iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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St Catharine's College @stcatharines.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

There's just a fortnight until the fun of Freshers' Week so recent graduates Javee Vesly (2023, NatSci) & Matt Pickard (2023, Geography) agreed to look back on their first days at Catz & share their words of wisdom with incoming undergrads. Full interviews at www.youtube.com/play... @cam.ac.uk

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Oregon Zoo @oregonzoo.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

owlways watching

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Mae'n bosibl mai'r gair "iawn" yw'r gair mwy aml-ddefnydd erioed. Y fersiwn Gymraeg o “eh” y Canadaiad

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Dr Rory MacLellan @rorymaclellan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

A spell in a 15th-century grimoire for summoning a demon to find buried treasure. Sloane MS 3849, f. 18r. #medievalsky

Medieval spell to find buried treasure, with diagrams. When you come to a place where you believe there to be treasure hidden, you must draw a quadrangle in the earth as shown in the diagrams. Then burn or boil frankincense, saffron, and a dyed red rose and breath in the fumes, presenting the concoction to each corner of the quadrangle, this will bind the spirit to you when he appears in one of the corners.

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Hannah E @hspevans.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Last few days to submit your abstract!! @imc-leeds.bsky.social

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Met an owl called Bob lads

A picture of me, a white man in a cream hoodie with dark hair and glasses. On my gloved hand sits a tawny owl. We are looking the same direction, three-quarters to the camera.

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Gwenffrewi Morgan @gjmorgan.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Now published in final form with page numbers!

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Clare Downham @downham.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

@imc-leeds.bsky.social Leeds IMC Call for Papers for a session co-ordinated by Liverpool PhDs Hannah Evans and Nik Frenzel #medievalsky #celtic #norse #academic #skystorians

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Every time I drive past the Devon town of Honiton all that rings in my head is “Honiton Qui Mal Y Pense”

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Trinity College Library, Cambridge @trincolllibcam.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Fancy a trip round Anglo Saxon England? A wonderful collection of hand drawn maps have been digitised and are available here:https://archives.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php/maps-of-anglo-saxon-england #anglosaxon #maps #england

A detailed map of England and Wales showing Anglo Saxon place names.
Drawn by and in black ink.

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Working on Sir Launfal at the moment and it is fascinating how badly Thomas Chestre messes this up. It’s such a good and engaging tale, how could you possibly make such a simple narrative so incongruous and glaringly incoherent?

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Megan L. Cook @meganlcook.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Come for the batshit cover art on this 1970 Mentor ed of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, stay for the incredibly bitchy annotated bibliography

Cover of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by Burton Raffel

SELECTED
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Several books cited only in the Afterword are here included; however, in all cases the annotations are by the translator.
Benson, Larry D., Art and Tradition in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Rutgers University Press, 1965.
Sensitive and learned discussion of sources; literary convention and characterization; style; narrative and descriptive techniques; meaning. The book is modest in tone but richly informative; much the best study in print.
Blanch, Robert J., ed., Sir Gawain and Pearl: Critical Essays, Indiana U.P., 1966. Very much a mixed bag: six essays, some of them horrendously awful, some spottily intelligent. Not recommended.
Borroff, Marie, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Stylistic and Metrical Study, Yale U.P., 1962. A rather ponderous, wordy, and frequently insensitive study of difficult matters; sometimes useful, but to be consulted with caution, despite the heavy scholarly apparatus.
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44 Selected Bibliography
Burrow, J. A., A Reading of Sir Gawain and the Gren Knight, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1965. Literary dully effective. Not recommended.
criticism on a very low level, though sometimes Fox, Denton, ed., Twentieth Century Interpretations of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, Prentice-Fall,
1968. A brief but sometimes rewarding collection; some of the essays are at best spottily intelligent, but the selection is distinctly superior to that in the Blanch compendium. Recommended, with due cas-tion.
Howard, Donald R. and Christian Zacher, eds. Critical
SIR GAWAIN A GREEN
Studies of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, University of Notre Dame Press, 1968. Useful; fuller than the Fox collection; sometimes a bit pedantic.
Kittredge, George Lyman, A Study of Gawain and the Green Knight, Peter Smith, 1960 (first printed in
1916). A highly speculative, well-written study de voted exclusively to literary sources, actual, pos-sible, and imaginary. Of moderate interest, it used both sparingly and appropriately.
Longnon, Jean, and Raymond Cazelles, eds., The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry, George Bra-ziller, 1969. No direct connection with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but many of the illustrations beautifully reproduced-are vivid evocations of the spirit, and often much of the detail, of the poem.
Loomis, Roger Sherman, The Development of Arthurian Romances, Harper Torchbooks, 1964. Biased and crotchety, but clear and, for the beginner, modestly informative; deeply traditional, hostile to much in contemporary criticism, Recommended, if used with due caution.
Savage, Henry L., The Gawain-Poet: Studies in His Personality and Background, University of North Carolina Press, 1956. A set of crotchety historical essays having no proven connecti a to the Gawain-poet and no relevance whatever to the poem. Na recommended.

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Really excited + honoured by this! Looking forward to turning it into a readable paper (cutting out all my jokes about how to pronounce “Percyvell”)

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Eclipse heart from yesterday

A sliver of sun, eclipsed by a circle, projected onto a heart shaped stone

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diana myers @dianahmyers.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

can’t decide if in the end this essay is still too generous to straight men but uh. damn. this is what it’s like out here thepointmag.com/criticism/st...

thepointmag.com

Student of Desire | The Point Magazine

Years ago, I had an intense relationship with a man who was brilliant and deeply interesting to talk to. I didn’t doubt he felt similarly […]

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Razzball @razzball.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

gets incredible air here

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

🙂‍↔️ ontology and epistemology 🙂‍↕️ ways of being and ways of seeing

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Myriah Williams @myriahwilliams.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Culhwch & Olwen is an Arthurian comedy horror just waiting to be filmed

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milk bottle champion @stepheniscowboy.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

King Arthur when his court wizard snubs Guinevere

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

You know your PhD writing process is doomed when you spend five minutes laughing uncontrollably in the library because you accidentally typed ‘unfished’ instead of ‘unfinished’

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

It feels like this final is what the tournament deserves: it is going to hinge on a single, sixty-second moment of capital-c-Content. Ignore the other eighty-nine plus minutes, only one moment matters.

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

It turns out looking for reading on Christmas in medieval romance gets you a lot of false positives which I dare say are somewhat scandalous

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Atlas Shvitzed @therafischwartz.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Unfortunately, a stunned Paris is how they all got into this whole mess to begin with

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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Suetonius, in 60 AD, upon learning of Boudica

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

They know it’s coming? Wow, they *are* good

A yellow sign in a window. It reads “psychic event here on 8th Jun. Time: 7-10.30pm”

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Rhys Kaminski-Jones @rhyskamjones.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

The biggest thing non Welsh-speakers are missing out on is using "Chwedl" to attribute speech. Imagine if you could say "Quoth" without sounding ridiculous, you're almost there.

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Working on trying to get the book trolleys named. Suggestions welcome

A voting form for potential trolley names. Suggestions are
Trolleyus & Criseyde
The Headcount of Monte Cristo
Paradise Reshelved
Antrolley & Cleopatra
Mary Shelfey’s Frankenshelf
De Excidio

A Trolleycar Named Desire
Northanger Trolley
Kazuo Ishelfguro
Songs of Innocence & Experience & Trolleys
The Old Man and the Dew-ey (Decimal System)
Castle of Otrantrolley
Mayor of Caster(wheel)bridge

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Library fun fact: we don’t rub out your annotations if they’re funny enough

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Josh Coulthard @joshcoulthard.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

We look forward to hearing your rabbit holes!

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

A highly enjoyable bit of cultural convergent evolution is that His Dark Materials has the same narrative structure as a 90s JRPG: First level: you, your childhood friend who will ultimately die have childish hijinks! Final level: you, your love interest and a motley crew fight God

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Archbishop Jænberht in my emails today

An email from Eventbrite. The subject is cropped to read “How was it? Rate Offa”

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Hey look it’s me! Thanks so much to SSMLL & Cardiff for this amazing conference — just a ton of really good thoughtful research and impeccable vibes

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Seeing this post immediately after winning the local pub quiz, dressed as my alter-ego Mr. Tuesday Night. Guess you’re gonna need this guy

Me, a white man with dark hair, sitting at a pub table, with an arm raised measuring height. I’m grinning, wearing aviator sunglasses, and also a hockey sweater. Another man with curly prown hair is sitting next to me in a sky blue shirt. He is wearing glasses and laughing at me with his hand to his mouth.

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

This reminded me of a stupid thing I did years ago: what if we sci-fi’d Beowulf?

Spaceowulf:

Shazam! Tune in to the sayings of the laser-Danes, mind-masters of the old world,
how the young'uns boldly touched the face of God.
Sometimes Scion Scefing faced squadrons, from many meteors, ejected from space stations; awaited aliens. He pulled himself up, deadbeat punk, he made his own luck, shot through the skies, stellar celebrity, foaming fans from far far away watched holos of his heroism, paid billions. He stood with ancients.
He spawned a scionling,
brat in the behemoth, his own destiny to be a spaceman; the people's dream where they had been leaderless
for ages and aeons. He was blessed, man, star-kissed kiddo given the world;
Beow was the bee's knees, baby —
Scion's son in New Scandia.
Clued-up kids best be canny:
Do merc work while Pops rocks so when the shooting starts wingmen heed the S.O.S. and scramble; that's the stuff legends are made of.
Scion was still an ace
When - damn - he got spaced.
Oh how they lit up the stars funeral bash like he'd asked stood him on giants' shoulders who'd made one giant step.
His ship stood all spiced up in the icy station: it was pimped.
They laid the first spacewalker cabin-tight, at the controls, all set to stun. Worlds' bounties they flung on him, far-fetched trinkets;
She was a beaut, I'm telling you for weapons or for speed, flying or fighting; he sat surrounded by such sights, touching tributes to guide him forth beyond galaxies.

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Enjoying this not least because I think I am occupying the “new band the festival organiser drafted in from the pub for Sunday 9am” slot on the poster here 😉💜

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Rhys Kaminski-Jones @rhyskamjones.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

The transcription software we've been using really wants to call St Columba "St Columbo"

Columbo from the tv series, giving us a blessing

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

As usual excellent ! I’ve always been curious about the prominence of apples in medieval Welsh — not just in Avalon but also in the lovely Myrddin poem Yr Afallennau (www.merlinpoetry.wales/poem/003/). Were they a symbol of romanitas? Or the older British crabapple? I’d love to know!

merlinpoetry.wales

3 – Yr Afallennau Prosiect Barddoniaeth Myrddin Cynnar

Prosiect Barddoniaeth Myrddin Cynnar, rhifyn ysgolheigaidd digidol cydweithredol rhwng Prifysgol Caerdydd, Canolfan Uwchefrydiau Cymreig a Cheltaidd Prifysgol Cymru a Phrifysgol Abertawe.

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Finally got author’s proofs back, so delighted to announce my new article: 🚨NOMENCLATURE OF ARTHUR🚨 After analysis of over 100 manuscripts, I’ve discovered that we’ve been misreading “King Arthur”. What we read as an ‘ng’ ligature was actually an insular ‘t’; he should be called “KIT ARTHUR”. 1/?

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Asked by some prospective students as I was walking home what Cambridge was like. Once they found out what I do they asked if I could say “the really long name of that place”. Nailed Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. I am the coolest man alive

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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 09/03/2026