Reposted by Nik GunnKristel Zilmer @kristelzilmer.bsky.social · 09/10/2026A new exhibition opens in November at the Historical Museum in Oslo, featuring multiple coins of the Mørstad hoard, including a coin struck for Olaf Haraldsson (St Olaf). 183 8
Reposted by Nik GunnAlex Harvey @alexharvv.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Oh this can just fuck off An AI-'written' complete copy of my own book is now on Amazon; same title, more-or-less the same blurb, and exactly the same impetus. Reviewers of Amazon, I urge you to absolutely dive-bomb this plagiaristic piece of shit: www.amazon.co.uk/FORGOTTEN-VI... 1011546682 1.5K
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 08/10/2026I’d be curious to know more about the geographical and social dynamics of this in the UK. All of my friends from home bar one have two or more children, whereas only three of my uni mates (now in London, all high earners) have any at all. 100 1
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Very excited (and a little nervous) to be speaking at this event, where I'll be talking about how creative writing has been an outlet for my medieval interests since leaving academia. I'll be thinking through the sort of intellectual space that opens up when writing fiction set in the Viking Age. 1123 12
Reposted by Nik GunnStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026One thing I find endlessly funny about the rise of AI is that it has revealed that there is a large number of people who believe that the reason they wrote essays at school or university is their teachers were desperately waiting for them to provide a definite answer to “Lear: what’s up with him?” 6857931249 5.8K
Reposted by Nik GunnDr Eleanor Baker @eleanormaybaker.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Well...the 'wulf' is out of the bag. Professor Daniel Wakelin and I were the Middle English consultants for Robert Eggers' upcoming film Werwulf, in UK theatres on January 1st 2027! 1518226 182
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Amazing to have worked on something like this! I love Eggers' films. 120 2
Reposted by Nik GunnJeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 02/10/2025On National Poetry Day, the greatest poem I have ever read 663696973 3.7K
Reposted by Nik GunnThe Guild of Medievalist Makers @guildmedmak.bsky.social · 30/09/2026🍂NEW AUTUMN/WINTER TERMCARD❄️ We are delighted to share our programme of Making Space sessions and workshops taking place between October and January! Want to join the Guild but not yet a member? Fill out the simple form on our website👉https://www.guildmedmak.com/join-the-guild 065 6
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Not claiming any direct influence by any means, as these are parallels more than anything, but we need to remember that Tolkien was as heavily indebted to his immediate literary past as he was to the Middle Ages. Anyway, George Eliot is the best to ever do it, no notes. 051 5
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Reading Middlemarch and it got me thinking about Tolkien's non-medieval reading habits. The main pub is the Green Dragon, Mr Featherstone battling off family from his inheritance, Casaubon working away on a book of myth... 291 9
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Yesterday, one of my fellow archery club members told me that his mate has a theory that King Arthur was from Gumley in Leicestershire and would I like to read his pamphlets, and I have never said “yes” to anything more quickly in my life. 080 8
Reposted by Nik GunnGraeme Swanson @swansonian.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Tim Curry should also be remembered for featuring in the best between takes photo of an actor in recorded history. 50107302681 10.7K
Reposted by Nik GunnWilliam Shakespeare @shakespeare.lol · 25/08/2026[Exit Queen.] 2063893211001 38.9K
Reposted by Nik GunnJoel @itsjoels.bsky.social · 25/08/2026This is the letter kids got at the end of Dolly’s Imagination Library. I defy you to read this and not cry. 7243893811283 38.9K
Reposted by Nik GunnKyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Dolly Parton's Imagination Library gifted more than 332,000,000 books since it was first created 31 years ago. 219239335926 23.9K
Reposted by Nik Gunn404 Media @404media.co · 17/08/2026SCOOP: 404 Media placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it. What did we find? It ended up at an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. Yes. This is literally the logo outside the Amazon warehouse door. Read now:404media.coWe Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training FacilityWe placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. 15162243910 6.2K
Reposted by Nik GunnMedieval Manuscripts @blmedieval.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Hwæt! A new edition of the Electronic Beowulf has been released by Kevin Kiernan (University of Kentucky). You can explore it here: ebeowulf.uky.edu Beowulf is one of our greatest literary treasures, and the unique manuscript is held at the British Library.ebeowulf.uky.eduElectronic Beowulf 5th ed 110840 108
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Still think it’s a sort of miracle that I can step on a train in a small coastal town in the south of France at 2pm and walk off the train at 11pm the same day in rural Leicestershire. 070 7
Reposted by Nik Gunnhannah @hannahkateboast.bsky.social · 12/08/2026'Following the closure of Modern Languages programmes at Leicester from September 2026, if Modern Languages were to disappear from Nottingham, the greater East Midlands would become one of the largest language cold spots in the country.' 32616 26
Reposted by Nik GunnPatch Thompson @patchthompson.bsky.social · 13/08/2026In my (adult) lifetime we've already gone from 'Extraordinary summer high of 32°C measured at Heathrow Airport' to 'Random towns in the south east of England hitting 36°C in mid-August'. Can't wait to see what the next few decades will bring. 082 8
Reposted by Nik GunnPrem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 02/08/2026Worst we’ve known’: UK turns to imports as drought and heat hit vegetable crops. Food insecurity and higher prices would follow. Poor hit the hardest. Despite warnings, no plan for water shortages. Need reservoirs, water storage, better water management. Companies can't do national planning.theguardian.com‘Worst we’ve known’: UK turns to imports as drought and heat hit vegetable cropsGrowers in dismay after scorching weather and lack of rain affect yields, sending wholesale prices rocketing 45618306 618
Reposted by Nik GunnALCS @alcs.co.uk · 31/07/2026Have your say on AI licensing and payment! Macquarie University and the Creative Industries PEC are surveying UK authors and illustrators on their views. Take the survey before 7 Aug: ow.ly/iXGl50ZuA8V 056 6
Reposted by Nik GunnJohn Garrison Marks @johngmarks.com · 27/07/2026In 2018 I read about universities, libraries, and humanities councils in New England convening veterans to discuss The Odyssey to help them make sense of their own experiences and was blown away by what a good idea it was. Funding the humanities = good. www.concordmonitor.com/2018/03/14/h...concordmonitor.com‘Homer can help you’: War veterans use ancient epics to cope - Concord MonitorThe trials of Odysseus are really not that different from the struggles of those learning to readjust after wars of today, modern veterans are finding.A small group of military veterans has been meeti... 19026 90
Reposted by Nik GunnNute @nutedawn.bsky.social · 22/07/2026I need the most Tolkien activity you have / No that’s too Tolkien 28715 87
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 20/07/2026For an adaptation apparently indebted to Emily Wilson’s “complicated man”, I don’t think I quite bought how Odysseus himself was handled. His carelessness with his crew jars with the final few scenes of self-reflection in a way that didn’t feel particularly earned. 040 4
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 20/07/2026The cyclops, Circe, Trojan horse and Hades scenes were each great individually and it's good to see that Nolan has a knack for horror. I liked that memory and the divine are closely paralleled. 120 2
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 20/07/2026I’ve seen the Odyssey and my overriding feeling is that it is less than the sum of its parts. 270 7
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 18/07/2026Yes. Germany’s model is well established and effective. England’s apprenticeship system is fiendishly complicated and has a high barrier to entry for employers (and HE). It needn’t be that way, of course, but we keep designing them that way for some reason… 030 3
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 17/07/2026I once reconstructed my family tree when I was unemployed and got to about 1820ish where one of my ancestors had “fairie” as a moniker. 080 8
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 17/07/2026From what I understand, degree apprenticeships have large overheads and complex admin (the two obviously not being unrelated) that makes them difficult to deliver at scale. But I agree in principle that there should be a bit more imagination about how HE factors in this. 140 4
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Labour came within a whisker of winning my leafy, should-be-LD-but-isn't, midlands seat at the last GE and it's mad that next time around they might well be fifth. 040 4
Reposted by Nik GunnTex 👺 @trocchio.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Look if you watched the prequels but are still surprised that the idea of making a movie while sitting at your computer without any collaborators, artists, writers, crew, or techs while being told you're a genius over and over is extremely appealing to Lucas I don't know what to tell you 931487 314
Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Dan Burn takes to the field looking like he’s already been on for 85 minutes. 030 3
Reposted by Nik GunnEMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 14/07/2026On the language of Homeric Greek, and the language of a certain forthcoming film: here are a few simple observations. 91627510 1.6K
Reposted by Nik GunnDexerto @dexerto.bsky.social · 10/07/2026A Norway fan has gone viral for not taking part in their Row celebration after matches and won't do it if they win the World Cup "It’s factually wrong; they didn’t row, they sailed over the Atlantic” 2595057609 5.1K
Reposted by Nik GunnCharles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 08/07/2026The end of a tremendous day at #imc2026 : a collective, international demonstration of the enduring intellectual and cultural value, even urgency, of the study of medieval history in the modern world. 1536 53
Reposted by Nik GunnMarie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 08/07/2026I mean this explains quite a lot about experiencing social media in the 2020's www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202... 46908224 908
Reposted by Nik GunnShiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 06/07/2026Jordan Henderson with 0 minutes played one yellow card and a broken arm might be the single greatest statline in WC history 29915139 915
Reposted by Nik GunnSam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 01/07/2026A friend said he always looks like a British solider about to go over the top at Passchendaele and now I can't not see that. 1930920 309
Reposted by Nik GunnMateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Who did it better? King David, Stuttgart Psalter, 9th century, f155v Johnny Cash in concert, late 1950s 56716 67
