iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Literally in line to pick up my Hildegard latte

Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Old English will always be my favorite language, but Latin man … How cool is it to be able to read, in the same language, the writings of figures as far apart in space and time as Plautus, Cicero, Boethius, Bede, Aquinas, Petrarch, Isabella I, Isaac Newton, and J.R.R. Tolkien?

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

My parents are always telling me to save up for unplanned expenses. By this I assume they mean “what if you walk into the used book store and find five new Loebs that you don’t have” Well, I didn’t save up for this, but I’m buying them anyway

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I googled this expression to see if a friend had gotten it from a website, and was unfortunately greeted by an ‘Old English’ response from the unsolicited AI overview. AI is still so so bad at Old English. Most of this is incorrect in some way. Please don’t use AI for OE.

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Though the Welsh king Cadwallon gets quite the nasty description in Bede (barbarus pagano saevior - a barbarian, more savage than a pagan), I can't help but feel like he looks like a really friendly guy in this picture. Are those bunny ears on his helmet? And his rosy cheeks!

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

“Yeah” is one of the oldest attested words in the English language. Bede records in the HEGA that a bishop healed a mute man by making the sign of the cross over his tongue and commanding him: “say something, say ‘ġǣ.’” Was it already informal? Bede’s translation, “etiam,” might suggest yes..?

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Local tradition says that Bede was born in Jarrow. But his Old English translator tells us that the monk was born in <sunderlonde> … does this mean Sunderland (i.e., Wearmouth)? Or does it mean “private property” (a common meaning of the OE word ‘sunderland’), i.e., Jarrow??

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The Greek word for daughter was θῠγᾰ́τηρ. Fun to remember that the gamma in the middle of this word corresponds with the <h> in Old English dohtor and the now-silent <gh> in MnE daughter. It is still pronounced as /x/ in German Tochter 🇩🇪

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The Old English name for the Milky Way was Īringes weġ (Iring’s Way). The hero Iring famously killed two kings (Hermanfried of Thuringia and Theodoric of Metz) and then escaped “carving a road with his sword.” In the Nibelungenlied, he duels (and is killed by) Hagen.

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Remember, don’t let the Odyssey discourse distract you from what’s really important in life: Old English! Today’s video is all about the singular appearance of Odysseus (called “Aulixes”) in the Old English corpus, in a poem about the Circe episode. Check it out here: youtu.be/eaiV9ngYqQQ?...

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

The word “tired” is from Old English ġetēorod, which literally meant ‘exhausted.’ Two more commonly used synonyms in Old English were wēriġ (weary) and mēþe,which would have been ‘*meethe’ in Modern English. Hēo dyde stæflīċe nāwiht tōdæġ (She did literally nothing today)

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

As an Old English scholar, I feel left out of the Odyssey discourse. So, here is the Meters of Boethius poet alternating alliteration on Au- and -li- in the name Aulixes (Odysseus). I’ve always loved this as an example of the options at the poet’s disposal when using Latin words and names.

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Fun! I got 13 lines in before falling (and stupidly too, what would Hildeburh have to do with the Hugas?)

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Thomas Jefferson might rightly be considered the first American Old English scholar … and also the worst. Check out today’s video on the bizarre things he had to say about the language: youtu.be/1a2wqLExfbE?...

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

The Carthusian monk Richard Methley occasionally got so excited while composing his meditations on Christ that he would just start writing Jesus’s name over and over again. “O Jesu! Jesu Jesu Jesu Jesu Jesu Jesu Jesu Jesu!” Bedroom of the beloved Beloved, 21 trans. Barbara Newman:

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

The first ever Old English grammar (in English) was published by Elizabeth Elstob, in 1715. She dedicated it to Caroline of Ansbach (then Princess of Wales). In particular, Elstob hoped that Caroline would appreciate the 'Saxon' connection between England and her German-speaking homeland.

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

What did the early medieval English think about hell? About guardian angels? About wizards? I talk about these topics and more in today’s interview with UVA’s @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social on his recent book about medieval apocrypha. Check it out ⬇️

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

So excited to announce that my first ever book will be coming out this year: a selection of Bede’s works, in facing-page translation! The goal is to provide a holistic image of Bede and his life’s work, accessible to a wide range of readers, from casual learners to students of Latin.

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

It took a long time for 'pride' (OE prȳde) to be settled as the English equivalent to Latin 'superbia' (i.e., the deadly sin). Other early contenders were oferhyġd (would have become *overhide), ofermōd (would have been *overmood), and mōdiġnes (survives as 'moodiness').

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The fact that Aldhelm expected the dedicatees of “de Virginitate” to be able to read the poem, when modern students struggle immensely with it (with the help of modern dictionaries), speaks to the truly impressive level of Latin learning achieved by some of these pre-viking nuns and monks.

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

“Ceolfrith, self-styled in his dedication page as ‘abbot from the ends of the earth’, intended the Amiatinus Bible to proclaim to Rome his people’s contribution to the apostolic mission, worthy of the Church Fathers.” Michelle P. Brown, on the Codex Amiatinus

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