Dr Ian McCormick

Increasing popularity of the Anglo-Saxon epic BEOWULF ... promoted by historical linguistics, antiquarians, and the rise of academic English Literature courses ...

THE DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS - 11 VOLS (Complete Set) ebay.us/m/YW54Ae

Front entrance to Heslington Hall with snow

Courtyard of Heslington Hall with snow

Yew topiary garden with snow

Yew topiaries with snow

Lovely snow this morning at our new CECS home at Heslington Hall, including the 18th c Dutch style topiary garden behind the Tudor manor house:

Max Robinson as Nick Bottom, Conrad Ricamora as Tom Snout, and Rhett Guter as Francis Flut. Utah Shakespeare Festival's 2011 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

< My thrum and thrummy threads >

O Fates, come, come!
Cut thread and thrum:
Quail, crush, conclude, nd quell.

--- William Shakespeare,
A Midsummer Night's Dream, 5.1.274-6

Less than Greggs? Public have no idea of value of top universities, study finds Belief that snack chain’s revenues exceed those of Oxford’s one of many misconceptions about UK’s HE sector

"Higher education generated £24bn in export earnings for the UK in 2022-23, far above aircraft manufacturing with £12bn, legal services with £9.5bn and telecoms with £8.8bn."
#HigherEd
www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Added !

‘To venge this outrage which took place in Skye
Macdonald straight to Harris isle must fly,’

— Harold Steward Rathbone,
Dunvegan Castle. A Poem (1900).
Limited Edition: 500
#Scotland #Poetry #literature #ScotLit

How to Get Published in an Academic Journal – RSVP Join us Friday, November 21 for a special professional development session on how to get published in an academic journal!

Mystified by how to approach an academic journal editor? Need help getting through the "revise and resubmit" doldrums? Our next #RSVPDigiEvent can help! Join us next Friday, Nov. 21 and hear from the editors of top #Victorian journals on "How to Get Published in a Academic Journal": buff.ly/ydJkKAK

Quotation from Alan Dundes (1934–2005), American folklorist, University of California, Berkeley.
#HigherEd #philosophy

A cheery alpaca, drawn in Brazil by Dutch artist Frans Post. He was born in Haarlem on this day in 1612.

According to data from CoinGecko, the global cryptocurrency market cap today is $3.15trn, down from $4,379trn on 7th October.

Imagine if they'd invested $4 trillion in GREEN ENERGY rather than crypto ...

Photo of "Isambard" : Library Cat at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. Book: 'Opuscula of Gregorii Tiferni' (1494)?

"Isambard" : Library Cat at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University.
Book: 'Opuscula of Gregorii Tiferni' (1494)?
#HigherEd #research #Cats #edchat

Behold! has also declined into archaism.
Most frequently used in sacred texts and hymns.

very harsh self-criticism ?!

Max Robinson as Nick Bottom, Conrad Ricamora as Tom Snout, and Rhett Guter as Francis Flut. Utah Shakespeare Festival's 2011 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

< My thrum and thrummy threads >

O Fates, come, come!
Cut thread and thrum:
Quail, crush, conclude, nd quell.

--- William Shakespeare,
A Midsummer Night's Dream, 5.1.274-6

I've just written a thrummy-cap thread !

Tag yourself in this 1800s list of supernatural entities of the British isles

He ey'd her o're and o're, and still his eye Found some addition to deformity. An old decrepid Hag, she was grown white With frosty Age, and withered with Despight And self-consuming Hate; in Furrs yclad, And on her Head a thrummy Cap she had. Her knotty Locks, like to Alecto's Snakes Hang down about her shoulders, which she shakes Into disorder; on her furrow'd Brow One might perceive time had been long at plough. Her Eyes like Candle-snuffs by age sunk quite Into their Sockets, yet like Cats-eyes, bright And in the darkest night like fire they shin'd, The ever-open windows of her mind. Her swarthy cheeks Time, that all things consumes, Had hollowed flat unto her Toothless Gums. Her hairy Brows did meet above her Nose, That like an Eagles Beak so crooked grows, It well nigh kiss'd her Chin; thick bristled Hair Grew on her upper Lip, and here and there A rugged Wart with grisly Hairs behung, Her Breasts shrunk up, her Nails and Fingers long!

[Description of a monstrous hag in "Thealma And Clearchus" by John Chalkhill (1600-1642)]:

"And on her Head a thrummy Cap she had.
Her knotty Locks like to Alecto's Snakes
Hang down about her shoulders, which she shakes
Into disorder; "

"The Monmouth-Cap, the Sailor's Thrum" [cap]. 1713
THRUM: jocularly or contemptuously to someone meanly or raggedly dressed; (brewing dialect) a bundle of birch or twigs in a mash tub; Odds and ends, scraps. (OED)
THRUMMY: Fat, plump. Yorkshire dialect (Halliwell)

SOURCE: William Walker, The Bards of Bon-Accord, 1375-1860 (Aberdeen, 1887), pp. 388-9. "IS THERE in or "furth" of Scotland a man-child, born on its north-eastern rock-bound or sandy-bented shores, and who has attained to years of discretion, that knows not the wonderful story of "Thrummy Cap"-whose boyish eyes have not opened to a preternatural "glower", as, sitting eerie by the ingle cheek, his ears have heard, and his crude imagination bodied forth the awful experiences of that "winter's nicht far in the north"? We wot not. For well-nigh a hundred years (it was first printed in 1796) the jingle of its hamely rhyme has been familiar in almost every cot and clachan of rural Scotland, and generation after generation of our sturdy, hard-headed countrymen have as boys wondered and laughed over the doings of the doughty "Thrummy" and the mishaps of "cowardly John". It may be called one of the chap-book classics ...

"While at Dumfries ... he had the satisfaction of showing it to his illustrious kinsman a short time before his death. There is a story to the effect that Burns touched it up here and there, and when returning the MS. pronounced it to be the best ghaist story in the language"
#ScotLit #poetry

Extract from the Montrose Chronicle Feb. 3, 1826. "WHEN we mentioned a fortnight ago, that a man had been found dead among the snow near Portleathen, we were not aware that it was John Burness, the author of the popular little poem of Thrummy Cap. He was a native of the parish of Glenbervie, Kin. cardineshire, and was born May 23, 1771. He was many years a private in the Forfar Militia; and although not much esteemed as a soldier, yet, as Burness the Poet, he was loved by the whole regi. ment-officers and men. For sometime previous to his death, he was employed as a traveller for a Periodical Publishing Company in Aberdeen; and in that capacity was well known over the counties of Angus and Mearns. He has left, we understand, a widow and family in Stonehaven; and we are further informed, that it is in contemplation to erect a monument over his grave, to mark the place where rest the ashes of the humble and honest bard."

TITLE PAGE 1832 edition THRUMMY CAP, A TALE; AND THE BROWNIE O' FEARNDEN, A BALLAD, "O happy! when the gloamin'-fa', Convenes the canty Farmer's Ha';" Wi' tales an' ballads, sangs an' a'- O happy then! The winter evenin' steals awa' Till nine or ten." BRECHIN: ALEXANDER BLACK, BOOKSELLER, 1832

Thrummy Cap, A Legend of the Castle of Fiddes (1796) was a poetic tale written by John Burness (cousin of Robert Burns)
#language #Scottish #dialect #poetry #gothic

The comical stories of Thrummy Cap and the Ghaist Thrummy Cap by John Burness The poetic tale, Thrummy Cap, A Legend of the Castle of Fiddes (1796), written by John Burness (cousin of Robert Burns), was popular during the 19th century in the northeast of Scotland. But, Reader, judge of the surprise, When there he saw, with wond'ring eyes, A spacious vault well stor'd wi' casks O'reaming ale, and some big flasks, An' stride-legs o'er a cask o' ale, He saw the likeness o' himsel. Just in the dress that he coost aff, A thrummy and an aiken staff, Gammashes and the jockey-coat; And in its hand the Ghaist had got, A big four-legged timber bicker, Fill'd to the briin wi' nappy liquor, Our hero at the spectre stared, But neither daunted was nor car'd, But to the Ghaist stright up did step, An' says, dear brother, Thrummy Cap, The warst ye surely dinna drink, So I wi' you will taste I think; Syne took a jug, pou'd out the pail, And fill'd it up wi' the same ale, Frae under where the spectre sat, And up the stair wi' it he gat; Took a gude drink, gae John anither, But never tald him o' his brither That he into the cellar saw, Mair than he'd naething seen ava, Light brown and nappy was the beer: Whar did you get it?

THRUMMY-CAP: "The name of a sprite who occasionally figures in the fairy tales of Northumberland. He is generally described as a "queer-looking little auld man," and the scene of his exploits frequently lies in the vaults and cellars of old castles."
#language #Scottish #dialect #English #poetry

Wonderful chamber opera by Tony Harrison and Harrison Birtwistle too. Alas, still no proper recording, so far as I am aware. boulezian.blogspot.com/2014/05/barb...

The North-South divide is as wide as ever Ninety years after Orwell exposed northern hardship, new data shows deprivation remains stark across England’s North

It is 90 years since George Orwell travelled to the north of England to learn about the living conditions of the northern working-class, during the long Depression of the 1930s.

Today’s figures show not much has changed.

The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care? The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...

Would make an enchanting sleep mantra.

Those wonderful sheep-counting words from the North of England.
#language #dialect

YouTube video by Classic Hits Studio The Platters - The Great Pretender (1959) 4K

The Platters performing "The Great Pretender", released originally in 1959.
youtu.be/RBj2HN2uuNA?...

And who funds the predators: far-right super-rich, hedge-fund parasites, carbon-head oil/gas/coal industries, crypto finance freaks?