I don’t know much about dogs; my sister had one when I was seven, but I’m a cat person. Nothing against dogs, I’ve just always lived in cities, which I think is a hostile environment for large dogs (and small dogs, in my experience–small though it is–tend to yap). So, regarding dogs: utterly ignorant. I’ve […]
Read more "dogs in the 7th century"I’m wondering how people feel about anachronisms in historical fiction. Last week I came across a startling instance in a new paperback reprint of a well-received historical-type fantasy (perceived level of tech maybe 2nd or 3rd century CE). This is from a very respectable publisher, lots of critical attention, etc. Yet I hurled it across […]
Read more "anachronism!"I’ve come across this verb four times in Crossley-Holland’s translation of Beowulf. Shrithe (scriþan). I can’t quite triangulate on its meaning. I imagine something between slither and slide and slink and slip but it’s irritating not being able to pin it down. I know that in most languages there are no exact equivalents of many […]
Read more "scriþan"In honour of it being a holiday, I thought I’d post this poem by the Beowulf scop’s cat, that is, Henry Beard. Illustration by, well, me. (It’s an old pic; if I were doing it now I’d add a little boar, with bristles along its back, on top. Possibly some engraving on the sides.) Anyway, […]
Read more "brave Beocat, brood-kit of Ecgthmeow"Thanks to Lisa, I’ve been apprised of a ‘lovely tantalising bit’ of woman-on-woman sexuality. It’s from the tale of Niall Frossach (a king in the mid-eighth century, High King from 763 CE), from the Book of Leinster, folio 273b-274a, lines 35670-35711 (Vol. 5, p. 1202). Also, apparently, in Liber Flavus Fergusiorum and a late version […]
Read more "Playful mating with another woman"I’ve been reading Beowulf again, this time Crossley-Holland’s translation. I’m struck by its similarity to episodic television drama. (Radio drama too, of course, but apart from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, radio serials were before my time.) For example, halfway through, around line 1270, we get a recap, a Previously on Beowulf the Grendel Slayer […]
Read more "retconning beowulf"I’ve just found this (thanks to Lisa Gold, researcher extraordinaire): http://www.intute.ac.uk/ Intute is an annotated collection of web resources for education and research, created by a network of UK universities. Subject specialists select and evaluate the websites and write detailed descriptions. This site contains over 120,000 resources in the arts and humanities, health and life […]
Read more "wonderful research resource"Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum is holding an exhibition, “Anglo-Saxon Art in the Round.” For all of us who can’t actually get there, here’s an audiovisual introduction to the show. http://mediaplayer.group.cam.ac.uk/components/com_mediadb/ASSETS/mediaplayer-3-15/mediaplayer.swf I think it would be marvellous to hold something like this in one’s hand. One of my most treasured possessions is a string of 73 Roman […]
Read more "anglo-saxon in the round"I just got the latest edition of British Archaeology, which is stuffed with wonderful articles on Hadrian, Hadrian’s Wall, and the Antonine Wall. I was also thrilled to find a free DVD in the magazine, short films of Roman frontiers from all around the world–then crushed when I found it wouldn’t play in my whatever-this-region-is […]
Read more "Hadrian: his show, his wall, his boyfriend"Hild is still prepubescent, but I’m already turning my research attention to sexuality. (In writing terms, I need to have facts about four years ahead of character and plot development so my unconscious brain can be knitting things together without having to worry about taking things to places my conscious brain later finds impossible.) So […]
Read more "The Beautiful Sin"A new issue of Heroic Age at last. Yay! Lots of ruminations on Arthur and folklore, leading off with a piece by C. Scott Littleton on parallels between two tales which may or may not have a common origin: Abstract: In this paper we consider whether the Norse story of the “Sword in the Branstock” […]
Read more "Heroice Age"Over on my Ask Nicola blog I had another question about writing. I answered it at length, but thought those who have been following my Hild-writing process might enjoy a snippet: Sometimes I can have a good writing day yet not write much. This is happening more than usual at the moment, and it’s related […]
Read more "visualising dairy buckets"I’ve just opened today’s mail, and found volume 1, number 1 of The Journal of Late Antiquity. “The Journal of Late Antiquity (JLA) is the first international English-language journal dedicated to the study of Late Antiquity writ large. The journal provides a venue for multi-disciplinary coverage of all the methodological, geographical, and chronological facets of […]
Read more "Journal of Late Antiquity"I’ve been asked twice in the last week (once over at my personal blog, once during a discussion with an Oregon book group about my most recent novel, Always) about charts: do I use them? What are they like? Are they on the wall? So I thought I’d talk a little about my process for […]
Read more "Charty process porn"Today I got my copy of British Archaeology (May/June 2008) in the mail. On p.30-37 there was a wonderful, detailed article, “The Lost Royal cult of Street House Yorkshire,” on the finds at Street House Farm, near Saltburn, North Yorkshire, the ‘possible cult centre’ graves with the fabulous jewellery. Everything is now beginning to make […]
Read more "no comparison"
Gemæcce 