Dr Keri Thomas

Blue irises and yellow crocuses peak above the soil.

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long & lovely & lush;
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush…
What is all this juice & all this joy?
A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning…

Gerard Manley Hopkins | Spring

A Mandaic curse bowl in the Royal Ontario Museum. It has a spiraling Mandaic text that leads to an encircled x at the center.

This Super Bowl Sunday, I’d like to introduce you all to the magical curse bowls used in Upper Mesopotamia and Syria in late antiquity. Written in Mandaic (as here) or Syriac Aramaic, they trap demons who trespass on a household by sucking them in with spiraling spells to the center of the bowl.

Look what arrived today, or at least the ebook did. This is the first encyclopedia devoted exclusively to medieval women’s writing globally,focusing on the thousand-year period between 500-1500. Entries on about 250 women writers plus longer thematic essays. You’re welcome.

Milton tangent complete, I am returning to my work on erased/struck out/obliterated inscriptions.

For many reasons they aren't the easiest things to locate in online catalogues. So if you come across any fun ones (esp. in books published prior to ~1750), here is a public request to think of me.

Current status of the fundraisers for those killed by ICE:
Renee Good: $1,499,580
Alex Pretti: $1,289,249
Keith Porter, Jr. $302,423
Parady La: $45,848
Heber Sanchez Dominguez: $47,991
Luis Beltrán Yanez Cruz: $18,640
Victor Manuel Diaz: $2,538
Geraldo Lunas: $2,260
Luis Gustavo Núñez: $1,935

They know what they say is untrue, they do not care it is untrue.

The media know that what they repeat is untrue, they do not care it is untrue.

Their supporters know what they are told is untrue, they do not care it is untrue.

Telling the truth is not enough, unless people care about the truth.

I’m glad many of you who weren’t able to understand it are getting it and it weighs so heavy on the heart that this is what it’s taking.

There’s no joy in seeing this, it’s the same pain.

Absolute scumbag.

Stand With Minnesota A directory of places to give to as Minnesota defends itself from ICE occupation

crazy that the website that I randomly decided to put together at 10AM yesterday has had over 25k unique visitors in 24 hours.

please keep sharing with your networks.

Digital Tools for Manuscript Studies

If you have graduate students working with medieval manuscripts this free online training might be useful 👇
www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

Double bubble (just).

A great bronze cauldron in a display case

#FindsFriday 🥰

Steadily being drawn back into the votive lakes of Wales...

📷 The extraordinary early Iron Age cauldron from Llyn Fawr, Rhigos, south Wales - on display in St Fagans Museum, Cardiff 😮🧙

Let’s see if she flies!

I sent the latest book proposal out today. Partly ‘cos I clearly have issues but also ‘cos, I love writing: really love it, even when it’s hard & I’m crying over yet another punitive, self-imposed deadline. Maybe one day I can quit the day job & spend my days writing & staring at the sea. One day.

It’s a real shame that Nigel Farage is too unwell to do interviews the morning after Donald Trump threatens us with sanctions.

Here he is with “the bravest man he ever met”. He campaigned to make Trump President, and has spent the last year enjoying all the chaos he has caused.

Until I saw your posts, I assumed the same. 😂 The paranoia levels are real.

Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.

“They show extreme intelligence, even problem-solving intelligence. Especially the big one. When [he] looks at you, you can see [he’s] working things out.”

We're all trying to get by, in our own way.
And if your way involves ancient books of magic, dark spirits, and secret meetings with the old gods in the forgotten end of the forest, so much the better.

HE UNLOCKED THE DOOR.

Star Wars & bodily resurrection Womp womp indeed. An entire fandom cried out in confusion, and were suddenly silenced. Friends, we find ourselves in August. Those of you who have followed this blog for a while will know that we a…

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I wrote a blog post about posthumanism, bodily resurrection, materiality, & Star Wars. Take a peek if you’ve got 10 minutes: I’d love to hear your thoughts on it (whispered to me using the Force, of course).

kerilthomas.wordpress.com/2024/08/19/s...

Worn papyrus with drawings of figures, symbols, and writing in Coptic. More here https://smarthistory.org/coptic-magical-text/

Coptic spell to Acquire a Beautiful Voice, 6th–7th century CE, Egypt, ink on papyrus, 37.3 x 25.4 cm (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven)
archives.yale.edu/repositories...

Our friends at the Early English Text Society are holding a workshop on editing texts from medieval Britain for graduate students and early career scholars.

📖Texts in Transition
📍St Hilda's College, Oxford
📆18/04/2026
🕐11am-5pm

For registration email eets[at]ell.ox.ac.uk

We got snow! Practically unheard of here on the Welsh Riviera. An actual treat. Did some snow angels, threw some snowballs, & home by 11am for hot chocolate & pancakes. What a way to end the Christmas break.

Mark Carney turns off geolocation on phone just in case OTTAWA - This morning, in an unscheduled press statement, the Prime Minister's Office has said that Prime Minister Mark Carney has turned off geolocation services for all his electronic devices "for n...

Mark Carney turns off geolocation on phone just in case

Blessed update - it’s *just* cluster flies awakening from their hibernation in the wooden window frames. Turning off all the heating & transforming the house into an ice box seems to have helped. Wish for me a lottery win so I never have to rent again, please!

A rigid heddle loom with a striped pattern with loops, and a Ukrainian knit flag with tryzub and a Palestinian weaving in the background

10 months of data successfully woven for this scarf. It's satisfying to just weave row after row. #DHmakes

Trying not to take it as a Sign that next door’s rat problem has seemingly resolved (if we can take the amount of flies in our kitchen as evidence of extermination). There’s some Beelzebub-type shit going on which is exacerbated by the cat going all John Wick & my Frontlining him in panic. HNY all!

Caption on the screen of BBC news: "Welcome to the year of the chores. People around the globe celebrate."

It's our time

Joyous!