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

It’s just so exciting to find some random text written by someone a thousand years ago and be able to read it. The great woman humanists of 15th c. Italy? Wrote in Latin. Augustine, Gregory, Ambrose? Latin. Hildegard? Hrotsvit of Gandersheim? Latin! One key unlocks them all!

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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 · 23/09/2026

Ēala Romeo! Romeo! For hwȳ eart ðū Romeo? Wiðsac þīnne fæder and forwiern þīnne naman!

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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 · 14/09/2026

The students at Mearcstapan were posting about the event throughout, and from what I saw it looked like a huge success. Congratulations!

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Why is it so hard to judge the quality of Old English poetry? What kinds of things were the poets trying to do? How should we read their work today? I ask these questions and more of Emily Thornbury today, who joins me to talk early medieval poetics. Check it out: youtu.be/2NIch6CqTfM?...

youtu.be

What makes Old English poetry good? - Emily Thornbury

YouTube video by Graham Scheper

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

Today’s video is about Bede’s magnum opus: the Ecclesiastical History of the English People. What is this work? Why is it so important? What makes it so good? Why and how should you read it? Check it out here: youtu.be/Y7mJCmu--ho?...

youtu.be

The Ecclesiastical History of the English People - Bede's Masterpiece

YouTube video by Graham Scheper

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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

That is, in Cicero’s letters and in Plautus, ‘etiam’ seems to be an informal ‘yes.’ Impossible to know if Bede would have thought about it that way, though, and ‘etiam’ is the most common affirmative in the dialogue of HEGA.

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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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Reposted by Graham Scheper

Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

So. You're off to the Holy Land. Bags are packed. Sword is sharpened. But have you given away your eels? In 1190 a man in Flanders named Eustace did just that. Before leaving for Jerusalem, he gave the "catch of eels" from his properties to his local church in perpetuity. 1/3 🗃️🧪

Meme. Color drawing of Jerusalem from Bernard von Breydenbach's 15th century itinerary. The drawing shows the city, hugged by hills, as a green an verdant space. You're looking eastward from the sea, w/ the Mediterranean coast at the bottom of the page. The central feature of the city is the Dome of the Rock, but there are numerous Christian spaces, too.

This wouldn't work as a street map, but it is geographically illustrative. This is part of a longer, 3-page foldout that also shows broader surrounding geographies.

Breydenbach was an interesting dude. He went on pilgrimage in 1486, with the explicit goal of writing a book about it. He even brought an artist along with him to draw the places he went through (the image of Rhodes, which shows damage from the failed 1480 Ottoman siege, is fascinating). Bernie was all about monetizing his religious experience, & it worked. His book was wildly popular, which is why we have this map!

Meme text reads:
"Where We're going
We don't need eels!

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I’m sure you’re familiar with this passage, @greenleejw.bsky.social As someone who is not a medieval-eel-expert, this strikes me as almost unbelievable. They knew how to fish for eels, but nothing else??

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Bede tells us that when Bishop Wilfred brought Christianity to Bosham (in West Sussex), he also brought fishing. Apparently the local population only knew how to catch eels! “piscandi peritia genti nulla nisi ad anguillas tantum inerat.” (HEGA 3, 13)

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Reposted by Graham Scheper

Elaine Treharne @etreharne.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Woman, drawn in eleventh-century England, peeping through holes natural to the membrane of this densely inhabited manuscript (Oxf., Bodleian Library, MS Barlow 4)

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Looking for a name for your daughter? The seventh-century Kentish king Earconbert and his wife Sexberg named their daughter Earcongota; she lived an admirable life and is venerated as a saint. Her name would be “Arkengoth” today. Who has a cooler name than that?

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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 · 24/08/2026

I recently interviewed Emily Kesling on the Old English medical texts: what we know (and don’t know) about them, how they’ve been received, and what interesting questions they raise. Check it out here: youtu.be/XgfQbrEC9BA?...

youtu.be

The Old English Medicinal Texts - Emily Kesling

YouTube video by Graham Scheper

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Reposted by Graham Scheper

Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Happy Black Cat Appreciation Day to all the ghoulies celebrating! Illustration from a 13th-century Bestiary, now @bodleian.ox.ac.uk MS Bodl. 533, f. 13r 🐈‍⬛🖤

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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

We can probably expect it around October :-)

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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 · 09/08/2026

Richard Methley was a fifteenth-century Carthusian mystic and visionary, whose works were largely forgotten after the dissolution of the monasteries. Today I talk with Barbara Newman about this fascinating character. Check out the episode here: youtu.be/95cguJUg05o?...

youtu.be

The Spiritual Works of Richard Methley - Barbara Newman

YouTube video by Graham Scheper

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

I remembered there being a couple in that Finnsburg chapter; looking it up it was 1100 and 1120

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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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Reposted by Graham Scheper

Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Was Thomas Jefferson the worst Old English enthusiast ever? Contractually, I'm not allowed to say "yes" but

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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 · 30/07/2026

Historians listening to Chaucer reciting the Knight’s Tale: “did this guy do any research on Bronze Age combat??”

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Smart person listening to the first ever recitation of Beowulf: “Umm, that’s not at all what armor would have looked like in fifth-century Sweden”

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

It’s so nice to see someone translating “rād” as “riding or journeying” and not “road.” Tolkien’s vengeance is coming!!

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Wow! What a great word. I’m stealing your idea to use it for jetlag!

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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 · 27/07/2026

In speech, Cicero says that "magis offendit nimium quam parum." That is: 'too much is worse than not enough.' Seneca as well: "non minus magnam virtutem esse scire desinere quam scire dicere." That is: 'knowing how to stop is just as important a skill as knowing how to talk.'

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

In particular, I'm most interested in the last 50-100 years. Aside from scholarship, I've read very little from the most recent decades. Any suggestions for good prose would be more than welcome.

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Question I've been wondering lately: is there a particular American writer that sets the standard for modern American English? Do we have our own version of Cicero? I'd love any recommendations people would be kind enough to give. For myself, I've always loved the prose style of R.D. Fulk.

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

I’ll never forget the first time I went. The swords sculpture is haunting!

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Cicero’s Crassus describing glossophobia: “in me ipso experior ut exalbescam in principiis dicendi, et tota mente atque omnibus artubus contremiscam.” “I experience it myself; I turn white at the beginning of a speech, and begin shaking throughout my mind and in every limb.”

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Graham Scheper @grahamscheper.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Would you pass an Old English exam from 1920? In today’s video, I put myself to the test by taking the practice exam that Tolkien sent to an inquiring Somerville student, as she studied for the end of her school year. Check it out here: youtu.be/KCaBBSNDhRA?...

youtu.be

Taking a 1920s Oxford Old English Exam

YouTube video by Graham Scheper

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

In her preface to George Hickes, Elstob writes of those who treat Old English as a "barren" and "barbarous" language: "these gentlemens ill treatment of our mother tongue has led me into a stile not so agreeable to the mildness of our sex." !!!

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

At the end of her introduction, Elstob writes to Caroline: "I have but one more thing to add, that this present, worthless as it is, is the humble tribute of a female, the first, I imagine, of the kind that hath been offer'd to Your Royal Highness."

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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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Jackson Crawford @norsebysw.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Norway vs. England 1000 years ago: a World Cup faceoff in Old Norse and Old English between Erling Alfs-Yngvason of Rogaland and Hereweald “Harry” Cana. Longer version with our commentary on @grahamscheper.bsky.social’s Youtube: m.youtube.com/watch?v=dwWj...

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