100%. As someone who has had to write a lot of things, the hard part about writing (for me) is converting what I know I want to say in my head into the words on a page that communicate what is in my head. The frustration is when the words on the page don't communicate the thoughts in my head.

Apr 16: Feast of Magnús († c.1116), earl of Orkney. His cousin Hákon Pálsson had him killed in a feud over the division of lands and power in their joint earldom. Orkneyinga saga says Magnús accepted violent death as a sacrifice, praying for his killers. 📸Hew Morrison

Hrothweard became the first archbishop of York to sign a charter of a southern king, namely Æthelstan, #OTD in 928. 📸Athelstan Museum

Liam has reminded me of something I've been meaning to do for a while: Why "Beauvoir" and not "de Beauvoir"? A thread 🧵

Reading a book published in 2025 by a Nobel prize-winning economist, and the start is ... not promising. None of this is true, and the scholarship cited here is conspicuously out of date (Mitterauer first published in 2003).

me: i wonder what we’d be capable of without all these high tech distractions some guy in like 1066: try and knock me off a horse with this here pole

Durham and English Heritage are now recruiting for a fully-funded PhD on Roman Corbridge 🥳🥳🥳 This is a fantastic opportunity to work on one of our most important and understudied finds assemblages from Roman Britain. Deadline 1st June. Please share widely! www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

There are two news items to share about the @echistsocreview.bsky.social First, we will no longer be posting on X\Twitter. Second, we have updated our notes to authors so that everyone is aware of our policy regarding AI. #econhist #scholarship

It's a month until the 2026 Midland Viking Symposium on 15 May. Sign up here! This year it's free, it's online and it's on a Friday. Please share. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sagas-the-...

Just sent my paper on early medieval sculpture in Brittany off to the editors. Curious - is anyone else working on early medieval archaeology in Brittany - particularly ecclesiastical stuff?

Reading this as a new book at university was such a mind-expanding experience:

Ceci n'est pas une French national cricket team. At least, not according to the French government. Yet FRANCE is written across their blue, white and red kit, and FRANCE are moving up and down the ICC official rankings as the tournament goes on. Is this even legal? I found out: f24.my/BqmF

Some good news - a new issue of Early Medieval Europe has dropped! And it's a bumper issue, with six articles, not the usual five. Here's a quick thread on the delights awaiting you: 1/9

if you can’t keep it inbounds it shouldn’t count as a catch, sorry. cricket gets this one right

We're in Bury St Edmund's for our annual Spring Conference. This evening a keynote talk was given by Professor Mark Bailey on the estates of the Bury St Edmund's Abbey 1250-1450. Violent uprisings, intriguing data gleaned from manorial documents, and more... research-portal.uea.ac.uk/en/persons/m...

This is incredibly cool.

Have just found out that University College Cork has the largest collection of stone Ogham inscriptions

Seems a bit off given the provenance of many items IN these museums, right?

Just dropped: @richardpurkiss.bsky.social on thegns in tenth- and eleventh-century England. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#jobklaxon 10 postdocs available at @psl-univ.bsky.social in #AI. Working language: English. Btw. #digitalhumanities also happen under the AI hype these days, so get in touch and walk by this very building on your way to work. Join me in being #touristatwork #juniorProfInParis

A very happy St Cuthbert’s Day to all the haliwerfolc.

The tribes of Britain c. 540 in the time of Gildas.

We are thrilled that the important research carried out by Julia Hillner, Pia Wiegmink and Jamie Wood is making waves!🥳 www.uni-bonn.de/en/news/048-...

Nick Clegg unveiled a portrait of himself at the National Liberal Club yesterday and it's hard to tell which one looks less like Nick Clegg, the portrait of Nick Clegg or the actual Nick Clegg

Jesus fucking Christ

Spot on that the battle for the right is not Tories vs Reform but liberalism vs grim authoritarianism.

Every single bullet point makes me more excited to order the Calming Carrot

#jobklaxon Do you want to do a PhD in #history and/or #philology and #digitalhumanities? Come to work with us in Paris at @ecoledeschartes.bsky.social @psl-univ.bsky.social 3 funded posts: www.chartes.psl.eu/gazette-char... Perhaps of interest to the @digitalmedievalist.bsky.social community.

☘️Did you know that St Patrick's own words are the only surviving Latin narrative texts of his age to have been composed outside of Roman imperial territory? Have a listen to the latest episode of the podcast with brilliant lexicographer Dr Anthony Harvey @ria.ie 1/3☘️ open.spotify.com/episode/3ffC...

For anyone who is nearby, I am giving a talk about researching place-names on Monday, 23rd March 2026 at the North Lincolnshire Museum Society (Local History and Archaeology Section) at 7.15pm. The talk is called 'Digging for Lincolnshire - Axholme's place-names, a journey of interpretation'.

32,000 medieval manuscripts now transcribed by an algorithm.

Google Translate got better and better overtime and had a short window of being brilliant, before getting, one assumes, AI slopified, and coming up with stuff like this - (the word I'd googled was "muchacho")

Final call for the @bsrome.bsky.social and Early Medieval Europe early career fellowship, for a month's stay in Rome plus some travel costs to get there. Deadline tomorrow. bsr.ac.uk/awards-resid...

Check your learning time! Obviously it's multiple choice. What does AI stand for? a) Artificial Intelligence b) Archive Intelligence c) Actual Intellect d) Ahhhhh Interesting 5/

*Not so fun fact. Matt Goodwin was my dissertation supervisor. Only briefly mind. I swapped after he said that my idea - a study and survey on the politics of the homeless (less than 1% vote) - was of "no academic interest". I got a 1st 🎓

The wonderful @caitlinrgreen.bsky.social has a hugely interesting new article just out in Early Medieval England & its Neighbours, all about Alfred the Great's embassy to India - free to read here #India #AlfredtheGreat #medieval www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Squeezing my research and teaching work in the gaps between academic misconduct meetings

It's set to be a gloomy day tomorrow, so how about some medieval loyalties instead! We have a very promising selection of 20-minute papers and 5-minute presentations, with a general discussion for all to join at the end. Bring a hot drink and join us online 1.30-4.30pm GMT! (zoom link at request)

You're watching BBC Scotland.

It is amusing that, despite how academics *have* been saying for c.40 years that the ancient Britons weren't labelled Celts, most normal people have just carried on assuming they were called Celts so this is only a big reversal for *us* We're very important and impactful, honest

We had a blast yesterday launching A Companion to Rome (c. 400-1050) into the world. Thank you to our kind hosts, the KFG Religion & Urbanity, Jörg Rüpke and Susanne Rau, our respondents Mateusz Fafinski and Cinnamon Ducasse, and the audience. And our authors and further collaborators, of course!!

Or consider being born to parents who can give you a role in the family firm? www.ft.com/content/c894...

Finally had a chance to go through some of our finds from last year's excavation at #CerneAbbey & thought I would share this gem. Book clasps are quite common finds on monastic sites but this little fella is the finest I've ever excavated & must have come from a pretty fancy prayer book or psalter

As I was saying... open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/w...

always a lot of panic about right wing young men, the second most progressive demographic in britain

I need at least 3 more folk to sign up for my Edinburgh Adult Education Programme archaeology classes at Craigentinny, or the course will be cancelled. If you know anyone who might be interested, please let them know. Thank you! adulteducationedinburgh.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spyd...

I feel like we should all take a moment to remember that Ukrainians are still dying and this guy is just spitting bilge about fucking Greenland being "unprotected" from Russia.

Very sad news indeed.