@spstrande
18C & 19C Scots ballads. Macpherson, Burns, Scott, & Child. R. Browning. Text theory, Folklore, Book History. Semiotics. Lib.Soc. Feminist. There’s a photo of me somewhere in my posts. Also on Mastodon:@spstrande.mastodon.online
A horse with an elephant head used in warfare, transporting two soldiers and a fortified tower. This detail is from a 1471 printed book (Speculum humanae salvationis).
Tell me you have never seen an elephant before without telling me ... #skystorians
Major yn Englisshe:
• Focused readinge & writinge prepare you for anythinge
• Research, communicacioun, creativitye, and interpretacioun will be needed for careers not even inventid yet
• Meaningful engagement wyth big ideas and textes that will staye wyth you forevir
• It ys awesome
• Bookes!
The Folklore Society mistletoe logo
The Folklore Society’s Katharine Briggs Prize 2026 has opened for entries! Open to books in English having their initial publication in the UK & Ireland in the period from 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2026. Deadline for entries 31 May 2026. More info and rules: www.folklore-society.com/awards/the-k...
🚨🚨Submissions call. 🚨🚨
Strange Horizons invites non-fiction submissions for our March 30 special issue on “Fungi in SFF.”
Please send in your mycelial pitches to gautam.strangehorizons@gmail.com.
For word-count, formats, and remuneration:
strangehorizons.com/submit/non-f...
Islands Matter: #Faroese & #Shetlandic #Folklore
26 Feb, free online via @insuhi.bsky.social
Prof Jóan Pauli Joensen: “Water Beings in Faroese Folklore – Tradition & Change” & Prof Andrew Jennings: “From Fetlar to Foula – Norse Roots of Shetland Folklore”
www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-...
I would be less aesthetically offended if it we faced takeover from, say, an evolved version of the chess computers. The fact that it's a glorified jumped-up incompetent spellcheck combined with a plagiarism machine is just galling.
1/2
💯. Not being independently wealthy - nor of a disposition that made marrying for money a viable option, I ‘left’ the ac path many years ago, because … rent. Despite this, I still consider myself first & foremost to be a scholar of semiotics & textual history.
Secure the future of the Folklore Library & Archive for all GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/4e063560 REWARDS £10 Donation - Membership of the 'Friends of the Folklore Library & Archive' for 12 months. £20 Donation - Friends membership PLUS an archive box named in your honour. £50+ Donation - All previous rewards PLUS a merchandise pack delivered later in the year. £100+ Donation - All previous rewards PLUS a guided tour of our collections (travel not included). £150+ Donation - All previous rewards PLUS lunch with members of the Folklore Library & Archive team. Thank you for any donation you are able to make.
Launching our important new fundraiser:
SECURE THE FUTURE OF THE FOLKLORE LIBRARY & ARCHIVE FOR ALL
Please read our story at gofund.me/4e063560
If you can make a donation on that link, please help us. Donations will earn you a range of rewards to show our gratitude, pictured below.
Thank you
In The Herald Scotland today: a special focus on Alasdair Gray, with an article by Evie Glen on our Custodian @sorchadallas.bsky.social’s living archive model with a focus on @aowensarchive.bsky.social, our new commission with Rachelle Atalla & how this celebrates & shapes Scotland’s culture.
💯. Not being independently wealthy - nor of a disposition that made marrying for money a viable option, I ‘left’ the ac path many years ago, because … rent. Despite this, I still consider myself first & foremost to be a scholar of semiotics & textual history.
BEOWULF BY ALL: "Readers will encounter the voices of over two hundred individuals, woven together into a reading experience that is at once productively dissonant, yet strangely coherent in its extreme variation." FREE OPEN ACCESS PDF DOWNLOAD:
www.arc-humanities.org/978164189471...
Christian I of Norway failed to pay a dowry for his daughter Margaret, queen to James III – so #Orkney & #Shetland were annexed by the Scottish crown #OTD, 20 Feb 1472
NORTHERN-NESS looks at literature from the northern isles, from the sagas to the far future
www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2019/07/nort...
The best Robin Hood adaption ever! (I won’t be taking any questions)
what I want people to feel, when they look at South Korea and the UK and Brazil holding elites accountable, is that it's possible here too. Elect true leaders this year and in 28, empowered - but also driven by us, the people - to hold the criminals accountable for their crimes. It's possible.
Bolsonaro in prison, Yeon sentenced to prison, Andrew arrested on his birthday...and America still holding on to a 34 count felon as President.
I have not seen UK friends on the socials this happy since Thatcher died.
I don't think I have ever seen Berlingske translate their articles from Danish to English before (or remove the paywall..)
Tells you something about the moment we are in and the deep mistrust and anger the Danes are now feeling towards the US
Enjoy reading...
Live Literature: Folklore of Kintyre
26 Feb, online – free
@dougiestrang.bsky.social presents an evening of #folklore from Kintyre & wider Argyll, highlighting aspects of heritage that cannot be easily represented through physical objects alone
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/live-liter...
We’re delighted to see @sundaypost.com celebrate Alasdair Gray ahead of Gray Day (25.02.26) at Òran Mór.
At The Alasdair Gray Archive, we keep his work open, active and alive. Culture is a shared right—join us!
For those unaware, a quick primer on perhaps the most dangerous of the oligarchs.
Peter Thiel.
Dull sublunary lovers' love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit Absence, because it doth remove Those things which elemented it. But we by a love so much refined, That our selves know not what it is, Inter-assured of the mind, Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss. Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat.
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
-John Donne
Noam Chomsky, Jeffrey Epstein and the Politics of Betrayal
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGZ1...
Need more #18thC in your life??
OF COURSE YOU DO!
Click below for an incredible programme of events from our friends @cecs-york.bsky.social
#skystorians #18thC 🗃️
www.york.ac.uk/eighteenth-c...
CFP
The Incredible Nineteenth Century: Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Fairy Tale
1–2 May, free online
Presentations invited on any aspect of #sciencefiction, #fantasy, or #fairytale in the Long #C19 as well as modern reinterpretations of the #C19 in literature & media
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
again we do not really do a good job of explaining how wealthy people like Jeff Bezos are
his net worth is $253.2 billion.
so he could take one million dollars, and just light it on fire
and then do it again tomorrow
and again the day after that
and then do it every day for 693 years and 8 months
📢 We’re excited to share our programme of events for this semester, accessible on our events page. We’re offering some seminars as hybrid so we hope you can join us in York or online. Full details at www.york.ac.uk/eighteenth-c...
❤️
Can’t make Gray Day on 25.02.26? Explore Gray’s Lanark online with Gray: Beyond the Horizon—an interactive multimedia exhibition bringing Lanark: A Life in 4 Books to life - www.graybeyondthehorizon.com
Gray Day 2026: Reimagined Glasgow—45 Years of Lanark. Alasdair & Agnes: connected archives & literary lives with Sorcha @sorchadallas.bsky.social @aowensarchive.bsky.social & Laura MacDonald. 25 Feb, Kelvingrove, 2–3pm. Free: Katie.bruce@glasgowlife.org.uk
