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robheighton.bsky.social
Robdolph 🦌🎄
@robheighton.bsky.social
6K followers 6.7K following 1.8K posts
he/him • Doctor of Physics • Worldbuilder & Conlanger • Fan of Fantasy • Whovian • Amateur Enthusiast of Linguistics, Archaeology, Classics, and many other things

📍 UK • 📖 Tressiwick • 📺 The Brownstone
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robheighton.bsky.social
Robdolph 🦌🎄 @robheighton.bsky.social · Nov 12
Folks with any reach on Bluesky, please consider reposting so I can find friends old and new:

I'm Rob; I like fantasy books, maths and physics, ancient stuff and mythology, linguistics and music, British wildlife, and a whole bunch of other stuff. And I might occasionally mention Doctor Who
Reposted by Robdolph 🦌🎄
southdownsnp.bsky.social
Wherever you are today, however you're celebrating, we wish you a very Merry Christmas! 🎄

📸: Tom Hard
December 25, 2025 at 5:00 AM
robheighton.bsky.social
How festive! ⭐🎄🎁
northages.bsky.social North Ages @northages.bsky.social · 2d
An episode in the Life of Cuthbert tells how monks spent Christmas Day with the future saint at his Inner Farne hermitage only to return to Lindisfarne the next day to find one of the brethren dead from plague - an epidemic which then spanned a year. 📸xlibber #medievalsky
Lindisfarne Castle sitting atop Beblowe Crag.
December 25, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by Robdolph 🦌🎄
drnwillburger.bsky.social
For Christmas Day an early medieval gold foil cross found in Andelfingen, dating 7th c. AD.
Gold foil crosses were purpose-made for burials, they were sewn on the veil that covered the deceased.
They are regarded as one of the earliest Christian symbols in southwestern Germany.

MERRY CHRISTMAS🎄🎅
Early medieval gold foil cross shown against a dark background, with four short flaring arms and a central roundel. Each arm and the center are decorated with stamped, intricate interlace motifs in circular panels, and tiny perforations are visible at the edges where the thin gold sheet was once sewn on a veil.
December 25, 2025 at 8:06 AM
robheighton.bsky.social
A Christmas Eve snap of Orion, the Hyades, and the Pleiades
A photo of the night sky including the constellation Orion and the asterisms of the Hyades and Pleiades
December 24, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Robdolph 🦌🎄
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social
Mary & Joseph arriving at the inn in Bethlehem, where there is no room. OTD year zero, here in a woodcut from 1551.
December 24, 2025 at 10:27 PM
robheighton.bsky.social
The Harold Godwinson is on the tree!
A Christmas decoration inspired by the depiction of Harold Godwinson in the Bayeux Tapestry, hanging on a Christmas tree among tinsel and other decorations
December 24, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Robdolph 🦌🎄
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Happy Winter Solstice / Christmas from the land of the Durotriges!

We're going to close the hillfort gate for a couple of days, so take care out there and see you all soon

All together now:

"After all there's only one more multivallate Iron Age enclosure till Christmas"

#HillfortsWednesday
An Iron Age horseman wearing a red Santa hat and carrying a carnyx and shield rides an antler and red nose wearing horse over a wreath of holly surrounded by the words Merry Christmas to you and silver tinsel
December 24, 2025 at 8:54 AM
robheighton.bsky.social
25th: Merry Christmas
26th: Bilboxing Day
27th: Samwise Samedi

[Then darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time, and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell]

31st: New Year's Evenstar
beccanical.bsky.social Beccas can't be choosers @beccanical.bsky.social · 6d
"Merry Christmas" implies the existence of "Pippin Christmas"
December 24, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by Robdolph 🦌🎄
signemaene.com
Clear Winter Night by Carol Collette.
Artwork. Tree, snow, house in distance, rabbit, fence, fields. Night.
December 17, 2025 at 10:56 AM
robheighton.bsky.social
The other day I typed "gods" in a post and my phone autocorrected to "god's". Silenced by the monotheistic agenda!
December 23, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Reposted by Robdolph 🦌🎄
jdmccafferty.bsky.social
Design for a Chandelier with Sixteen Candles 1632, by Isaak Ehe (Met Museum) It'd be nice for the festive season.
December 21, 2025 at 10:26 PM
robheighton.bsky.social
Using genAI to create 'art' is ludicrous and pretty grim at the best of times, but applying it anywhere near the words and worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien is utterly heinous, and entirely antithetical not only to the thematic foundation of his work, but also to the life of creativity and artistry he led
December 23, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by Robdolph 🦌🎄
alchemicalrat.bsky.social
The Queen of Owls for Day 22 of #ArtAdventCalendar and for #OwlishMonday
A little piece of #Hookland to mark the passing of the longest night of the year.
A miniature in the style of a late medieval panel painting. It shows a crowned owl perched on a crescent moon before a black sky patterned with stars. The owl’s talons are red and there are three drops of blood shown beneath them.
December 22, 2025 at 2:48 PM
robheighton.bsky.social
This is how the orcs of Mordor felt when Samwise Gamgee was loose in their tower
tiny.baby tinybaby @tiny.baby · 4d
people always laugh when bears run away from housecats because they're so much bigger but like. imagine you were in the woods & you ran into a weird little guy that looks kinda like you but like 1/5th the size & his head is shaped weird & he is running toward you full tilt yelling. what would you do
December 22, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Reposted by Robdolph 🦌🎄
richardiiisocca.bsky.social
It's time! Behold the Christmas hedgehog! From Verdun, Bibl. mun., ms. 0107, f. 008. Our thanks as always to @etreharne.bsky.social who found her.
A small hedgehog has green and red circles on her spikes and a gold one. On the branch in front of and behind her are 2 more gold balls. The branch has a few green leaves. It all looks very festive although the balls on her spikes are probably grapes.
December 18, 2025 at 3:29 PM
robheighton.bsky.social
Train reading ft. @dannybate.bsky.social
On a foldout train table: Why Q Needs U by Danny Bate
December 22, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Robdolph 🦌🎄
racheldeering.bsky.social
Winter Landscape with Church, Caspar David Friedrich, 1811.
Snow scene with two snow laden firs, large rocks protruding from snow, hillside with fog and church seen emerging from it in the distance, painting.
December 17, 2025 at 8:46 AM
robheighton.bsky.social
Too much of the Odyssey discourse misses the point that it isn't about the designs being 'ahistorical' or 'inaccurate' (especially in a story about gods and monsters), it's about creating something stylistically interesting and immersive, with layers of meaning and reference and artistry
December 21, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Robdolph 🦌🎄
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Something lovely for the weekend! A 1,800 year-old Roman glass flask shaped like a mouse!

Squeak squeak! 🐭❤️

📷 by me www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

#Archaeology
My photo shows a small Roman flask made of translucent cobalt blue glass in the form of a fat little mouse, 14.6 cm in length. The body of the vessel is rounded and stands on four feet made from tooled trails of glass. A separate blob of glass forms the head with eyes, ears, and a pointed nose. The neck of the flask is funnel-shaped and slightly up-turned to look like a tail. The flask surface is decorated with trails of glass which have been flattened and notched. Modern scholars refer to this type of trailed decoration as ‘snake thread’. On display at the Met Museum in New York
December 20, 2025 at 9:31 AM
robheighton.bsky.social
Suddenly realising that Gandalf's participation in The Lord of the Rings is basically the trope of an old man with a long and dangerous career agreeing to One Last Job Before Retirement
shire-reckoning.bsky.social The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 8d
Elrond names the Company of the Ring, from all the Free Peoples:

Hobbits—Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin.
Men—Aragorn and Boromir.
Elves—Legolas.
Dwarves—Gimli.

And, one wizard—Gandalf the Grey shall lead them, ‘for this shall be his great task and maybe the end of his labours.’
December 20, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Robdolph 🦌🎄
lostinthewood.bsky.social
Throwback to my anatomy-meets-art piece: 'Heart of the Sea' 🌊❤️. A larger wall hanging heart, it's decorated in barnacles, wrapped in tentacles and even features a little starfish. Made in the summer two years ago (and has since sold), it seems appropriate to share on this sunny day!
#SciArt
June 19, 2025 at 5:53 PM
robheighton.bsky.social
So impressively awful and tasteless that I almost find it compelling. Really puts the 'kitsch' in 'kitchen'
drewjakeprof.bsky.social Andrew Jacobs (he/him) @drewjakeprof.bsky.social · 6d
okay this is where I laughed out loud
interior shot of kitchen; the cabinets have mirrored (not glass) inserts in the doors; there is an island (for prep not eating) which has the same green "marble" counters as the rest of the kitchen and the same mirrored door panels and old timey pulls. on the island stands a near life-size black statue of a nude youth in a Greco-Roman style (even leaning on a piece of rustic wood as old statues do). For some reason the nude youth is holding in one hand a plate with two birds (made out of paper? or ceramic?) connected by a string. Oh the wallpaper and curtains are also hideous.
December 20, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Robdolph 🦌🎄
markauthor.bsky.social
It turns out the abyss was actually staring at someone it knows behind me. Embarrassing.
December 14, 2025 at 5:41 PM
robheighton.bsky.social
Roses are red,
All's fair in love and war,
Woman's shock as goose smashes through front door (it's a BBC News headline, accompanied by an image of the offending goose doing the offending smashing)
December 20, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Robdolph 🦌🎄
ahistoryinart.bsky.social
'Farm on a Hillside,' (1914) is a superb piece of pictorial design by John Nash. He typically used trees to articulate space and unify a painting in an overall pattern; the clarity of drawing and controlled use of colour add to this painting's appeal.
December 19, 2025 at 3:08 PM