Just went out to see the sunrise. The drama that unfolds every morning, and yet I often miss. Grateful for living out here.

Making crabapple liqueur 🍎🍏

Happy Halloween! 🎃 👻 🐈‍⬛ #Halloween #Halloween2025

Allsorts is trying on his #Halloween costume: he’s going as a Tudor courtier, complete with natural ruff! (Obvs, this is a medical “bodysuit” designed to stop him from licking his stitches! The little terror came back with a nasty tear under his back leg last week…) 🐈‍⬛ 🐾

A bit of a personal one… dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/parabasis

Σήκω ψυχή μου, δώσε ρεύμα, βάλε στα ρούχα σου φωτιά βάλε στα όργανα φωτιά Να τιναχτεί σαν μαύρο πνεύμα η τρομερή μας η λαλιά RIP #ΔιονυσηςΣαββοπουλος

A wee bit of news. news.sky.com/story/fascin...

The 3rd and final part of my piece on constructing childhood in Tolkien’s legendarium is now out, this time focusing on hobbit childhoods and hobbits *as* children. @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @tolkiensociety.org #TolkienTuesday dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/constructi...

I’m teaching a seminar on “Constructed Languages in Fantasy Fiction” in a couple of weeks, in which #Tolkien will feature heavily, for a course in our new Masters in Global Communications. This is for my students + everyone fascinated by conlangs + artlangs! dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/creating-i...

The text I taught with my Honours children’s literature students today - yes, another George MacDonald, and yes, we ended to talking about the Grandmother and Galadriel (among many other things!)

It's like we made our card game just for you!

For #TolkienTuesday: the second part (out of three) of my essay on childhood in Tolkien’s legendarium, this time focusing on Túrin Turambar and the tragic hero’s childhood. dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/constructi... @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social

So sorry to miss this medieval Ireland-themed event at @uofglasgow.bsky.social; a beautiful film, a brilliant talk by @dimitrafimi.bsky.social & an excellent new Book of Kells-inspired card-game from @matthewcreasy.bsky.social ... surely no better way to spend the evening on Thursday 9 October!

Making crabapple jelly - such a satisfying process! 🍎

Join us this Thursday, 9 October, at @uofglasgow.bsky.social ARC to watch the beautifully animated film The Secret of Kells, with a talk on things Celtic and children’s fantasy by me, and a new card game devised by @matthewcreasy.bsky.social! Book your free ticket👇 www.eventbrite.com/e/cinemarc-t...

Apple-ing, crabapple-ing and mushroom-ing before the storm hits 🍎🍏🍄🍄‍🟫

Our 11th cohort of @uofgfantasy.bsky.social MLitt students have chosen a bird name! Following: 2015-16 Canaries 2016-17 Phoenixes 2017-18 Ravens 2018-19 Merlins 2019-20 Owls 2020-21 Nightingales 2021-22 Sparrowhawks 2022-23 Nightjars 2023-24 Peregrines 2024-25 Starlings Welcome: 2025-26 the Magpies!

If you’re working on any area of fantasy and the fantastic, come and join us at Glasgow in June 2026 and do consider presenting or running a workshop! All the info you need and the full CFP is here: fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20... @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social

Today’s piece (1/3) reflects on Tolkien’s constructions of childhood, esp. the Elves as perfect children, and what happens when they re-experience childhood after reincarnation. dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/constructi... #TolkienTuesday #TolkienTrewsday @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @tolkiensociety.org

Autumn in the garden 🍂🍐🐞

Mushrooms spotted on an autumn day 🍄 🍁 🍄‍🟫 🍂

After 5 years in Scotland, we got to see, at last, red squirrels in action!!!

In bed with stinking cold, trying to rest so that I can still teach tomorrow. Kitty is keeping my feet warm in solidarity… 🐈‍⬛🐾 (It’s not COVID, thank goodness, I tested, but one of those nasty sneezy, throat-hurt-y, headachy, blocked-nose-y things that doesn’t let you sleep…)

Tiny autumn garden things 🍎 🍂 🌺 🍁 #autumn

Happy birthday to J.R.R. #Tolkien’s The Hobbit, published #OTD in 1937, with a gorgeous dust jacket and illustrations by Tolkien himself! @tolkiensociety.org @tolkienwonder.bsky.social @uofgfantasy.bsky.social #Hobbit 🐉

Tolkien’s A Secret Vice, his “manifesto” on invented languages edited from his manuscripts by me and @ashiggins.bsky.social, has now been released by HarperCollins as a Tolkien “signature” edition. Amazing to see my name on a book cover alongside Tolkien’s authorised signature!

My book Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc is released into the wild today! Here's a quick peek at a few more pages, artwork here by Győző Vida, Yassen Panov, Alexander Korotich and Sergei Iukhimov #Tolkien www.bloomsbury.com/uk/illustrat...

A wonderful induction with our new cohort of Fantasy MLitt students! Despite the tons of info we bombarded them with, there was still time for a team game of invented creatures doing battle! (Thanks @tattersdill.bsky.social for organising!) @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social

JRR #Tolkien’s The #Silmarillion was published #OTD 48 years ago. Here is a majestic depiction by kuliszu of its epic opening, the Ainulindalë: the harmony of the Music of the Ainur and the Discord of Melkor. www.deviantart.com/kuliszu/art/... www.deviantart.com/kuliszu/art/...

Apple and blackberry jam - all fruit from our garden! 🍏 (where is the blackberry emoji when you need it???!!!) 🍂 🍁 #autumnvibes

Safely home from Oxford and found this lovely thing whilst checking on the garden this morning. Waxgills: highly poisonous, apparently, but very pretty! Like marshmallow on the grass. 🍄‍🟫 🍄 #fungi

Homeward bound after a lovely Oxonmoot and a very moving Enyalië. I leave you with photos from Wolvercote Cemetery, where we paid our respects not only to J.R.R. Tolkien, but to Priscilla Tolkien too, whom I had the good fortune to meet a few times. @tolkiensociety.org

With @shaungunner.bsky.social, Brian Sibley, Jay Johnstone, and @aranelparmadil.bsky.social, making fools of ourselves in “Just a minute in Middle-earth” at #Oxonmoot! @tolkiensociety.org

It looks like a younger version of me is on the Oxonmoot badge for this year! This photo is of me giving my keynote in the Tolkien 2019 convention, titled “Tolkien, Folklore, and Foxes: a thoroughly vulpine talk in which there may be singing”. Video link below 👇

Sunny Oxford morning, walking to the Weston to see some of Tolkien’s manuscripts before I join Oxonmoot. On my way 2 pubs opposite each other frequented by Tolkien + friends. The Eagle & Child (affect. known as Bird & Baby), still under renovation, I see; and The Lamb & Flag, same as it ever was.

Today’s piece is musing on doll’s houses, anarchic mice, “nesting”, and a budding romance. 🐁 🐭 🏠 dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/beatrix-po...

It lives! Copies of my book Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc have arrived! So happy to finally see it in print after all this time. Artwork here by Yassen Panov, Jerzy Czerniawski, Alexander Korotich and Sergei Iukhimov. Available from 18 Sept www.bloomsbury.com/uk/illustrat...

Eglerio! My series editor’s copy of @joelmerriner.bsky.social’s Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc: Iconographies of Difference has just arrived! The book will be available from 18 Sep - details here: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/illustrat... @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @tolkiensociety.org

For #TolkienTuesday/#TolkienTrewsday, as a follow up to my piece from last week, here’s “The Gardens of the Merking's palace”, by J.R.R. Tolkien, for his children’s story Roverandom.

24 month, 0.16 post at Glasgow University to cover my teaching while I'm leading a Leverhulme Project Grant. Desirable: Up-to-date knowledge and specialist understanding in science fiction, literature and medicine, and/or post-war literature. www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer...

Beautiful views at Inchmahome Priory on Lake Menteith!

First pears from our garden! 🍐 🍐 🍐

Et si le thème du renard chez Tolkien vous intéresse, n'hésitez pas à visionner cette passionnante conférence sur le sujet par @dimitrafimi.bsky.social 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAAY...

When you’re thinking deep thoughts about scale and miniatures, and this little chap decides to make an intervention! (Watch till the end for scale! Also, on children’s literature, scale, and snails, see: dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/allan-ahlb...) 🐌 🐌 🐌 🐌 🐌

In today’s piece I’m having some fun with nonsense insects and flowers on the moon in Tolkien’s story Roverandom. There may also be a call to artists… 🎨 #TolkienTuesday #TolkienTrewsday dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/tolkien-tu...

It’s been a while since I presented at Oxonmoot on-site - looking forward to reconnecting with old friends and meeting new #Tolkien scholars and fans! Who’s coming? @tolkiensociety.org

30 reasons to come to Oxonmoot 2025! Reason no. 14: Dimitra Fimi! @dimitrafimi.bsky.social will be speaking on "Tolkien an the Miniature", and how although Tolkien criticises fairy diminutiveness, Tolkien himself plays with scale as part of his stories. Not to be missed! #BlueSky

The new @harpercollins.bsky.social #Tolkien 'signature' paperbacks of Tree and Leaf and A Secret Vice, with the older editions for comparison @dimitrafimi.bsky.social @ashiggins.bsky.social

Thrilled to announce the papers for @tolkiensociety.org’s online seminar this October! You can find the list of papers and the link to register (it’s free!) here: www.tolkiensociety.org/events/semin...

When all the veg for the salad are from your own garden! Also, the courgettes keep on coming and the blackberries are just about starting! #SummerVibes