Dr Matt Firth

I sent a strongly worded email...

I did!

The production editor of a T&F journal just sent me proofs in which they had deleted every parenthetical dash in the article (and hasn't replaced them with brackets or commas either). Is this a reaction to the 'AI uses hyphens' thing? Is my honour being impugned?

Side note that the reviewer gets themselves deeply muddled between Edward the Elder and Edgar the Peaceful (and, as such, confuses the relationships between various figures) - these are their errors, not the book's!

Agnolo Bronzino (Italy 1503–72) Cosimo I de' Medici in armour c1545, oil on poplar panel, 86 x 66.8 x 3.5 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased with funds provided by the Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation 1996, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales

Issue 42.1 is in press! Cosimo I de' Medici graces the cover in full armour, giving some side eye. This is an open issue so there are great articles on a range of topics. Follow the link for the TOC and book reviews. We'll feature each article over the coming month.

www.parergon.org/index.php/pa...

Early English Queens, 850–1000: Potestas Reginae This book offers a comprehensive, biography-led examination of queenship in England between 850 and 1000, tracing the development of the queen’s role from bed companion to institutional office. The pe...

Links! To Parergon 42.1 which contains the review:
www.parergon.org/index.php/pa...

And to the publisher site for the paperback of the book:
www.routledge.com/Early-Englis... (2/2)

Cover of the book Early English Queens, 850-1000 by Matthew Firth. Depicts a late-medieval miniature of Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, enthroned as a queen.

The first review of Early English Queens has appeared! Dr Tomas states it 'provides new methodological approaches to the study of histories with limited surviving sources and adds much to the growing research on female rule and representations of female power'. Can't ask for more than that! (1/2)

Ready for @imc-leeds.bsky.social 2026? Submit an abstract to Dan Reeve and I's CFP: "BEYOND TOUCH: New Queer and Trans Temporalities" We invite submissions for 15-20 minute papers that examine queer and trans temporalities from new and unexpected angles. #IMC2026. Full CFP below 👇

Call for papers for the 2026 Leeds IMC for "Old English in the Long 19th Century". Deadline 1 Sept. 2025. Description reads: Throughout the long 19th c., various advances were made in the study of Old English, ranging from the 1st edition of Beowulf (1815) the outlining of OE metre by Eduard Sievers, as well as discoveries of such OE texts as the Vercelli Book, the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary and the Brussels Cross. When approaching OE in the 21st c., it is impossible to deny the impact of 19th-c. scholarship. When we refer to titles of such OE poems as The Wanderer, The Seafarer and The Wife’s Lament, we are using titles bestowed on these texts by 19th-c. scholars. Several standard editions of OE texts were made in the 19th c. or heavily rely on earlier, 19th-c. editions. Lexicographical tools with a relevance for OE, including Bosworth and Toller’s An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, A Thesaurus of Old English and the Oxford English Dictionary, also have their roots firmly in 19th-c. philological practices and how OE is taught still relies on paradigms and set texts from the 19th c. Thus, when studying OE, we often have to engage with material on multiple temporal levels, considering not just our own concepts of the early medieval period but also how that period was understood by 19th-c. scholars. Paper proposals are welcome from scholars from all academic backgrounds. Possible topics include but are not limited to: - Discoveries of OE texts - Disputes about linguistic or literary interpretations of OE - Disciplinary developments in the field of OE studies - Personal, religious, political and ideological motivations for the study of OE - Biographical contributions about scholars of OE - Scholarly correspondence on OE matters - Editing and printing of OE texts - Teaching of OE Please send an abstract (300 words) to Rachel A. Fletcher (r.a.fletcher@hum.leidenuniv.nl), Ellen Gallimore (ellen.gallimore@york.ac.uk) and Thijs Porck (m.h.porck@hum.leidenuniv.nl).

CFP for @imc-leeds.bsky.social for July 2026: "Old English in the Long Nineteenth Century". Please share widely! Deadline for abstracts 1 September 2025. #IMC2026

Thanks Erika - email sent.

Do I know anyone that currently has access to the DUO Research Archive (Oslo)? They have recently shut down external access pending a migration to Nasjonalt vitenarkiv. I need copies of two master's theses that I was foolishly accessing direct through DUO but never downloaded.

Ha! Well, from your description, perhaps they start earlier in the day than the youngsters.

Yes this sounds pretty close to my experience - well dressed young women, sharply dressed young men. All with open cans of something at 11am. Similar vibe for Oasis, just with worse clothing...

Trains have been a disaster this trip. I've managed to run into the NATO summit in The Hague, race day in York, and an Oasis reunion concert in Manchester. All of which saw me standing for hours on end in hot, overcrowded (over intimate?) trains. The UK experience included lads with beers...

A copy of my edited collection in the (sort of) wild, at the @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social stand at @imc-leeds.bsky.social. You too could own a copy of 𝘗𝘳𝘦-𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘭 𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 - 50% off and free shipping at the B&B website with code BB094.

Manuscript research is done. IMC paper is written (and I get it out of the way on Monday afternoon). So a relaxing week of catching up with people in Leeds lies ahead. Six weeks away from home has been a long time...

Oh oh, here come the vikings. The martyrdom of King Edmund of East Anglia in pictures and Anglo-Norman verse (Manchester John Ryland, French MS 142). Side note: I wonder why Hinguar is balding in contrast to everyone else's luxurious locks.

How to convince my university that I do serious research while also running receipts through for a Hamibal Lecter sandwich at a pub called The Trembling Madness?

I mean, I had someone do this with an assignment that required commentary on Catullus 9 - definitely not my usual bag, but still took less than 10 minutes to figure out.

The Leiden Glossary and Leiden Riddle on display for the second day of the Leiden Ælfric conference.

Queen's College Oxford

Leiden Beestenmarkt (or the water beside it anyway!).

Oxford yesterday, Leiden today. Here for a two-day Ælfric-a-thon (which is exactly as niche as it sounds).

www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/20...

Thanks. I'm quite curious about the chronicle - enough that I'm considering whether an edition might be a major project in my future. It's a rabbit hole I'll enthusiastically follow for the time being at any rate!

Interesting. The text is more complete than the Queens MS (which breaks off with R I's reign), but matches the script and decorations very closely. The Laud MS is about 50 years younger than either Queens or TCD MSS, but has a complete text up to H III.

This is fun: Roger Alban's mid-15th c. roll chronicle (Ox Queen's MS 168). A real shift in presentation with the ascension of Ecgberht to the West Saxon throne. There is a real trend in 14th/15th c. chronicles of positioning him as the progenitor of English kingship.

Page from Peter of Ickham's Chronicle with amateurish or incomplete attempts at genealogical roundels.

Page from Peter of Ickham's Chronicle with same text as prior picture but with more adept and numerous roundels.

Very strong suspicion that Bodleian Laud 730 (1st pic) is a less than spectacular copy of Queen's College 304 (2nd pic). Both Peter of Ickham, into whose rabbit hole I appear to have descended...

An illuminated letter N inside which is a monk, writing, with a mildly bemused look on his face.

Peter of Ickham says hello from this fabulous illuminated initial that opens Ox Queen's College MS 304.

I appear to have access to both if you want to DM me your email address/email me at matthew.firth@flinders.edu.au

Remembering England: Cultural Memory in the Sagas of Icelanders This book provides an in-depth study of depictions of England in the Saga of Icelanders (Íslendingasögur), examining their utility as sources for the history of Viking Age Anglo-Scandinavian cultural ...

This is my book on vikings (well, on Icelandic Sagas, poet-warriors, and 10th-century voyages to England). It is currently 25% off. It is still very expensive. Less than a ticket to the football though?

The Vikings and Francia, 799–936 | 4 | The Routledge Handbook of Frenc The earliest recorded Viking raid on Frankish territory occurred off the Aquitanian coast in 799. It marked the opening of one and a half centuries of conflict

Hello, new followers. These are the types of vikings I research and write about. Feel free to stick around for medieval history and manuscripts. I'm afraid I don't know much about even the football codes that are played in my own country.

I had to get creative with the snakes on this one - it absolutely did not want to stay open!