m.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ0o... Me and @history-w-hilbert.bsky.social talking about LITTLE KINGDOMS

For #FindsFriday Scandinavian imitations of Frankish deniers, found at Castricum in Noord-Holland, for a chapter in a book ed. by @ccooijmans.bsky.social. One copies a coin of Louis the Pious, one Lothar I: we know #vikings were settled in this area. Find report at www.academia.edu/43960277/2020

THE AGE OF THE FRISIANS HAS COME

We binne wer yn it Heitelân, hear.

The latest North Sea dispatches from me

Monk Fryston, North Yorkshire. Fristun c.1030, Munechesfryston 1166. ‘Farmstead of the Frisians’. Old English Frīsa + tūn. Affix from Old English munuc ‘monk’ referring to possession by Selby Abbey in the 11thC. Source: Oxford Dictionary of British #PlaceNames. 📸Mel Towler #medievalsky

Starting off a new year on the blog by tackling a big question longhairedkingsblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/23/w...

Last week @celticist.bsky.social gave an absolute tour de force on Northumbrian stone sculpture at the lovely Church of St Hilda in Hartlepool. Great to see some faces from Lindisfarne there as well. The old Bernician connections are yet strong!

Always a pleasure to catch up with Alex Harvey, especially to deviously plan out the next steps in bringing you a potted sweep across the world of the North Sea Age!

Honoured to be featured as the up-to-date tech-savvy researcher dragging Luddite boomer @alexharvv.bsky.social into the twenty first century.

So I don't know if you've ever looked at a map of Burghead before... Interesting promontory. Picturesque.

Looking forward to 2026 (and 2027 and 2028) with several projects on the go my next big non-fiction is mine and @history-w-hilbert.bsky.social's Dawn of the Vikings: A History of the North Sea Age, looming distantly on the horizon, published by @penandswordbooks.bsky.social

Signed up to the library in my hometown which I haven’t been to since leaving school. “Welcome back”, said the librarian.

Learned today that “Galápagos” comes from a Spanish word for tortoise, meaning that “Galápagos Tortoise” is, in fact, a tortology

Delighted to be returning to the @imc-leeds.bsky.social in 2026 - quite a busy one this year, too! I'll be joined by my good friends @karanthir.bsky.social and @history-w-hilbert.bsky.social across 2 panels dedicated to the Early Medieval Frisians, perhaps a first for the IMC!

New research suggests young parents more likely to speak Frisian with their children than in previous generations 🔥🔥🔥

Lesson 2: Little Kingdoms, on Wednesday!

It was a pleasure to present at the Australian Early Medieval Conference hosted by @jaema.bsky.social on the subject of Vikings in Old Frisian texts yesterday. I presented via Zoom, but at least there was one individual who heard it live… #Vikings #Medieval #Frisia

Carrying on our theme of weaponry-related artefacts, we're going to look at these two Carolingian sword-belt mounts for our Viking Camps #FindsFriday today. People have been known to duck and run for cover when I start talking about strap fittings... so I promise I'll contain my enthusiasm! /1

I'm very excited to be working with @history-w-hilbert.bsky.social on the reception of Radbod in metal music. Stay tuned for more coming to the blog soon!

Happy to say that @history-w-hilbert.bsky.social and I have just submitted two smashing Frisian-focused panels to #IMC2026 @imc-leeds.bsky.social - fingers crossed! If we make it, I expect you ALL to be there in 2026!

Could Cornwall join Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England as nations of the UK? Dydh dha warn meur ras! www.youtube.com/watch?v=rha1...

Mûske is as intrigued to learn about the identity of the Early Medieval Warni as I am.

A view of Amsterdam, by Jacob van Ruisdael painted between 1665-1670.

Duran Duran??

The Festival of Archaeology is *free* to attend. Come one, come all! What better way to spend a weekend than out in the Northumbrian landscape, immersed in top-notch archaeology?!

VERY excited to announce together with @alexharvv.bsky.social that we’ve written/are writing a book on the Age of the North Sea - the edges of the Mare Frisicum on the build up to the Viking Age! youtube.com/watch?v=F_eQ...

Never change professor Cunk, never change ;)

Krêftstêf - POWER-STAFF - should absolutely be the Frisian translation of power bank.

For #FindsFriday the unique and remarkable Khazar coin inscribed "Moses is God's messenger", from the huge Spillings hoard found on Gotland in 1999. The coin (dated c. 837) is the only physical proof that Khazars converted to Judaism. From the Gotlands Museum book "The Spillings Hoard"

Biology textbook? No, an Old Frisian manuscript.

Fan ús moaie Dokkum oant ús moaie Snits... Fryslân. Wat in plak. Wat in minsken.

#IMC26 #IMC2026 @imc-leeds.bsky.social ATTENTION ALL NORTH SEA DWELLERS I and @history-w-hilbert.bsky.social are looking for fellow Frisian-obsessed archaeologists, linguists, historians, what-have-you, to present at IMC 2026 in Leeds. We want YOU to wow us with emergent research: details below

Wie hiel moai om ris by de Fryske Akademy werom te kommen, perfoarst ek as Nelleke IJssennagger oan it wurd is oer de Wytsingetiid yn Frisia! Soks haw ik gauris heard, mar eltse kear binne der wer nije fynsten en nije ynformaasje yn it ljocht kaam!

Low German, Latin, and Old Frisian manuscripts from Frisia.

Success! And with a now-signed copy of An Introduction to Old Frisian we go to work with the translations!

The Old Frisian translations have begun!

Frisians in Anglo-Saxon England - a topic close to my heart!

Old Frisian Summer School day 1: lectures from Rolf Bremmer and Arlen Versloot. Groningen is a Frisian city once more!

Old Frisian Summer School has kicked off with Professor Rolf Bremmer’s lecture on the scope of Old Frisian!

It reint en reint It hâld gjin skoft Alles wurdt wiet Wetter hat nocht

Just changed the name of the file while it was open and the presentation for my lecture is gone! That’s me telt never to edit an opened file 😤🫣

Oh hey, it's almost #IMC2025 time! Why not saunter over to our Thursday morning session on early medieval Flanders (organised by @ddefries.bsky.social), and hear me discuss/plead why we should pay more attention to the region in broader Viking Age scholarship?

“He’s coming, pretend we’re asleep!”

Frisian names that aged well: FOKKE KINKE LOLLE BENTE SIKKE

Now that is pretty Gothic.

I love the Frisian word EAMELER - “ant”. It comes from EAMELJE - “to complain/mumble”. So in Frisian “ant” and “complainer” are the same: EAMELER.

Old Frisian (1300): hwat Middle Frisian (1450): haet E. Modern Frisian (1650): het Modern Frisian (1950): hwat Modern Frisian (2000): wat We almost went full circle.

How it happened. Sa gie it.

Every time I see this seventeenth-century depiction of King Redbad I’m convinced I’ve met him in every English pub’s beer garden, slowly turning more crimson as the day progresses.