Jane Turnbull
@ejturnbull.bsky.social
Trying to make sense of Le Morte d'Arthur.
Pinned
Jane Turnbull
@ejturnbull.bsky.social
· Nov 14
Tally ho! Onwards and upwards. I'm mostly interested into the C15th world of Thomas Malory and how it informed his writing about King Arthur. It's a big topic - medieval Islam, medicine, travel, pets, clothes, food, folklore, politics - everything. But I do love the odd cat picture too.
It's a sunny day and in a small town near Warwick the simple pleasures of life are being celebrated.
Even the castle is behaving itself.
youtube.com/watch?v=OM9K...
Even the castle is behaving itself.
youtube.com/watch?v=OM9K...
Custard Corner
YouTube video by Tony Sweet Musician
youtube.com
June 14, 2025 at 3:54 PM
It's a sunny day and in a small town near Warwick the simple pleasures of life are being celebrated.
Even the castle is behaving itself.
youtube.com/watch?v=OM9K...
Even the castle is behaving itself.
youtube.com/watch?v=OM9K...
This is a great way to start a new week - with a picture of the finest oak tree I have ever seen.
Wyndham's Oak - Silton, England
A thousand years of greatness
Photo: Charles Finch
A thousand years of greatness
Photo: Charles Finch
June 9, 2025 at 9:12 AM
This is a great way to start a new week - with a picture of the finest oak tree I have ever seen.
Ooh, this does look good.
I'm delighted to reveal the cover of my new book, Upon A White Horse: Journeys in Ancient Britain and Ireland. It will be published by @headlinebooks.bsky.social on 11 September. Available to pre-order here: linktr.ee/UponAWhiteHo...
If you are happy to share this post, please, I'd be grateful.
If you are happy to share this post, please, I'd be grateful.
June 6, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Ooh, this does look good.
Reposted by Jane Turnbull
Sun shining through the windows of St Mary's Cathedral, West End, Edinburgh.
May 12, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Sun shining through the windows of St Mary's Cathedral, West End, Edinburgh.
Reposted by Jane Turnbull
Goodnight from Benjamin Childes, becoming yet another visitor from London to learn it’s unwise to ask how The Mere Wives pub got its name. Goodnight from Nell Hopkins, desperately wishing she had paid more attention to the warning given by crows at twilight. Goodnight from Hookland.
May 4, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Goodnight from Benjamin Childes, becoming yet another visitor from London to learn it’s unwise to ask how The Mere Wives pub got its name. Goodnight from Nell Hopkins, desperately wishing she had paid more attention to the warning given by crows at twilight. Goodnight from Hookland.
This is the cutest horse I've ever seen. Bucephalus channelling My Little Pony.
Bucephalus hiding from dragons in an early 14th century MS of the Alexander Romance (an ancient fantasy novel about Alexander the Great). MS Bodley 264 in the Bodleian Library, made c. 1338.
May 3, 2025 at 3:54 PM
This is the cutest horse I've ever seen. Bucephalus channelling My Little Pony.
Reposted by Jane Turnbull
#WyrdWednesday #LegendaryWednesday
Halloween isn’t the only night the spirits walk in Welsh folklore. Nos Galan Haf, the night before May Day, is also an Ysbrydnos, a spirit night, when the veils thin and the Otherworld draws near!
Halloween isn’t the only night the spirits walk in Welsh folklore. Nos Galan Haf, the night before May Day, is also an Ysbrydnos, a spirit night, when the veils thin and the Otherworld draws near!
April 30, 2025 at 1:56 PM
#WyrdWednesday #LegendaryWednesday
Halloween isn’t the only night the spirits walk in Welsh folklore. Nos Galan Haf, the night before May Day, is also an Ysbrydnos, a spirit night, when the veils thin and the Otherworld draws near!
Halloween isn’t the only night the spirits walk in Welsh folklore. Nos Galan Haf, the night before May Day, is also an Ysbrydnos, a spirit night, when the veils thin and the Otherworld draws near!
Reposted by Jane Turnbull
Best of luck to everyone running the London Marathon this morning
April 27, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Best of luck to everyone running the London Marathon this morning
Please, please understand that there's a difference between an absolute monarch and a constitutional monarch. Absolute monarchs are people like King John who thought he could do anything he wanted until the Magna Carta tripped him up.
This is your regular reminder that executive orders are not royal decrees. Because America has no king.
April 24, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Please, please understand that there's a difference between an absolute monarch and a constitutional monarch. Absolute monarchs are people like King John who thought he could do anything he wanted until the Magna Carta tripped him up.
Shout out for @shakespeare.lol.
I am full sorry
That he approves the common liar
That he approves the common liar
April 13, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Shout out for @shakespeare.lol.
Trial by battle: judicial duels were perhaps slightly more favoured in Europe than the UK, but any chivalrous knight worth his salt was expected to know the protocol.
God would defend the right and the loser would leave the ring in his coffin.
God would defend the right and the loser would leave the ring in his coffin.
April 3, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Trial by battle: judicial duels were perhaps slightly more favoured in Europe than the UK, but any chivalrous knight worth his salt was expected to know the protocol.
God would defend the right and the loser would leave the ring in his coffin.
God would defend the right and the loser would leave the ring in his coffin.
Reposted by Jane Turnbull
He fell down in the market-place, and foam’d at mouth, and was speechless.
April 2, 2025 at 9:14 PM
He fell down in the market-place, and foam’d at mouth, and was speechless.
All the colours of medieval life!
Aren't these pretty?! 😍
When this batch of experiments is done and I pack away my dyes, these will probably go in the shop, in case anyone's interested in naturally-dyed embroidery thread. #dyeing
When this batch of experiments is done and I pack away my dyes, these will probably go in the shop, in case anyone's interested in naturally-dyed embroidery thread. #dyeing
April 2, 2025 at 9:31 AM
All the colours of medieval life!
Lovely way to celebrate the day.
March 30, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Lovely way to celebrate the day.
Glad to find you in the blue place - you had fallen off my list when I transferred here.
On Monday our instagram account was hacked and then deleted. We received a ransom note to recover it; obviously we couldn't and wouldn't pay, and therefore lost thousands of followers. Meta support was useless. But we're BACK with a new account: @littletollerbooks. Can you follow us there and share?
March 29, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Glad to find you in the blue place - you had fallen off my list when I transferred here.
The owls are out tonight. A tawny owl drifted down from the woods on the hill above shrilling his thin cry. Here in the village the barn owl in the old stables answered back hoo-hoo, whoo-hoo. I pushed up the window to hear them better but could see nothing but the outline of trees in the dark.
March 25, 2025 at 9:47 PM
The owls are out tonight. A tawny owl drifted down from the woods on the hill above shrilling his thin cry. Here in the village the barn owl in the old stables answered back hoo-hoo, whoo-hoo. I pushed up the window to hear them better but could see nothing but the outline of trees in the dark.
Hookland is the country where we find ourselves and our land to be stranger and more magical than we had ever realised.
More than 15 years ago, sat in a London tower block, Tim was the first person I tried to explain the concept of Hookland to. I am forever grateful he didn't respond with advice to abandon the idea.
In my head, I'm calling this The Hookland Protocol, for reasons that are utterly obvious if you follow @hookland.bsky.social.
If you know any accounts here that rigorously follow the same principle, please let me know!
If you know any accounts here that rigorously follow the same principle, please let me know!
March 23, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Hookland is the country where we find ourselves and our land to be stranger and more magical than we had ever realised.
For knightriders presumably.
March 13, 2025 at 2:11 PM
For knightriders presumably.
Reposted by Jane Turnbull
Meet Glenn Massacre , nationally appointed Crime Reduction Czar for the driven grouse shooting industry .
He thinks it's ok that 134 hen harriers are 'missing' or have been illegally killed since 2018 , most on or close to grouse moors .
Add your name petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...
He thinks it's ok that 134 hen harriers are 'missing' or have been illegally killed since 2018 , most on or close to grouse moors .
Add your name petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...
March 8, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Meet Glenn Massacre , nationally appointed Crime Reduction Czar for the driven grouse shooting industry .
He thinks it's ok that 134 hen harriers are 'missing' or have been illegally killed since 2018 , most on or close to grouse moors .
Add your name petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...
He thinks it's ok that 134 hen harriers are 'missing' or have been illegally killed since 2018 , most on or close to grouse moors .
Add your name petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...
Reposted by Jane Turnbull
The custodian kindly let me and my colleagues into the Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk in Žďár nad Sázavou – a church that makes you look up to the centre of the ceiling and wonder 'Is that a human tongue?'
March 6, 2025 at 10:04 PM
The custodian kindly let me and my colleagues into the Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk in Žďár nad Sázavou – a church that makes you look up to the centre of the ceiling and wonder 'Is that a human tongue?'
Brightened my morning!
SARUMAN: Lands a tenured position while still finishing his PhD
GANDALF: Trail of post-docs and teaching posts. People never sure what his institutional affiliation is. Drops in 'yeah that was when I was in Rhûn for 90 years'
RADAGAST: Lives by proofreading and eating the dandelions in his garden
GANDALF: Trail of post-docs and teaching posts. People never sure what his institutional affiliation is. Drops in 'yeah that was when I was in Rhûn for 90 years'
RADAGAST: Lives by proofreading and eating the dandelions in his garden
Academics love Lord of the Rings because it's about a researcher (Gandalf) who does their dissertation on an obscure topic (Hobbit lore), wanders around doing post-docs, gets destroyed in the question session from hell but triumphantly returns and gets to take the golden-boy prof (Saruman)'s job
January 28, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Brightened my morning!
Wonderful bit of stained glass from Towcester Church Northamptonshire.
January 23, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Wonderful bit of stained glass from Towcester Church Northamptonshire.
Reposted by Jane Turnbull
Storm Éowyn can be stopped in her tracks by a particularly fetching cardboard cutout of Aragorn.
January 23, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Storm Éowyn can be stopped in her tracks by a particularly fetching cardboard cutout of Aragorn.
I mean, why wouldn't you?
January 19, 2025 at 5:01 PM
I mean, why wouldn't you?