@evelynkoch.bsky.social
Early modern/19th-cent. English literature, science and literature, landscape in literature, fantasy, horror and weird fiction.
A couple with a child by the wonderful Gesina Ter Borch, she made this picture #otd 2 Dec 1652 (Rijksmuseum)
02.12.2025 10:56 — 👍 16 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
#Day2 of our #TimeTravelAdvent and we're reading Chapter 2 of #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems - taking us to 991 and the Battle of Maldon. The Old English poem is so grounded in the watery geography of the Blackwater Estuary. I wanted to share these photos from a recent visit. 1/2
02.12.2025 09:01 — 👍 23 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0
"Negotiators are aiming to finalise a deal by January that would allow the UK to participate in Erasmus from 2027 onwards, according to two UK and EU officials."
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Some editions have 'snails' rather than 'slugs', but slugs are even more effective in this context...
28.11.2025 17:38 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Some monsters and prodigies to end the week (from Paré’s ‘Opera’, 1582).
Some monsters and prodigies to end the week (from Paré’s ‘Opera’, 1582).
Some monsters and prodigies to end the week (from Paré’s ‘Opera’, 1582).
Some monsters and prodigies to end the week (from Paré’s ‘Opera’, 1582).
Some monsters and prodigies to end the week (from Paré’s ‘Opera’, 1582).
28.11.2025 10:41 — 👍 24 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
Still, I don’t deny I’m afeard some things didn’t go well with He and his.” Creedle nodded in a direction which signified where the Melburys lived. “I’m afraid, too, that it was a failure there!” “If so, ’twere doomed to be so. Not but what that slug might as well have come upon anybody else’s plate as hers.” “What slug?” “Well, maister, there was a little one upon the edge of her plate when I brought it out; and so it must have been in her few leaves of wintergreen.” “How the deuce did a slug get there?” “That I don’t know no more than the dead; but there my gentleman was.” “But, Robert, of all places, that was where he shouldn’t have been!” “Well, ’twas his native home, come to that; and where else could we expect him to be? I don’t care who the man is, slugs and caterpillars always will lurk in close to the stump of cabbages in that tantalizing way.” “He wasn’t alive, I suppose?” said Giles, with a shudder on Grace’s account. “Oh no. He was well boiled. I warrant him well boiled. God forbid that a live slug should be seed on any plate of victuals that’s served by Robert Creedle.... But Lord, there; I don’t mind ’em myself—them small ones, for they were born on cabbage, and they’ve lived on cabbage, so they must be made of cabbage. But she, the close-mouthed little lady, she didn’t say a word about it; though ’twould have made good small conversation as to the nater of such creatures; especially as wit ran short among us sometimes.”
You do forget sometimes that there are also oddly funny bits in #ThomasHardy. Giles' party going all wrong in The Woodlanders could've been a sitcom episode.
And note the survival of the belief in spontaneous generation.
fen-līc, adj: fenlike, marshy. (FEN-leech / ˈfɛn-liːtʃ)
#OldEnglish #WOTD
À knitted version of the large intestine and mesentery in blues and oranges
One of the absolute highlights of my trip to Ingolstadt in September was seeing the exhibition ´Ansichtssache’ (a matter of perspective) at the German Medical History Museum. It showed the knitted anatomy of Katharina Sabernig, and I can’t say how much I loved it!
27.11.2025 20:10 — 👍 95 🔁 23 💬 2 📌 1
The marginalia "Ja ein Leber-Wurst".
A page from a book titled "Centuria Tertia, Das ist Das dritte Hundert Der Außerwehlten grossen Unverschämbten Feisten Wolgemesten Erstunckenen Papistischen Lüge...", published 1616 in Gießen, Germany, with the liver sausage marginalia. Source: https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb11020770?page=139
Good historians know that being a true German Protestant pamphletist in #earlymodern Europe included making pejorative jokes with sausage-content to vilify Catholic clergy.
Like this "Ja, ein Leberwurst" comment in a marginalia next to a passage cited from disliked Catholic sermon #skystorians
All of this thread, plus a favorite example from my own research: a computer transcription would pick up the "correct" signature of one of my guys writing his code name in a secret message but not the fact that underneath it he had (oops) accidentally started to sign his real name.
27.11.2025 06:19 — 👍 15 🔁 6 💬 2 📌 0
Photo of the cover of Hither Shore Vol. 21 on the topic Tolkien and his Editors (Tolkien und seine Herausgeber:innen). The cover is orange and white and features an illustration of a shore by Anke Eißmann. The book stands upright on a board featuring the ring design, and a mini Bilbo sits in front of the book.
The latest Hither Shore is out now! Not only does it contain articles on the volume's topic #Tolkien and his editors, but various Tolkien editors reflect on their own experiences of editing Tolkien's works.
📚💙 #fantasy #lit #littwiss
Close-up of a cavity beneath some tree roots in which various little offerings are placed to make it look like a home for tiny fairies. There's a wooden mushroom, a little doll, a sign saying 'Frühling' (spring) and various nuts and bits and pieces.
Close-up of a cavity beneath some tree roots in which various little offerings are placed to make it look like a home for tiny fairies. There are acorns, felt dolls, fir cones and a wooden sign saying 'Höhle der Elfen/Zerge' (home of the elfs/dwarfs).
In a forest near the Augustenruhe in Marburg, you can find little offerings under some tree roots which have been consistently placed there for years. On the left, the current state in autumn 2025; on the right, the same place in 2020. #WyrdWednesday
26.11.2025 15:00 — 👍 12 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
On the left, a screenshot of the article "Fungi in popular culture reconsidered: Four more-than-human entanglements" in plain text.
On the right, an image from the 1963 film MATANGO (a.k.a. ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE) showing a man with ugly fungal outgrowths on his face standing menacingly in a doorway.
Mushroom horror, from H.P. Lovecraft to THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS and THE LAST OF US, is really having a moment. Karel Šima's "Fungi in popular culture reconsidered: Four more-than-human entanglements" is #openaccess from @ejcs-journal.bsky.social.
doi.org/10.1177/1367...
The Google AI search results are a bit like an Irish person giving directions. They might not know the answer but they're happy to give it a go and guess along with you.
24.11.2025 10:30 — 👍 87 🔁 15 💬 4 📌 0
From NATURE WRITING EVERYDAY OF THE YEAR, ed. Jane McMorland Hunter
Saturday #morningread
#ThomasHardy
Have a restful and warm weekend
✨✨✨
Hamish Hawk and his band being intense on a small stage.
Went to see Hamish Hawk tonight - a very intimate gig with several new songs. Their Hogmanay gig won't be in such a familiar setting...
20.11.2025 21:30 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0sprǣc-hūs, n.n: a house for speaking. (SPRATCH-HOOS / ˈspræːtʃ-ˌhuːs)
#OldEnglish #WOTD
A man I met high in the Peak District who, due to crimes he would not disclose to me, had been turned into two conjoined Sycamore trees by a coven of witches and condemned to spend eternity waving his useless branch hands at the cold, cruel sky.
THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent trees I have met on walks.
You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.
Der neue Hither Shore ist da, mit vielen spannenden Inhalten. Was euch erwartet, findet ihr hier:
19.11.2025 17:15 — 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Holding the Cambridge Handbook of Literature and Plants in front of a wall overgrown with large green leaves
Green with envy 🌵, because our collection now houses this new 2025 "Cambridge Handbook of Literature & Plants"? No reason! Order the book, ed. by @bonnielj.bsky.social today from our library and explore the essays on #LiteraryStudies & #Ecocriticism & #EnvironmentalHumanities & #CulturalStudies
19.11.2025 13:10 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0
The top half of a pine board with the human nervous system laid out
It was lovely to see homage to the Hunterian Museum’s Evelyn Tables in @realgdt.bsky.social Frankenstein. These four tables were made in Padua, taking arteries, veins and nerves dissected in Padua’s famous anatomical theatre, pasting them to boards and varnishing them to protect and preserve
18.11.2025 20:12 — 👍 614 🔁 113 💬 4 📌 4
Two swans are approaching the river bank. Behind them are various ducks. The photo of the river is framed by tree branches and the light of the dusk is reflected in the ripples on the water.
Well hello!
18.11.2025 16:54 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0And of course the most important "inspired by Michael" creation, Tom Bombadil
18.11.2025 18:21 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
A hand-drawn illustration of an owl with thick unibrow and feathers in colors of turquoise, orange, black, and white. The owl folded its wings at the front and looked up. There is a name "Owlamoo" at the bottom right and year 1928 at the bottom left.
In 1928, Tolkien drew "Owlamoo" to dispel his son Michael's night fear of sinister owl creature.
This was 3 years after he created Roverandom, a tale about a dog turned into a toy and went to adventures, to comfort Michael because he was sad from losing his toy dog. #TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday
Jacket of the Free Association Books edition
2025 marks the centenary of A.N. Whitehead’s Lowell Lectures, Science and the Modern World; 2026 the centenary of the first British edition.
Nick Gaskill and I are organising a panel on Whitehead, focused on SMW, for the MSA/BAMS conference in 2026, and are looking for an additional contributor.
Two swans are approaching the river bank. Behind them are various ducks. The photo of the river is framed by tree branches and the light of the dusk is reflected in the ripples on the water.
Well hello!
18.11.2025 16:54 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
From Autumn: A Folio Anthology, introduced by Kathleen Jamie, illustrated by Petra Börner.
Tuesday #morningread
#ThomasHardy
Brontë Studies Special Issue - Call for papers To Be Forever Known: The Brontes and Poetry Abstract deadline: 1 April 2026 Background: Brontë poetry in manuscript
Snazzy poster for our Brontë Studies CFP on Poetry (more details here: think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...)
Submit! Share! Please and thank you!
Photo of a poem displayed in a public toilet. The poem "Da Hill" by Susan Pearson is introduced by the Slogan "Bards in the Bog".
Auf Shetland konnte man Gedichte auf öffentlichen Toiletten lesen - bog poetry.
17.11.2025 20:10 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
A photo of four standing stones that circle a smaller square stone in the middle which has a small hole in its centre. Each standing stone has individual carvings such as Ogham signs, a shark, and persons. Behind the standing stones, there are panels with short phrases on them.
Some modern standing stones for #StandingStoneSunday: this is an art installation in Newtonmore in the Cairngorns. You have to zoom in to see the individual carvings on the stones.
📷 from 2023
