Time to go back to using gorillas to sell comics.

Good. I've been so worried about them.

Silver denier of West Frankish king Charles the Bald (AD 840-77) was found in Puddington #cheshire in 1993. The coin was minted at Melle. Similar coins have been found at Llanbedrgoch in Anglesey and Cuerdale in Lancashire, suggesting trade betw. Bay of Biscay & Irish Sea #medievalsky #coins #wirral

Ninth-century Frankish sources universally saw the Battle of Fontenoy as a biblical catastrophe. The Franks under the Carolingians had created an ideology of rulership so successfully that it shocked everyone when it was revealed as the fiction it was. Empires are built on lies, and lies eventually begin to crumble. Charlemagne played a messy game of dynastic succession with his sons by different wives and could have lost his throne to his eldest in 792. Louis the Pious did the same thing with his sons and came even closer to losing his throne in 830 and then again 833. In this sense, the civil war of the early 840s was business as usual. A Carolingian was a Carolingian was a Carolingian, and in 841 all four (lest we forget, Pepin II was himself a Carolingian) had legitimate claims to a royal title, at least according to the Franks themselves. But that reality ended up being irreconcilable with the ideology of a unified empire. Alliances formed and broke and reformed among the warring parties, as rulers sought to gain and maintain their own power. Perpetual oathmakers, perpetual oathbreakers.

thinking, for some reason, about this passage in mine & @lollardfish.bsky.social new book. eventually the irreconcilable lies of empire begin crashing down and people need to try to build something in its wake.

book --> www.harpercollins.com/products/oat...

A Vitrine with jewellery

A Vitrine with jewellery, vessels and a chest

A golden ring with a miniature building as decoration

Further burial goods of Frankish ladies from sixth-century Cologne can be inspected at the temporary exhibition of the Römisch-Germanische Museum , including an amazing gold ring in the shape of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

4 I think.

Joffrey mixed with Grima Wormtongue.

Two phrases in Old Norse that are kennings (expressions with metaphorical meanings) of man. The first phrase means "the disliked oppressor of cheese," the second phrase means "the bent tormentor of buttermilk."

Old Norse really has humanity's number with these two kennings.

Smerrows

Pretty much all of these at one time or another!

I was unaware of the extent of Disney duck lore, which apparently rivals Tolkien hobbit lore. There's even genealogies.

Can I be a different bitch?

I have not had pizza delivered in quite a while due to this struggle.

"No, Pooh! That's 3,000-year-old archaeological honey!"

From what I know of gorillas in Tarzan novels, they probably want to make her their own Queen.

"Conan, what is best in life?" "All those gorilla stories in golden age comics."

The cicada lifestyle is more appealing than ever. Hiding underground for the next 17 years only to emerge screaming, that's living the dream.

Bande à part! ♥️

There is a fig tree with an enormous number of ripe, fresh figs here. The only problem is having to share them with large flocks of parrots, and the only problem with large flocks of parrots is that they are noisy and eat all the figs. They are real beauties, parrots and figs both.

I trust the captain. He knows what he's doing.

Why is he still there then?

St Columbanus and the Merovingians with Dr Alexander O'Hara The Medieval Irish History Podcast · Episode

Happy new year! To ease us into 2025 we have Dr Alexander O'Hara back for a very chill follow up episode on St Columbanus which focusses on the Irish monastic founder's own words and on his, let's say 'complicated' relationship with the Merovingians... open.spotify.com/episode/7sYK...

Scots expert sheds new light on the 'barbarian' kings who couldn't cut their hair The have been remembered by history as long-haired warlords who held sway over France as Europe emerged from the ashes of the Roman Empire and the…

Scots expert sheds new light on the 'barbarian' Merovingians. They played a key role in forging early nations from the ruins of the Roman Empire, they also drew from the diversity of their time to create new communities and ideals that had a lasting impact. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2486636...

"Pagans, Rebels and Merovingians: Otherness in the Early Carolingian World"
works.hcommons.org/records/3zch...

That is indeed an extremely good fish-catching osprey photo.