Nik Gunn

Subtext is for cowards

My cozy fantasy novel inspired by my love (and fear…) of Scotland’s mountains, misadventures in academia, and time spent adventuring in Dungeons and Dragons, will be out next July!!

University of Leicester to consult on redundancies University bosses are also planning to stop a number of courses.

... and Leicester... Languages, History...
It's so easy to destroy, so hard to create. So much talent. So many lives.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Nottingham suspends music, language and nursing courses University says financial uncertainties continue as government’s proposed student levy will ‘wipe out any benefits’ from rising tuition fees

'Music and modern foreign languages degrees are among courses being suspended at the University of Nottingham, with the institution saying it “cannot rely on additional income” from the coming tuition fee rises.' 1/3

A new interview blogpost from me! This time talking to @alexharvv.bsky.social about his book "Forgotten Vikings". We also touch on the importance of promoting academic history outside academia.

The paperback of Medieval Twitter has landed omfg

Not quite a stocking stuffer price, but much much more affordable than before, thankfully

www.arc-humanities.org/978180270265...

#MedievalSky 🗃️ @archumanities.bsky.social

I haven't touched Old Norse materials in a while, but I *love* Hallfreðr saga.

Thanks Laura!

Attention @guildmedmak.bsky.social! Look forward to reading this, Nik!

Eight pages bound in furry seal skin may be Norway's oldest book The little book is so rare that the National Library of Norway is bringing in experts from around the world to learn more.

www.sciencenorway.no/cultural-his...

Thanks to everyone who’s shared. I originally published this way back in 2020 but I’m using it as a placeholder for now as I haven’t had much time to write recently. I’m hoping to return to Hallfreðr again with some new work in my next post.

And even if they were written centuries after the fact, then they remain a fascinating account of how a Christian author imagined a pagan might respond to conversion.

New post up: a translation of Hallfreðr "troublesome poet" Óttarson's conversion verses.

If genuine, they provide an amazing insight into a Viking Age pagan grappling with a change in religion.

nikolasgunn.co.uk/2025/11/03/p...

Night-Time in Mid-Fall It is a storm-strid night, winds footing swift Through the blind profound; I know the happenings from their sound; Leaves totter down still green, and spin and drift; The tree-trunks rock to their roots, which wrench and lift The loam where they run onward underground. The streams are muddy and swollen; eels migrate To a new abode; Even cross, 'tis said, the turnpike-road; (Men's feet have felt their crawl, home-coming late): The westward fronts of towers are saturate, Church-timbers crack, and witches ride abroad.

A Thomas Hardy poem for Halloween

so the news is that i have done the unthinkable and... started a podcast.

"American Medieval" - because if we've never been fully modern, maybe it's because we've always been a little bit medieval.

the trailer has now dropped! please have a listen -->

patreon.com/americanmedieval

A screenshot of a product description that claims said product is not suitable for children under or over 36 months old.

I see.

38. Natural Language (w/ Leif Weatherby) Podcast Episode · Disintegrator · 24/09/2025 · 1h 6m

“Structuralism is back baby, it’s good again!”

This interview with Leif Weatherby on LLMs is one of the best theoretically-informed discussions I’ve heard on the topic. Well worth your time if you’re a literary theorist or linguist.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/d...

I agree that that reading of Frodo is the one that makes most sense. I just read LOTR again after about 20 years and I found the whole ending very moving in a way that took me by surprise.

It was great to write this blog post for the @guildmedmak.bsky.social and to give readers a little glimpse into my creative-critical practice, as my 'ecocreative' translations turn from storms 🌧 and ice ❄ to heat and fire 🔥 via the OE poem on The Phoenix #medievalsky.

Artist Harri Thorne’s new range of blown glass pieces “Diaphanous”. Five colourful blob-like pieces in a row, from left to right: pink, yellow, teal, purple, red.

My partner has just launched her new work “Diaphanous” at Wingates Gallery in Market Harborough.

I think they’re really fun and beautiful but unfortunately my suggestion of naming the range “blobs” didn’t win out.

www.instagram.com/p/DQV5KMigST...

SoA calls for transparency around 'unsung' ghostwriters behind celebrity-authored children’s books The Society of Authors has launched a campaign to 'make a stand for a better recognition of the contribution and role of ghostwriters in celebrity-authored children’s fiction'.

The Society of Authors (SoA) has launched a campaign to "make a stand for a better recognition of the contribution and role of ghostwriters in celebrity-authored children’s fiction."

Read more 👇

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

Down the Deep Time rabbit hole pursuing Tethys after seeing this. Shudders. Earth as last place God made.

I'm doing a full re-read for the first time in over 15 years, so we'll see if my opinion holds!

I remember on the old ASOIAF board people complaining that Brienne’s arc in AFFC was boring but I absolutely loved it.

I mean I don’t really think it’s unhinged either, but I’ve met a lot of people who think he’s a terrible writer.

i really hope i live to see a time where it again feels like education for its own sake is seen as a social good

‘Epic with a capital E’: inside Elmet, a tale of violence and greed on haunted Yorkshire heath Elmet, a novel that was shortlisted for the Booker, is a lyrical, richly written tale of a woodland family on a collision course with an avaricious landowner. Can it work on stage in Bradford?

ELMET (the play!) will be opening in Bradford tomorrow. Catherine Love has written about the process of bringing it to the stage.

www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/o...

this is very very nice and I am still not sure I read the email accurately - big thanks to @leverhulme.ac.uk, without whom, incidentally, I could not have written A FLAT PLACE

finally finished making a short and dirty guide to middle english, a language that i famously do not like. hopefully my students appreciate my tables!