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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Very pleased to share that I've been promoted to Senior Research Fellow (Level C) at Flinders University, effective January 2027. Lots to look forward to next year: my biography of Gunnhildr, Mother of Kings, a research fellowship at the Bodleian Libraries, and hosting ANZAMEMS at Flinders!

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Two of my books are currently 20% off direct from Routledge: 𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘌𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘴, 850–1000 and 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘌𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥: 𝘊𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴. Use code 26AFLY3 at checkout. Valid until 31 December 2026. Pretty sure it'll also work for any other Routledge book you may want...

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Very grateful to the reviewer of my Gunnhildr book, both for the assessment that they 'can’t imagine anyone improving on this', and for the 4 pages of typo corrections! Now, I need a cover image. I've narrowed it to three strong options from Storm's Heimskringla, but which one? Opinions welcome.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

CFP: IMC Leeds (5–8 July 2027) Conquest, Invasion, Colonisation: Experience and Memory in Early Medieval Britain. Keen for more papers on the experiences and legacies of conquest in early medieval Britain and Ireland. Abstracts to matthew.firth@flinders.edu.au by 31 August 2026.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Very happy to have sent my 'minigraph' on Gunnhildr konungamóðir off to Arc Humanities yesterday. It’s written as a biography, but not a traditional one. I’ve brought together all the stories about Gunnhildr in medieval Scandinavian literature and followed them through her life, from youth to death.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Reminder! CFP: IMC Leeds (5–8 July 2027) Conquest, Invasion, Colonisation: Experience and Memory in Early Medieval Britain. Papers are invited for panels on the experiences and legacies of conquest in early medieval Britain and Ireland. Abstracts to matthew.firth@flinders.edu.au by 31 August 2026.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Tomorrow in IMC session 1325 at 4.30pm I'll be speaking about late medieval roll chronicles, the transition from Brut legend to early English history, and King Ecgberht's place in medieval English historical memory. I'll also be speaking in the royal studies round table at 7pm.

Presentation slide: King Ecgberht and the Founding of England in Late Medieval Roll Chronicles

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Looks like the latest @haskinssociety.bsky.social journal is out today. You can find me in it talking about the tenth century queenship (how surprising) making the case that the political changes encompassed in that century were foundational to the how the office of the Queen developed in England.

Article: the tenth century as a locus for institutional queenship in England

Flyer for Haskins Society Journal 35 - use code BB135 for 35% off.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

The @jaema.bsky.social conference is coming up at the end of September, to be hosted at University of Newcastle(Aus). Themed 'faces of the early medieval world', submissions are invited for in-person or online papers that speak to the topic in the broadest possible sense.

CFP for the conference of the Australian Early Medieval Association conference. The CFP closes at the end of July. Proposals can be sent to aemaconference2026@gmail.com.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

CFP: IMC Leeds (5–8 July 2027) Conquest, Invasion, Colonisation: Experience and Memory in Early Medieval Britain. Papers are invited for panels on the experiences and legacies of conquest in early medieval Britain and Ireland. Abstracts to matthew.firth@flinders.edu.au by 31 August 2026.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Ecgberht, first king of England. Well according to BL Add 63009 and about 15 other roll chronicles I've viewed this week anyway. This is a striking visual example though. The Roger of St Albans rolls are always a bit fancy...

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Imagine getting this ambitious and then the portrait guy just doesn't show up. But the guy who paints the little churches did? In French, roll chronicle of popes, emperors, French and English kings. BL Harley Roll O 1.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Roll Chronicles. Increasingly struck by Ecgberht's centrality to the founding of England/English kingship in later medieval history writing. This is BL Add 8101 that dates to c. 1375. Ecgberht is the first blue roundel. Picking up on threads of research from last year.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Can anyone help me out with this one? The below passage is incorrect (or at least overstated) in regard to Germania. I suspect it is the same with Snorra Edda, but I cannot even work out what passage the author might be referring to. Any guesses? Am I wrong?

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

The hardcover of my edited collection, Pre-Conquest History and its Medieval Reception, is 60% off on the @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social website. So, if you wanted to read some fascinating studies of how the early English past was reinvented in a Norman world... boydellandbrewer.com/book/pre-con...

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Delighted to say I've been awarded a 2026/27 Bodleian Libraries Humfrey Wanley visiting fellowship. I'll be looking at many, many copies of the prose Brut and their representations of the early English past. But not until Trinity term next year (this year's UK research trip is already planned).

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Another review of my edited volume Pre-Conquest History and its Medieval Reception has just appeared. Menendez runs a thorough eye over each chapter: scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/ind... The ebook is downright affordable from @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social. boydellandbrewer.com/book/pre-con...

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Very pleased to have received a Flinders University Vice Chancellor's Award for Research last week. It's been a busy year of research and writing. Next projects: a biography of Gunnhildr konungamóðir (Arc, 2026/27) and a biography of Edgar the Peacemaker (Yale, 2027/28).

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

The challenges of packing to go to a conference...

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Just in: the first review of my edited collection, Pre-Conquest History and its Medieval Reception: Writing England's Past. The reviewer states 'the variety of approaches and diverse materials discussed in this collection spark exciting possibilities and avenues for future research'. Perfect! (1/2)

The cover of Pre-Conquest History and its Medieval Reception: Writing England's Past with a depiction of the 7th c. Mercian king, Offa, by Matthew Paris in the 13th c.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

The first review of Remembering England: Cultural Memory in the Sagas of Icelanders has appeared! In Dr Kennedy's positive (yet critical) assessment, it is 'almost unfailingly interesting and insightful' and 'scholars of the Íslendingasögur, and especially the skáldsögur, will 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 this book'. (1/2)

Cover of Remembering England: Cultural Memory in the Sagas of Icelanders. Generic design.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

The next issue of @parergon.bsky.social is on its way, guest-edited by me, @erinsebo.bsky.social and Cassandra Schilling. There's a great group of scholars here who collectively consider, from multiple perspectives, questions of how medieval England perceived its place in a wide and complex world.

Cover of Parergon 42.2 with the feature image: Reed MS10. Book of Hours, Latin with additions in Middle English; the Raising of Souls to God preceding the Commendation of Souls.

Contents of Parergon 42.2:
Articles
Medieval English Attitudes to the Outside World - Matthew Firth
Hated Race? Attitudes to the Wider World in Beowulf - Erin Sebo
The Non-Christian as Culturally Distinct ‘Other’ in the Old English
Judith and Elene - Cassandra Schilling
The Earliest English Almanac? Types of Information in Early
Calendrical Texts - Christine Rauer
Elephants in English Literature, Art, and Material Culture before the
Reign of Henry III - Alison Hudson
England’s Enemies? Framing Feelings about Foreigners and
Mercenaries in High Medieval War Narratives - Emily A. Winkler
Making Excuses: The Diplomatic Anxieties of Edward I of England -
Kathleen B. Neal
English Queenship from the Mid-Fifteenth to Mid-Sixteenth Centuries
and England’s Place in the European World - Michele Seah

Review Essay
New Work on Early Medieval England: England in the Early Medieval
World - Jonathan Tickle

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Such fun choices for tomorrow morning! I can attend a meeting to discuss the impending dissolution of the college of HASS at my university. Or I can take a cat who has been with me since my 20s - three cities and careers ago - to be euthanised. I will, naturally, be farewelling my boy.

A handsome tabby cat named Nüss - a venerable old gentleman at 17 years of age who has, sadly, reached the end of his life.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Proofs! One of my increasingly rare forays into saga literature. I question how pre- and post-conversion settings affect the social acceptability of viking activity in the Sagas of Icelanders. Look for it in the next issue of the Journal of Medieval History.

Abstract for a forthcoming article: Vikings commonly feature in the Íslendingasögur (Sagas of Icelanders). The words víking (the act of raiding) or víkingr (a raider) appear over 180 times across the forty-some texts of the corpus. Here, they are a ubiquitous part of the cultural landscape of the late ninth- to mid-twelfth-century North Atlantic. The Íslendingasögur are not contemporary sources such as those from England and Francia that report experiences of viking raids. The sagas do, however, represent stories of the societies from which the vikings came. Here there are nuances to the depictions of the raiders that contrast with the accounts of their victims. This article examines the intersection of viking activity and the Icelandic conversion in the year 1000 (kristnitaka) in the Íslendingasögur. It posits that while, in the saga worldview, víking could be lauded prior to kristnitaka, with the coming of Christianity, Icelandic heroes could no longer easily pursue víking without censure.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

The first review of Early English Queens has appeared! Dr Tomas states it 'provides new methodological approaches to the study of histories with limited surviving sources and adds much to the growing research on female rule and representations of female power'. Can't ask for more than that! (1/2)

Cover of the book Early English Queens, 850-1000 by Matthew Firth. Depicts a late-medieval miniature of Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, enthroned as a queen.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

A copy of my edited collection in the (sort of) wild, at the @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social stand at @imc-leeds.bsky.social. You too could own a copy of 𝘗𝘳𝘦-𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘭 𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 - 50% off and free shipping at the B&B website with code BB094.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

Manuscript research is done. IMC paper is written (and I get it out of the way on Monday afternoon). So a relaxing week of catching up with people in Leeds lies ahead. Six weeks away from home has been a long time...

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Oh oh, here come the vikings. The martyrdom of King Edmund of East Anglia in pictures and Anglo-Norman verse (Manchester John Ryland, French MS 142). Side note: I wonder why Hinguar is balding in contrast to everyone else's luxurious locks.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

The Leiden Glossary and Leiden Riddle on display for the second day of the Leiden Ælfric conference.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Oxford yesterday, Leiden today. Here for a two-day Ælfric-a-thon (which is exactly as niche as it sounds). www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/20...

Leiden Beestenmarkt (or the water beside it anyway!).

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

This is fun: Roger Alban's mid-15th c. roll chronicle (Ox Queen's MS 168). A real shift in presentation with the ascension of Ecgberht to the West Saxon throne. There is a real trend in 14th/15th c. chronicles of positioning him as the progenitor of English kingship.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Very strong suspicion that Bodleian Laud 730 (1st pic) is a less than spectacular copy of Queen's College 304 (2nd pic). Both Peter of Ickham, into whose rabbit hole I appear to have descended...

Page from Peter of Ickham's Chronicle with amateurish or incomplete attempts at genealogical roundels.

Page from Peter of Ickham's Chronicle with same text as prior picture but with more adept and numerous roundels.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Peter of Ickham says hello from this fabulous illuminated initial that opens Ox Queen's College MS 304.

An illuminated letter N inside which is a monk, writing, with a mildly bemused look on his face.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

William of Malmesbury's autograph of Gesta pontificum Anglorum (Oxford Magdalen MS Lat 172). Nice to meet it in person...

Open page of William's Gesta pontificum - neat script, some rubrication and signs of corrections

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

This scribe is not my friend. Don't like him at all...

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Alfred with a giant illuminated 'A' to start chapter 6 of Higden's Polychronicon - Ox Lincoln Lat 107 (all the chapters start with an illuminated letter). Probably a presentation copy of the text given to the college by its founder, Richard Flemming.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Marginal evidence of a bored history student? Medieval doodles from the margins of Ox Lincoln Lat. 151 (a prose Brut). I'd like to think they got caught by their teacher just as they got to work on their third creature (there are about 15 of these guys doodled throughout the manuscript).

Page from the Prose Brut with two creatures (peacocks) doodled on the bottom margin, another started in the right margin, and some practice letters.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Alfred's family is of particular interest for writer and reader in this copy of Peter of Ickham's Chronicle. An index inserted at a later date also terms Alfred 'primus monarchia Anglie'. Another part of the historiographical tradition I discuss in my EHR article. academic.oup.com/ehr/article/...

Rubric introducing Alfred's reign with a diagramatic representation of his family in the left column and a more detailed version in the bottom margin in a later hand. Oxford MS Laud Misc 730.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

William the Conqueror's lineage in BL Royal 20 A.XVIII - one of three copies of the Anonimalle Chronicle, a northern version of the Anglo-Norman prose Brut distinct enough to need its own edition...

An illustration of the lineage of William the Conqueror (here named the Bastard).

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Finding a copy of my queenship book in the wild never gets old (this one at Waterstones Gower St). But it is also 20% cheaper to buy it through the Routledge website with the code 25SMA2. Don't tell Waterstones, I guess?

A copy of my book Early English Queens, 850-1000 at Waterstones Gower St.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

I'm always struck by he glorious subtlety of a British Museum stamp, in this case adorning a 12th c. copy of Osbern's Vita Dunstani. At least Dunstan's looking good...

Folio 1 v of a 12th c., Canterbury copy of Osbern's Vita Dunstani, with a modern red 'Museum Britanicum' stamp smack in the middle of the medieval text.

Illuminated letter D (in DIXIMUS) with St Dunstan placidly abusing the devil's nose with a pair of tongs.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Thanks for the thoughts, Jonathan. The cause of the damage is difficult to isolate. It's not fire damage and the staining could suggest water damage/rot with its isolation to the left of the document perhaps supporting your theory that it was stored rolled. My copy of the document:

Charter S221 issued for the church of Much Wenlock in 901.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Charter S221 - an original single leaf invariably linked to Æthelflæd. But did you know that, due to damage to the document, her name doesn't appear in the text except as a later addition to the witness list? Some observations on S221 in Notes & Queries. academic.oup.com/nq/advance-a...

Remnant of the witness list from charter S221 in which Æthelred and Æthelflæd's names appear.

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

20% off code for my two Routledge books - 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝗲𝗻𝘀, 𝟴𝟱𝟬-𝟭𝟬𝟬𝟬 and 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱: 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗴𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀. They do what they say in the titles (but also check their blurbs through the link!). www.routledge.com/search?autho...

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

The mailman's been, author copies are here - Remembering England: Cultural Memory in the Sagas of Icelanders. There's dragons, duels, berserks, poets, kings, battles, magic, memory theory...what's not to love? Tell your libraries (a bit expensive to buy yourself). www.routledge.com/Remembering-...

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

As of this week I am Flinders University's first and only Research Fellow in Medieval History - a position linked to my Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship. So far, this has mainly involved filling out forms for travel approval. But there's 3.5 years of historiographical research ahead...

Header from the Flinders University website: Dr Matthew Firth, Research Fellow in Medieval History

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Found some fun mail waiting for me when I got back into Adelaide today: my editor copies of Pre-Conquest History and its Medieval Reception, released just this week. boydellandbrewer.com/978191404919...

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Back in London, only a day left until the 24-hour flight home. All-in-all, a successful trip with some solid archival prep done for my Fellowship beginning in March. A lot to catch up on next week though....

Bodl. MS 316 - page one of an edition of Polychronicon made for Norwich cathedral

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Dr Matt Firth @mattfirth.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

And here's Henry of Huntingdon’s little praise verse for Alfred the Great, also from Bodleian Laud Misc 564. For more on this one, see my EHR article on the transmission of Alfred's reputation in the later Middle Ages. doi.org/10.1093/ehr/...

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