Rachel A. Fletcher

The next #WotY2026 in the WotY Watch is dictionary.com's MAXXING www.dictionary.com/articles/wor...

So satisfying to co-write this article with Martin, Pieter and Emily! Just the first stage of our much bigger (aka unwieldy) #DH project...

My Inaugural Professorial Lecture at @glasgow.ac.uk has been announced: “A kind of elvish craft”: In conversation with Prof. Tolkien Myth, folklore, fairy-story, fantasy + the traditions behind the stories we tell. 9 Nov, 5pm. Book here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/critical-s... @uofgartshums.bsky.social

Many thanks to Leah Mandel and The Creative Independent for this great interview about research, Old English, sounds, and lexicography that nonetheless ends right where I needed it to today. thecreativeindependent.com/people/autho...

If you were wondering how long it takes to read Sir Orfeo in a single take, the answer is about 28 minutes. Sharing the mp3 because, well, I just spent 28 minutes recording Sir Orfeo for my students and maybe it will save you from having to do the same. drive.google.com/file/d/1cK3_...

Call for contributions to an essay cluster on the Reception of the Early Medieval Insular Church (c.300-1100) ed. by Dr Robyn Stewart & I for the journal postmedieval. Deadline for abstracts is 15 December 2026, with first full drafts due 01 November 2027. Please share! #medievalsky #skystorians

It was #NationalPoetryDay this week so we couldn't resist sharing our Fellow Prof. Richard Dance (1997) reading the opening lines of 'Beowulf', in both Modern & Old English. Catz students at @department-asnc.bsky.social enjoy studying this epic poem >1000 years after it was first written.

Here's some more research on all the German personal libraries in Japan – with stuff on German reparations to Japan after WWI, intellectual aid, a major project of book donations from Britain and Japanese marxists buying books in 1920s Berlin. It's not medieval history, but pretty fascinating anyway

Abraham Shackleton (1836–95) is my latest #OEDMaker, and here’s a piece about him. Also available on Facebook to @DictionarySocNA members and at themakersoftheoed.wordpress.com/the-quotatio...

Thrilled to be presenting in the IMS seminar series later this year!

#OTD 343 years ago, Elizabeth Elstob (1683–1756) was born 🥳 A translator and pioneer of Old English studies, she authored "The Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue", the first Old English grammar written in English. #WomenInLinguistics #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

💥Vivien Law Essay Prize reminder💥 Deadline: 30 September 2025‼️ We welcome essays on any topic related to the history of linguistic ideas by PhD students and recent graduates. The prize includes £200 and more. See details and don't forget to send in your essay!👇 www.henrysweet.org/vivien-law-p...

A London stationer left his friend, an apothecary, a ring or breast buckle 'requesting that he would wear it as long if he pleases. I wish he would always wear it when he goes affishing ...

Two weeks remaining to apply for a DSNA project grant!

The deadline is soon!

#OTD 181 years ago, Henry Sweet (1845–1912) was born 🥳 Phonetician and language historian, particularly of Old Germanic languages, a pioneer in language teaching, and the author of the unsuccessful Current Shorthand. The @henrysweetsoc.bsky.social is named after him. #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

One week left to send us your abstracts! #medievalsky #OldEnglish #CFP

A highly Victorian segue.

Super article in Univ’s Martlet magazine about the ✨AMAZING✨ donation we received last yr from an Old Member- CS Lewis’s own copy of Tolkien’s Beowulf: The Monsters & Critics essay, SIGNED & DEDICATED by Tolkien himself! 🤩 Read online here www.univ.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/u...

Another pair of #OEDMakers (though in a very modest way): James Edgerton Learned (1839–1902) and Dwight Whitney Learned (1848–1943). Here’s a piece about them. Also available on Facebook to @DictionarySocNAmembers and at themakersoftheoed.wordpress.com/miscellaneou...

Fancy a trip round Anglo Saxon England? A wonderful collection of hand drawn maps have been digitised and are available here:https://archives.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php/maps-of-anglo-saxon-england #anglosaxon #maps #england

A MAMO reminder that we're accepting abstracts through to 30th September. Thanks to everyone who has submitted proposals so far!

DSNA Project Grants #CFP In 2027, DSNA will award small grants to support practical or scholarly lexicographic projects by independent researchers, #dictionary makers, and early-career scholars. Info & how to apply: dictionarysociety.com/2027-project... Applications are due October 1, 2026.

The 26th Biennial Meeting of the Dictionary Society of North America at the University of California, Davis, will now be held a week later than previously announced, from June 23–26, 2027. #CFP & more info: dictionarysociety.com/dsna26-in-da... Submissions close January 29, 2027. #lexicography

Two and a half weeks to send us your abstracts!

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.

#lexicography #CFP: Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America is accepting submissions for forthcoming general issues. The journal publishes articles on all aspects of lexicography. Please contact the editor, Lynne Murphy (m.l.murphy@sussex.ac.uk), for submissions or queries.

New issue of Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America available on @projectmuse.bsky.social! Read it here: muse.jhu.edu/issue/57355 [1/5]

Be sure to check out the Padlet for CfPs for #IMC2027! If anyone wants their CfP adding to the Padlet, email or tag the @imc-leeds.bsky.social team. It's useful for those who don't use the socials and is linked on the IMC 2027 website. padlet.com/universityof...

Vor allem auch für die Literaturwissenschaften interessant, damit ihr nicht immer (nur) DWB-Artikel von 1860 oder so zitieren müsst. #LitWiss

Congratulations to @bethyoung.bsky.social and team on their new NEH funding for the Webster's Dictionary project! webstersdictionaryonline.com/about

This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b

CALL FOR PAPERS Excited to open the CFP for 'Wundor in Old English Literature' at Leeds IMC next year (5th-8th July 2027). If you have any questions, please get in touch! Abstracts due 10th September 2026. #IMC2027 #medievalsky @imc-leeds.bsky.social

Interested in the history of #OldEnglish scholarship? @emgallimore.bsky.social, Thijs Porck and I will be editing a volume on OE in the long 19th century; if you'd like to contribute a chapter, the deadline for abstracts is 1 Sept 2026, first full drafts due Sept 2027. Spread the word! #medievalsky

William Lambarde's Perambulation of Kent talks a bit about Rochester Bridge (he even edits an Old English charter about its upkeep) so I decided to research a bit about the bridge's history. Was not expecting everything I found, so here follows a thread: (1/11)

✨️Vivien Law Essay Prize✨️ We invite all students and ECRs to submit an essay on any topic in the history of linguistics. Winning essay receives a prize of £200 and more! Deadline: 30 September 2026. See details here and get your submissions ready👇️ : www.henrysweet.org/vivien-law-p...

"Shoulda bought Sunn O tix when they were still $80" was not on my bingo card for 2026.

Karl Simrock, einer der bekanntesten frühen Germanisten der zweiten Generation nach Grimm und Lachmann.

Old English Abroad: A hybrid/online lecture series on the reception and study of early medieval English language and literature outside the Anglophone world Professor Santiago Disalvo (Universidad Nacional de la Plata) 21 July, 2026; 14:00 CEST emergence.leiden.edu/OEB1

📣 #CallforContributions #medievalsky #OldEnglish 📜 Dynamics of Old English Scholarship in the Long Nineteenth Century: Discoveries, Disputes and the Development of a Discipline ✍️ Editors: Rachel A. Fletcher, Ellen Gallimore & Thijs Porck ⏰ Abstracts due: 1 Sept 2026 📆 Drafts due: end of Sept 2027

CFP for @imc-leeds.bsky.social #IMC2027 on Building Scientific Communities: The Transmission of the Quadrivium in the Early Medieval Period (c. 300-1000 C.E.). Posted on behalf of Dr Robyn Stewart (University of York) who is not on Bsky. Deadline 1 Sept 2026 for 250-word abstracts.

Freche Eigenwerbung: Meine Videos zur alten deutschen Schrift, erstes Video: youtu.be/reQJ7zhAr_A?...

Now that everyone has returned from this year's @imc-leeds.bsky.social, I thought I'd share my CFP for next year's on female communities and networks again 😊 feel free to reach out with questions as well! #MedievalSky

Interested in the history of #OldEnglish scholarship? @emgallimore.bsky.social, Thijs Porck and I will be editing a volume on OE in the long 19th century; if you'd like to contribute a chapter, the deadline for abstracts is 1 Sept 2026, first full drafts due Sept 2027. Spread the word! #medievalsky

Here’s a piece about a whole group of #OEDMakers: namely the musicians. Also available on Facebook to @DictionarySocNAmembers and at themakersoftheoed.wordpress.com/miscellaneou...

Heartily seconded, and not just because he's my boss. It's literal laugh-out-loud stuff; Henry Sweet did *not* know when to keep his mouth shut.