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

Today’s piece for #TolkienTuesday #TolkienTrewsday examines Tolkien’s Silmarillion “beasts”, dinosaurs, and representations of the prehistoric past in Middle-earth. With thanks to @tattersdill.bsky.social for our recent conversation! 🦕 dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/tolkien-tu... @tolkiensociety.org

Morning visit to the stunning Falls of Dochart 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Today’s piece looks at mice as tailoring household fairies in Beatrix Potter’s The Tailor of Gloucester. 🐁🪡🧵 🧚🐭 dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/beatrix-po... @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social @beatrixpotter.bsky.social

Just had one of those moments: my 12yo was pleading for help with a puzzle, when I exasperatedly protested: “I can’t right now, I have to read a really complicated article about leprechauns!” (As I keep on telling him, my job is tough, but someone’s got to do it!) #academiclife

Why read books? Because books are still the most powerful, reliable, transportive & magical storytelling technology we've invented - and all they need to work is YOUR OWN IMAGINATION! #booksky (Cartoon by @mariascrivan.bsky.social)

Today’s piece is on “Tolkien, Landscape Archaeology, and the First Age of Middle-earth” - revisiting some of my older research for #TolkienTuesday #TolkienTrewsday dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/tolkien-tu... @tolkiensociety.org @tolkienguide.com @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social

Today’s piece is a tribute to a beloved children’s author, focusing on his story of The Snail House, illustrated by Gillian Tyler. RIP Allan Ahlberg. Thank you for all the lovely stories! dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/allan-ahlb... 🐌 🏠 @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social

Oooh! Interesting! It feels like a good follow-up to the £2 coin too - here’s mine in its presentation case

Today’s piece is the first of a series on Beatrix Potter, miniature fantasies, and mice! 🐁 🐁 🐁 dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/beatrix-po...

If you want to listen to me waffling about fantasy worlds on @bbc5live.bsky.social (but fair warning: this has in the early hours so was rather sleepy!), link here: bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... (I'm on from around 2:31:28). Many thanks to Tony Livesey and co for the hospitality!

Exhausted kitty! 🐈‍⬛ 🐾

Too late for #TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday? Today’s theme reminded me of this quotation from Tolkien’s Letter #246 👇

Re-watching #BuffytheVampireSlayer after many years (with the 12yo!) - we both LOLed at this (that’s part of the success of this show, right? The LOL moments even in “serious” episodes!) #btvs

Crocosmia 'Lucifer'

Before the day passes, let me tell you that the Greek Orthodox Church celebrates Saint Marina today - her depiction in icons used to seriously scare me when I was a child! (Well, not her, rather her adversary! I guess one can read these examples as empowering instead?)

Today’s piece is on the rare #Tolkien volume featuring in Tim Sullivan’s latest DC George Cross book series, The Bookseller. Any comments welcome, especially by those of you who know your Tolkien rare copies! dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/a-rare-tol...

Gorgeous morning at Milngavie Reservoir ☀️

My mum’s food - before and after! 🍅 🫑 🍆 🥔 🍚

And then we popped over to see the Kelpies! #TheKelpies

Lovely morning at the Falkirk Wheel! Great views in the sunshine! ☀️ (the video is a time-lapse, obvs! It takes approximately 4 minutes to rotate!)

We’ve got our first potatoes! 🥔

Produce! 🥒 🥬

Amon Hen has landed! Very moving tribute to Amanda Drake, lovely art (including by the inimitable Ted Nasmith!), and a great spread on the TS awards. @tolkiensociety.org #AmonHen