I think so! Only Longyearbyen could really compete!
Lovely to see that Hetta Howes' book on the lives of medieval women is now in paperback!
sending a river boat to sea might actually be the single dumbest thing this admin has ever done and I say that knowing who this admin is
Sun pencilling in 2028 in the newsdesk diary.
Can't help thinking this is the sort of thing a 12th-century chronicler would record as an unheard-of prodigy, just before something really bad happens www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
😂
This feels like important content.
Strange Scandi Stories!”
This week’s #WyrdWednesday topic. Surely one of the strangest characters in Norse mythology is Ratatoskr, a squirrel who runs up and down Yggdrasil carrying messages between the eagles perched on top and the dragon Níðhöggr beneath one of the roots.
Ich wünschte, es wäre nicht zu meiner Zeit geschehen. Wie J.R.R. Tolkiens ›Herr der Ringe‹ heute Mut machen kann. Der Auftakt zu der deutschlandweiten Veranstaltungsreihe ›Selbstverteidigung, literarisch‹ findet am 10.2. (19 Uhr) @dnb-aktuelles.bsky.social statt: www.dla-marbach.de/presse/press...
Europe is the epicentre of Epstein fallout. Meanwhile, in the US - nothing. The rule of law there is clearly breaking down, as authoritarianism proceeds the way it always does.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
New post!
I take an in-depth look at Seamus Heaney's Beowulf, alongside forays into Victorian translations by William Morris and the brilliantly named Athanasius Diedrich Wackerbarth.
This is based on an undergraduate lecture I gave at Oxford in 2020.
nikolasgunn.co.uk/2026/02/09/o...
it tells you something about the depth of feeling in Europe when you compare the reception that the US delegation got from the olympics opening ceremony crowd, to that the French got, who arrived just after, and you keep in mind that the French have invaded Italy multiple, multiple times
From yesterday's Irish Times.
My books cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com
Lovely chat with @profcarolyne.bsky.social about stories, myths, dragons, and more!
vikingology.substack.com/p/myth-and-b...
New post!
Part two of my series on philology and translation. I look at the challenges of translating even a few lines of an Old English text.
Does "wyrd bið ful aræd!" mean "fate is fully determined!", "shit happens!", or something else entirely?
nikolasgunn.co.uk/2026/01/13/b...
I did a podcast with @goingmedieval.bsky.social shows.acast.com/gone-medieva...
Als Output einer unserer Cooperative Research Groups ist zum Start ins neue Jahr der von @profcarolyne.bsky.social, Hans Rudolf Velten und @heyouonline.bsky.social hrsg. Band „Popularising the Middle Ages in Modern Fantasy. Neomedievalism, Video Games, and Vikings“ bei D.S. Brewer erschienen.
Since he isn’t, now’s as good a time as any:
From Facebook
My book on Pan and his journey through myth, story, art, music and pagan spirituality is available in paperback from Reaktion Books or through your favourite bookseller.
If you feel you don't know enought about Richard Cleasby who was the guiding spirit behind the first Old Norse-English dictionary, my new biographical article has just been published in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography -- along with other lexicographers
@oxfordacademic.bsky.social
For those Old Norse and Viking lovers, the Norse in the North conference has made it to Bluesky! As we’re finalizing the CFP for 2026 at Leeds, please follow @norseinthenorth.bsky.social for updates!
#oldnorse #medievalsky #postgraduate #conference #medieval
I live in Wales and today received my Join Us letter from Reform UK, complete with SAE which I posted back to them, immediately, empty. If every other person in Wales did this, Reform would spend over £1.5 million on postage. Not sorry. Join me Cymru.
Universities: investing millions so students ”develop literacy in the language of AI”
Also universities: defunding the humanities so students are illiterate in ordinary languages
Attention creative medievalists! Eleanor Barraclough & I are co-editing a special issue of Public Humanities entitled CREATING THE MEDIEVAL NOW! See the cfp for details: essays of 2,000-3,000 words due 1 May 2026. (Amazing artwork by @hellomizk.bsky.social). 1/ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
For academic friends researching fantasy and mythic/folkloric literature:
Call for papers for a special issue of Humanities journal, edited by Professor Bartłomiej Błaszkiewicz. Here are the details:
www.mdpi.com/journal/huma...
