iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

This one took a long road. After an initial peer-review, it morphed into something different from my 2024 paper in Leeds' IMC. It combines some of my doctoral research with my own later review of it and ideas from notes I've been taking over the years.

The initial page of an article titled "Known incursions and obscure raids. Tracking viking activity in Iberia", published in the 2025 volume of Viking and Medieval Scandinavia.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

This year's IMC was fun. No travel issues, no cancellations. Went straight to the bookfair Monday morning, enjoyed others' papers, found folks from last year, met new people, and discussed future projects. An overall positive experience. And I still can't eat an English breakfast 😅

Me presenting my paper in Óláfr Haraldsson at Leeds IMC

A pile of books brought from the IMC in Leeds. Almost all of them are on Viking subjects.

Celebrating a good experience in Leeds with a dab.

A breakfast in Leeds. Cereals with milk, fruit salad, toast with cheese, orange juice and pastry.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Unusual of me to be doing this so late, but it's in the making and should be ready by Friday 🫡 Leeds IMC 2025 is just around the corner and I sure hope my flight does not get canceled like last year's...

The initial slide of a presentation on the making of the narrative of Óláfr Haraldsson's journey to Gibraltar.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Não sei se estão a oferecer doces ou se quer tudo muito ir para a praia, mas eu estou habituado a ter 300 e tal votos ao final do dia e neste momento são já quase 200 dentro da urna. Ainda nem sequer é meio-dia. #legislativas2025

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

That time I explained folks that Snorri's Edda is a poetry manual, not a work on Norse mythology, using as an analogy modern self-taught books 😅 Skaldic poetry for dummies. Learn to be an old-fashioned poet. Skaldic poetry: learn to construct it on your own.

Cover of a fictional book called Skaldic Poetry for Dummies, showing a man with a goofy look, thick glasses and a cap used sideways.

Cover of a fictional book on self-teaching skaldic poetry. It shows a man dressed as a construction worker surrounded by expressions in Old Norse.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

The longest paper I've written thus far is thirty one pages long (including four of bibliography) and has ten maps. And I just submitted it for publication.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Feliz Solstício de Inverno! Happy Winter Solstice! Glad Vintersolstånd! Hyvää Talvipäivänseisausta!

Rising sun over mountains overlooking a small city and a medieval monastery. Man looks on from a vantage point.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

In a not-so-distant-future, Europeans travelling to the US will be advised to have their shots in order & US Americans coming to Europe will be required to have theirs. Congrats, US! You voted yourselves into underdevelopment. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

reuters.com

Trump to discuss ending childhood vaccination programs with RFK Jr.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in an interview published on Thursday said he will be talking to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, about ending childhood vaccination programs.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Começa na quarta, vai até sábado. Quatro dias sobre uma prática antiga e multifacetada (mas nem por isso menos atroz). Eu vou falar na manhã do primeiro dia, mas se puderem vão a todos, que vai haver muita comida para a mente.

Banner of the International Congress on slavery in its manyfold dimensions. It shows different slaves on the bottom and the title on the top.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

🇵🇹 Serviço púbico... público! 🇬🇧 Pubic... public service! 🇵🇹 E a inscrição referida no terceiro skeet é esta – transcrita, transliterada, normalizada e traduzida para português.

Transcription, transliteration, normalization in Old West Norse and translation into Portuguese of an obscene Norwegian runic inscription

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Cheguei à mesma conclusão ao ler artigos académicos brasileiros. Não é só o sotaque e as expressões: é a própria estrutura da língua que está a mudar e a separar as duas variantes. Se não são dois idiomas distintos, caminham para tal. E isso não tem de ser uma coisa má.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää, suomalaiset! 🤍💙🤍 (Hope I'm not forgetting a grammatical case ending)

A flag of Finland flying under a blue sky with some white clouds.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Topographic map of downtown Lisbon. The red cross signals the castle, the blue one the old inlet of the Tagus (nowadays part of the urban plot), the purple the low-lying area of Santos. I may or may not be using it in a viking-related way.

A map of downtown Lisbon with relief lines, showing in a clear way the hills the make up the old city and what used to be the river bank.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Se celebramos o 1° de Dezembro, também devíamos celebrar o 13 de Fevereiro. O primeiro foi o golpe que depôs o governo espanhol em Portugal, o segundo o tratado que pôs fim à Guerra da Restauração. Ou pelo menos devia ser assim pela lógica dos celebrantes do 25 de Novembro ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

This is a very niche skeet, but Montpellier maples (Acer monspessulanum) are native to Portugal and they're beautiful, yet very rare these days. Even finding them in tree nurseries is a challenge. So it makes my morning a little better to see c.20 of them in a corner of Lisbon

A group of Montpellier maples in a circular gardened area in Lisbon.

A close up of one of the Montpellier maples, showing its typical three-pointed leaf.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

Isto é um skeet muito de nicho, mas a zelha (Acer monspessulanum) é uma espécie autóctone em Portugal e é linda, mas rara nos dias que correm. Até em viveiros é muito difícil encontrá-la. Por isso, a minha manhã fica um pouco melhor quando eu encontro c.20 num recanto de um parque em Lisboa 💚

Grupo de zelhas num canteiro circular na Praça de Espanha, em Lisboa.

Folhas de uma das zelhas, com as três pontos que lhes são típicas.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

It's like a Christmas card, only it's not, but it's just as good. It's mostly red in colour, it's a treat offered by the IMC organizers, and I'll be talking about a Norwegian saint. All very much on Christmas topic.

Card stating one has been accepted at Leeds International Medieval Congress.

On top are images of outdoor activities and a speaker, below, next to the text, a depiction of Saint Martin riding a horse and cutting a part of his cloak with his sword to give to the man next to him.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

This is true. Man-made extinction of wildlife goes back thousands of years. The issue is much deeper than capitalism versus marxism (or whatever folks want to replace the former with). Solving the ecological crisis requires a much wider and structural transformation.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Eu ainda me lembro de à esquerda ter-se elogiado o Gouveia e Melo por, durante a pandemia, ter dito algo como "a democracia não se faz de homens providenciais." Até se comentou que o 25 de Abril fez escola. E acho que foi o @danielolivalx.bsky.social (que me corrigirá se estiver errado).

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

[A Portuguese thread on the link between Portuguese and Urdu, following a fact-checking report on public services in Portugal supposedly being offered in Arabic] A migrar para o Bluesky um fio que eu publiquei no inferno do Moscão sobre uma notícia de instruções "em árabe" numa loja do cidadão.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Optimist: the cup is half full Pessimist: the cup is half empty Thor while visiting Utgarða-Loki: what do you mean, the damn cup is still full?

An illustration of Thor drinking from a massive horn in a hall of the giant Utgarða-Loki.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

I have this small, personal project of nature restauration where I'm turning c. 1100 m2 of a family plot into a native grove, making use of naturally-grown Portuguese oak trees already in situ. Been adding oak, maple, hawthorn, pine, laurel, strawberry, holly, carob, yew, poplar and pine trees.

A photo of a small grove of oak, pine, hawthorn, maple, strawberry, yew, carob and laurel trees.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

When I was like 8 years old, my grandparents gave me a History of Portugal in comics. Been hooked ever since. Vikings came later in college.

Cover of the four volumes of a History of Portugal in comics.

Two pages from the first volume of a History of Portugal in comics, depicting several scenes from the Middle Ages.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

So I'm writing the bibliography of a paper I'm finishing & there's a book with four places of publication. Four! Seriously, is that info still relevant? It dropped out of use for journals & I've seen style guides telling authors to mention just one place of publication when there are two or more.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

O Paulito está de volta ao céu azul! Deem-lhe muito amor para ele ficar de vez!

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Written 12 years ago & still relevant today, if not more so. "The problem with “I’m entitled to my opinion” is that, all too often, it’s used to shelter beliefs that should have been abandoned. (...) And this attitude feeds, I suggest, into the false equivalence between experts and non-experts"

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

It's small reading, but packs a strong punch.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Get surveying and sharing, folks!

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Part of being an historian means migrating a small portion of one's library to the living room table, because the bibliography is too big for the desk. It's a bit like a bird migration, only indoors and a lot less relaxing.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 10/11/2024

Twitter habits die hard, for some people not at all. But do as Iron says and block (or mute) freely. Don't make stupid people famous, don't engage with them, don't give them the benefit of your attention.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 08/11/2024

And thus I literally cried from laughing out loud for the first time on Bluesky 😂 Partly because I'm as or more inept when playing video games I'm not familiar with.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 06/11/2024

Let's acknowledge that despite paying lip service to freedom, the majority of US Americans have no real commitment to democracy, its values & principles. Most care for petty, short-term self-interest & will vote accordingly, no matter the candidate. And no single future election will redeem that.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 05/11/2024

Am always amazed that in the US there are still single-line voting sites. As opposed to voting sites organized by, e.g., sections of no more than c. 2000 voters spread out alphabetically. Though for that of course you need a well-organized registration process – which is an additional issue...

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 27/10/2024

Mais disto, por favor. Muito mais disto! 💚

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 25/10/2024

Saw it in the store a couple of months ago, but decided not to buy it. Went back to the store today to get something else and couldn't resist twice. It's the closest I'll ever be of adopting what I'm sure was one of the most beautiful animals ever to walk on this planet.

Small plastic toy of a parasaurolophus dinosaur.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 24/10/2024

Quando me perguntam porque é que eu tenho interesse em aprender finlandês, basco ou nahuatl, eis uma resposta: Gramática molda a percepção. E ver o mundo de diferentes formas faz maravilhas pela mente e capacidade de compreensão.

scientificamerican.com

Grammar Changes How We See, an Australian Language Shows

An Aboriginal language provides unexpected insight into how language influences perception

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 23/10/2024

The Viking Society for Northern Research is looking for folks willing and able to translate «Alice in Wonderland» into Old Norse. Someone qualified please step forward 😍 #medievalsky

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 20/10/2024

Transgender, third gender & gender fluid are not a modern invention, nor is binary gender universal. Portugal did not create or kick-start globalization. And Prince Henry, the so-called «Navigator», was a douchebag. The USA have a fossilized constitutional framework & outdated electoral process.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 19/10/2024

No one, but four History books in Portuguese on Viking-Studies subjects. Have plans for more – on the same and other matters. www.wook.pt/autor/helio-...

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 14/10/2024

The linguaphile in me is in love with this! ♥️

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 10/10/2024

If you think a more visible impact of climate change is going to debunk skeptics & outright deniers and mobilize people to take action, you may be wrong.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 07/10/2024

Can't say I'm surprised that Twitter failed to publish my final tweet while it included this image. Elon is a needy man-child. Long live @bsky.app!

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 07/10/2024

One of my childhood books on dinosaurs, a 1987 Portuguese version of «Windows of the World: dinosaurs and how they lived», was wrong.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 04/10/2024

Berengária, filha de D. Sancho I de Portugal e mulher de Valdemar II da Dinamarca, teve uma segunda vida como fantasma da igreja onde foi sepultada – diz a lenda local. A mesma igreja onde o crânio e uma trança de cabelo dela estão hoje em exposição.

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Hélio Pires @heliuspirus.bsky.social · 29/09/2024

Things are coming together for Leeds IMC 2025, but the sessions I'll be taking part in (Learning in and with Old Norse-Icelandic Hagiography) can still accommodate additional contributions, should anyone reading this be interested.

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