Kristel Zilmer

Keep the Baltic Sea clean and safe! Imagine your favourite beach crowded with oil rigs and spills 😢 I just signed a petition to stop drilling in the Baltic - let’s keep our seas clean and safe for wildlife, climate, and our future! 🌊💚

Imagine your favourite beach crowded with oil rigs and spills 😢 I just signed a petition to stop drilling in the Baltic - let’s keep our seas clean and safe for wildlife, climate, and our future! 🌊💚 action.wemove.eu/sign/2025-10...

For vi kan vel kalle en spade en spade?

Kunnskapsløshet må møtes med fakta. Fakta må gjentas og gjentas slik at de sitter godt som svar - når noen igjen skal i gang med ideologisk drevet synsing om nytte. Da må de få et klart svar om at de ikke vet nok og tar feil. www.khrono.no/tall-og-real...

Å ja.

This 13th century seal matrix depicts a bird surrounded by a Latin legend which reads [FRA]NGE LEGGE TE[GE] and translates to ‘Break, read, conceal’. Most medieval matrices were made of metal, but ivory, like this example, jet, and soapstone are also known. #FindsFriday finds.org.uk/database/art...

Hard Times and Trial Approaches: Old Norse-Icelandic Studies Between Precarity and the Future Dr Rebecca Merkelbach reflects on her keynote speech at the most recent Saga Conference. Held every three years, Saga Con is the most important meeting of Old Norse scholars, bringing together acad…

My blog post with the ADAM network has now been published. It's about precarity, the future of small subjects, and communal approaches to academic work. I hope it will resonate with some. #IchBinHanna #KleineFaecher #SkandiRetten
difficultmedieval.com/2025/10/23/h...

Some of us were recently in Orkney attending the annual field runology meeting. You can read about the event here: bsky.app/profile/uhia...

Sometimes I take detours just to stop by an interesting piece of history. This summer I passed the Kalleby-stone. The exact meaning of the inscription is somewhat debated. It says "Þrawijan haitinaz was".

A haunted house for academics but it is just a meeting where everyone agrees on an outcome but somehow still everyone needs to talk endlessly about it

@judithjesch.bsky.social @jaztherunologist.bsky.social @ristol.bsky.social @kristervasshus.bsky.social @skrivafel.bsky.social @theoldgermanicguy.bsky.social @norseincork.bsky.social Hope it’s ok I added you.

A tiny starter pack of #runology: go.bsky.app/2GTwP8M

Derrygonnelly : 'Mind-blowing' discovery of 8,000-year-old settlement A QUB team was hoping to find the ruins of a castle, but they discovered artefacts dating back to the Mesolithic period.

📰 Whilst searching for the remains of a 400-year-old castle at Derrygonnelly, Northern Ireland, archaeologists have discovered a "mind-blowing" 8,000-year-old Mesolithic settlement!

🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via the BBC

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Two articles in this week's Orcadian newspaper, one about a storytelling festival taking place this week, the other about my new book coming out, the Saga of the Earls of Orkney.

Stories, stories, stories, it's all stories in this week's Orcadian. Thanks to @tomrg.bsky.social for this nice piece

Men egentlig må slikt tas på alvor, nå når man ennå kan motvirke nedbygging av kunnskap. Det krever imidlertid solidaritet på tvers av fagene der også de, som tror deres egne åpenbart så nyttige fagfelt er trygge, står opp for humaniora o.a. Ingen er trygge når makten først skal nedrive kunnskap.

Eksempler fra virkeligheten er det som skjer innen høyere utdanning og forskning en del andre steder i verden.

Men egentlig må slikt tas på alvor, nå når man ennå kan motvirke nedbygging av kunnskap. Det krever imidlertid solidaritet på tvers av fagene der også de, som tror deres egne åpenbart så nyttige fagfelt er trygge, står opp for humaniora o.a. Ingen er trygge når makten først skal nedrive kunnskap.

The past few days there’s been a fair number of Orkney cows doing some runologist-spotting as well.

What do #runologists do when not contemplating the 'mystery' of #runic inscriptions? They go cow-spotting...

Long gone. Or in the words of one of the inscriptions: It was long ago that a great treasure was hidden there.

Runic inscriptions inside Maeshowe.

I very much enjoyed this one little corner where several inscriptions mention a great treasure.

Runic inscription inside Maeshowe.

One favourite among runologists is this inscription with ciphered runes mentioning a carver “most rune-skilled west of the sea” kulturarvsdata.se/uu/srdb/9cfa...

Orkney landscape with a pathway leading up to Maeshowe chambered cairn.

Orkney #runes. The way to the runic treasure chamber of Maeshowe.

En ny vri på “jeg har gått på skolen, derfor kan jeg utdanning” kan jo selvfølgelig være “jeg har besøkt universiteter og forstår forskning”.

A disc of stone, divided into four segments by crossing lines, with runes and possible cryptic runes placed within the segments.

Orkney #runes. What is this and what does it say? (A stone disc from Stackrue with ordinary and cryptic runes, and no easy interpretation.) kulturarvsdata.se/uu/srdb/b5c1...

Piece of rib bone with a runic inscription.

Orkney #runes. Piece of bone from Orphir, recording the word ‘bone’ in Old Norse. kulturarvsdata.se/uu/srdb/936c...

A group of curious cows gathered to look at those passing by (runologists - not depicted).

Orkney: Cows have their own thoughts about wandering runologists.

Piece of sandstone with a partly preserved runic inscription - a citation of the Lord’s Prayer - thalong one narrow side.

Orkney #runes. Sandstone fragment from Naversdale, with words from the Lord’s Prayer. kulturarvsdata.se/uu/srdb/39ef...

Sc 11 Thurso (I) an incomplete runic inscription which says '… made this overlay in memory of Ingulfr, his/her father.'

Sc 15 Thurso (II) an incomplete runic inscription, most likely a memorial, which says '… Gunnhildr his wife …'

Also this morning I popped into the North Coast Visitor Centre in #Thurso to see the two #runic inscriptions which have been found in that town. They're very nicely displayed in a room with some cool Pictish stones too. See app.raa.se/open/runor/i... and app.raa.se/open/runor/i...

Around Orkney - 16/10/2025 - BBC Sounds News, features and weather for Orkney, including the daily community diary.

The good folk at BBC's Radio Orkney interviewed me last week about the #SagaoftheEarlsofOrkney which will be available in bookshops here this coming week. You can listen to it here at 17'30" in www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... Can I convert those who have never quite managed to get through it???

Awesome!