A side project over the past years - I contributed to this forthcoming anthology on medieval Livonia, translating and commenting a selection of Old Nordic poetic and prose sources. Glad to see this on its way out! www.apollo.ee/et/keskaja-l...

Keskaja Liivimaa allikad. Tekstid, kujutised, esemed | Apollo E-pood

Siinne raamat tutvustab keskaja Liivimaad osana Euroopa poliitiliste, usuliste, majanduslike ja kultuuriliste suhete võrgustikust. Teos koondab tõlkes ja reprod

apollo.ee

Today over at ‘All Old Strange Things’ I write about Tore Johnsen's study of lived, everyday Christianity among the Sámi - and how it reveals an alternative approach for Christianity's relationship to the natural world drfrancisyoung.substack.com/p/ipmilahcci...

I am reading Fairies: A History by @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social. Really enjoying it.

Steve Mullis@stevemullis.net · 2d ago

It is National Book Lovers Day. I'm sure there is some corporate or capitalist origin, but who cares? Take some time to read today. Start a new book, finish that one you've been working on. Visit your local indie store or library. What are you reading? What did you just finish? 📚💙 #booksky

I’m intrigued by the idea of the Sámi rendering vast quantities of whale, walrus and seal blubber for export to the Romans

London Review of Books@lrb.co.uk · 2d ago

‘Over the past two generations, the boundaries of the classical world have been stretched to the steppe frontier of China, the Gulf of Aden and Ethiopia. But Scandinavia and the Baltic have remained stubbornly invisible.’ Michael Kulikowski on Roman Scandinavia: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I predict that a future freelance job in publishing will be that of Bloopreader, whose task will be inserting plausible-looking typos into AI-generated manuscripts to get them through AI-detection software

Just finished this fascinating book by @robincdouglas.bsky.social and @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social, which shows how the history of western paganism since Christianity is really a series of pagan revivals. Erudite, readable, and occasionally provocative, with many surprises along the way!

“I never thought leopards would remove my access to ebooks,” say libraries that focussed almost solely on acquiring ebooks from leopards

Shannon Mattern@shannonmattern.bsky.social · 6d ago

"In 2022, Wiley removed over 1,300 ebooks from academic library collections; [they said] perpetual access is not an option for subscribed content. In 2025, Clarivate,... announced they would stop offering libraries perpetual access licenses for ebooks and primary-source digital collections."

6 Aug: Feast of the Transfiguration. Unknown, illuminator and Brother Philipp, author The Transfiguration, about 1400–1410 (The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 33, fol. 272v)

Cold plunge pool at a reconstructed Roman villa today

Today in a new free post on ‘All Old Strange Things’ I explore the surprisingly complex and ambivalent ways in which Christians dealt with the old gods before the Enlightenment open.substack.com/pub/drfranci...

Today is #LammasDay 🌾 Here's Dean Joe getting hands-on with the harvest! Lammas marks the first fruits of summer and reminds us to give thanks for the land that sustains us all. We're grateful for the farmers in our county and for the food they provide.

What I love about this painting is how it conveys the importance of the early c18th in the Victorian imagination as the time of ghosts, irrevocably beyond living memory. There would have been people still alive born in the late c18th, after all

Mika Paananen@painmike1.bsky.social · last wk.

Adelaide Claxton, “The Party on the Stairs”(1875). #SpookySunday

The former Merthyr Tydfil Synagogue, completed in 1877, is the only surviving purpose-built Victorian synagogue in Wales. Earlier this year we welcomed the Welsh Jewish Cultural Centre for an online talk on its restoration. Recording: buff.ly/9sb9JL3 📷 Chris Andrews, CC BY-SA 2.0

The best chapter is about Monty Python’s Philosophers’ Drinking Song, the first academic discussion I’ve yet come across of this culturally central text for undergraduate Philosophy students 🍷

Dr Francis Young@drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · last wk.

I've just finished indexing 'Aristotle Beyond the Academy', edited by Edith Hall, Arlene Holmes-Henderson and others - a fascinating collection on Aristotle's role in early modern politics, popular medicine, popular science, jurisprudence, and much more! www.routledge.com/Aristotle-Be...

I've just finished indexing 'Aristotle Beyond the Academy', edited by Edith Hall, Arlene Holmes-Henderson and others - a fascinating collection on Aristotle's role in early modern politics, popular medicine, popular science, jurisprudence, and much more! www.routledge.com/Aristotle-Be...

English Heritage is inviting the public to a free Conservation in Action Day in the Abbey Gardens on Wednesday 5 August, 10.00 am to 4.00 pm. A rare opportunity to see skilled conservation specialists at work. Families are especially welcome, with children's activities running throughout the day.

Do you study medieval manors? Do you want to speak at @imc-leeds.bsky.social? Then we have the Call for Papers for you! Medieval Manorial Research: Community in the Manor. We welcome researchers of all disciplines and career stages. Deadline 4th September 2026. #IMC2027 #Skystorians #Medievalsky

Reading one of those books that’s just a PhD thesis where the author replaced every occurrence of ‘thesis’ with ‘book’ and hit send to the publisher

The existence of Iamblichus implies the existence of Youareblichus, Heisblichus, Weareblichus and Theyareblichus

Thinking of titles for a podcast about the history and resonances of the Duchy of Courland - "the Podcast of Courland and Semigallia" grand but unwieldly, "CourPod" snappy but ambiguous. But for the logo - the wonderfully menacing ensign of the mighty (genuinely!) Couronian navy

The Cathedral Choir have returned from their tour of Sweden! Highlights of the trip included their three concerts in Södertälje, Uppsala and Stockholm, as well as singing as part of a Eucharist. They also visited Skansen, the world's oldest open-air museum, and the Vasa Shop Museum.

Mulberry crime scene

Nearly ran over a bloke in a purple shirt and realised it was the Bishop of Bath and Wells 😳

Pilgrims have been coming to Bury St Edmunds for over 1000 years. The shrine of Saint Edmund attracted pilgrims until the closure of the Abbey. The present day Cathedral is dedicated of St James, patron saint of pilgrims. Find out more about pilgrimage: stedscathedral.org/pilgrimage #PilgrimPlaces

There’s currently 20% off the paperback edition of ‘Twilight of the Godlings’ if you order from @universitypress.cambridge.org using the code HISBG26 🧚📚

Dr Francis Young@drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · last mo.

I’m thrilled that the PAPERBACK edition of ‘Twilight of the Godlings’, my book about the origins of British fairies, is now available from @universitypress.cambridge.org! 🧚📚 www.cambridge.org/core/books/t...

Today on ‘All Old Strange Things’, I take a look at a largely forgotten (yet strangely influential) 1920s book about fairies open.substack.com/pub/drfranci...

In the shadow of Cottingley

Reading Bernard Sleigh’s ‘The Gates of Horn’

open.substack.com

The latest number of Volupté is themed on Estonian and Finnish decadence!! 🇪🇪🇫🇮📙 journals.gold.ac.uk/index.php/vo... ... Presumably that means lingering just a bit too long in a sauna, and flogging yourself with particularly soft birch leaves

Anyone else noticed how publishers demand ever shorter deadlines for proof-checking, peer-review etc.? I think it’s ’deadlineflation’, i.e. no author actually meets deadlines, so a ‘deadline’ is now a high ‘opening offer’ in an expected negotiation between publisher and authors

Setting myself up with a nice little @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social double bill. Time to learn about Baltic paganism!

Latest brainfail: I just corrected ‘Woolf, Virginia’ to ‘Woolf, VA’, thinking Woolf must be the name of a town in the Old Dominion 🤦‍♂️