.facebook.com/NorthernStud... bsky.app/profile/nort... #MedievalSky #SkyStorians

The provisional conference schedule for Sport, "islands", people and politics, being held at the St Magnus Centre in Kirkwall, Orkney, Saturday, 28 June. Might have space for a few seats: please let me know. @bssh.bsky.social @northernstudies.bsky.social @morayhouse.bsky.social @insuhi.bsky.social

Around 1,100 years ago, the Norse settled the Brough of Birsay—a tidal island in Orkney—and it's still possible to make out the remnants of their houses, barns and even a sauna 🧖 Explore the structures and learn about archaeology through the ages with a tour: www.digitscotland.com/events/broug...

Don't miss the boat! Take part in the Great Viking Survey before it closes on 19 May. Quick to complete and wholly anonymous, find it at vikingsurvey.org!

With vol. 55 of our journal, Northern Studies, having been out for a little while, you can now read the previous volume (54) for free in Open Access! 🔓 www.ssns.org.uk/journal/nort...

Our Great Viking Survey is about to enter its final month! 📣 Spread the word so we can hear from as many people as possible before it closes! Don't miss the boat on this one, and show us the Viking Age through your eyes at vikingsurvey.org! 🕰️

Dropped by the Pictish symbol stone at Keillor (Angus) earlier this weekend. Standing on a small burial mound, it is a Class I stone with wolf, double disc/Z-rod, and mirror below. Heavily weathered and worn, but commands brilliant views across Strathmore to the Cairngorms.

We are happy to report that one of our SSNS seminars from earlier this year - by Prof. Dr Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm (Fryske Akademy) on 'Frisia and the Viking Age' - can now be rewatched on our YouTube channel!

This evening in place-name research I don't know what to do with, it turns out that 11 of Scotland's 72 medieval thanages (15%, a statistically significant number) were located at places with a word for 'confluence' in their name.

☠️| Did you know that books can be dangerous? We discovered a poisonous book today! During the 19th century, heavy metals such as arsenic and lead were sometimes added to book bindings to create the vivid green colours like in this copy of Moore's Irish Melodies (ECC E346). #PoisonBooks #booksky

Registration for the conference is now open 🥳 There are a number of ticket options and registration will remain open until 1 June. The full programme is available on our website (subject to slight changes) We can't wait to see everyone in July!! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/understand...

Our first major project article, on Viking-Age warrior institutions in Scandinavia, is out now (OA 🔓)! It explores these institutions as dynamic social formations - embedded in community life and central to wider political, mercantile, and diplomatic networks www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A zoomorphic figurehead found c. 1934 during dredging of the Scheldt (Appels, East Flanders). Once thought to be a viking ship's stem-post - and lauded as 'the most important relic of the Vikings to be seen [...] outside Scandinavia' - it was later carbon-dated to C4/C5. British Museum, 1938,0202.1

Post Doc! "Materialising the Scots in Northern Europe c.1500-1750: Mobilities, Communities and Materiel Culture" Focus on the Netherlands, Scandinavia or Poland www.iash.ed.ac.uk/iash-nationa... #Skystorians 🗃

Save Celtic Studies in Brest - petition chng.it/By7kYpJbW4

In honour of Simon's #FindsFriday post, I managed to excavate my 🧵 from the bad site: In 1865, in a field outside the village of Pîtres, a road worker stumbled on a pair of Viking Age oval brooches (type R.657, c. 850-900 CE), typically used as shoulder clasps on Scandinavian-style dresses. 1/11

Are you interested in Scottish/Scandinavian Studies? - if so, you maybe want to check out the YouTube channel of free lectures from the Scottish Society for Northern Studies #history #literature #medievalsky #scotland #scandinaiva www.youtube.com/@SocietyforN...

Let's take a moment to appreciate that, in the Bond film 'The World is Not Enough' (1999), MI6 apparently keeps a low profile in *checks notes* Eilean Donan castle, one of the most visited and photographed places in Scotland. The dozen or so satellite dishes on the roof are also very inconspicuous 📡

Places are available for the second workshop (6/6) of the 'Mapping Identities' project by @insuhi.bsky.social. This workshop on Geography and Cosmology, considers how depictions of Scotland in the premodern world inform understandings of its place in the world. Info: www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-...

The Society has now reopened its funding schemes, supporting scholars and students in their research, training, travel, and conference organisation - with an emphasis on PGRs and ECRs! Deadline: 17 May 2025! 📢 For details, see ssns.org.uk/funding/

The Great Viking Survey is the most extensive study ever conducted on global perceptions of the vikings and their world. Your voice matters: no matter who or where you are, every response counts! Take the survey, spread the word, and be part of this groundbreaking project at vikingsurvey.org!

For anyone who missed my talk at the Midgard Viking Center in Borre last month - on viking camps as social spaces - this can now be rewatched online! 🏕️⚔️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YIG...

Any members of @northernstudies.bsky.social in Kirkwall on 1st April, we'd love to see you at this.

Thanks for the shoutout! I’m presenting a poster and giving a lightning talk about the exhibition too at an upcoming Scottish Council on Archives event at Glasgow University on March 10th - free tickets are still available! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/connecting...