Sheryl McDonald
@sherylmcd.bsky.social
Senior Researcher/Assoc. Prof. at the Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, University of Copenhagen. Language, literature, manuscripts, lexicography. From the west coast of Canada to Denmark.
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
The collocation 'greiða atróðr' (row hard, especially for an attack at sea) is common in the sagas, and is also found in ch. 65 of the Saga of the Earls of Orkney. 🧵 3/3 onp.ku.dk/onp/onp.php?...
ONP: greiða vb.
ONP: greiða vb. - all information in the dictionary about the headword
onp.ku.dk
September 16, 2025 at 8:39 AM
The collocation 'greiða atróðr' (row hard, especially for an attack at sea) is common in the sagas, and is also found in ch. 65 of the Saga of the Earls of Orkney. 🧵 3/3 onp.ku.dk/onp/onp.php?...
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
... 'You will also not want that said of you that you lie here like a cat in a pile of stones'. Kálfr takes the hint and both of them 'greiddu atróðr' (rowed harder). They had some success but the battle was inconclusive in the end. 🧵 2/3
September 16, 2025 at 8:39 AM
... 'You will also not want that said of you that you lie here like a cat in a pile of stones'. Kálfr takes the hint and both of them 'greiddu atróðr' (rowed harder). They had some success but the battle was inconclusive in the end. 🧵 2/3
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
In ch. 26 of the Saga of the Earls of Orkney, Þorfinnr's attack on Rǫgnvaldr Brúsason in the Pentland Firth was not going well, so he goaded his ally and kinsman-by-marriage Kálfr Árnason into supporting him with a curious comparison ... 🧵1/3
atróðr (sb. m.): 23 cits, e.g. rowing (at sth.) (often for the purpose of an attack) // roning (hen imod ngt) (ofte i fjendtlig hensigt) ‘skolum ver leýsa skip var aull ok ueíta atróðr flota konungs’ (Jvs in Holm perg 7 4°) onp.ku.dk/o5466 #OldNorse
September 16, 2025 at 8:39 AM
In ch. 26 of the Saga of the Earls of Orkney, Þorfinnr's attack on Rǫgnvaldr Brúsason in the Pentland Firth was not going well, so he goaded his ally and kinsman-by-marriage Kálfr Árnason into supporting him with a curious comparison ... 🧵1/3
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
The web applications for ONP continue to be unstable. This appears to be due to continuing unprecedented demand on the services that run on these servers. (We've been monitoring the situation and since yesterday there are on average over 30 connections to the database every second!)
July 2, 2025 at 9:15 AM
The web applications for ONP continue to be unstable. This appears to be due to continuing unprecedented demand on the services that run on these servers. (We've been monitoring the situation and since yesterday there are on average over 30 connections to the database every second!)
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
A bizarre runic carving in northern Ontario. Not medieval, but younger, 1800s, the Lord’s Prayer carved in bedrock, possibly by a Swedish worker of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and buried under inches of topsoil. Good article.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Mysterious carving found in northern Ontario wilderness | CBC News
Seven years after it was discovered in the northern Ontario bush near the town of Wawa, a carving in the bedrock remains an archaeological, mystery. But plans are in the works to develop it into a tou...
www.cbc.ca
June 18, 2025 at 7:31 AM
A bizarre runic carving in northern Ontario. Not medieval, but younger, 1800s, the Lord’s Prayer carved in bedrock, possibly by a Swedish worker of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and buried under inches of topsoil. Good article.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
Runologist Henrik Williams, quoted in the article, has also done a lot of work on other North American runic finds, see some other examples here: www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/di...
June 18, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Runologist Henrik Williams, quoted in the article, has also done a lot of work on other North American runic finds, see some other examples here: www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/di...
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
The Dictionary of Old Norse Prose is a lexicographical miracle, so it’s frustrating to read that LLM web crawlers are rendering its website harder to use.
Our web services are experiencing very heavy demand at the moment, which is at times overloading the servers. We should get an upgrade soon but until then you may experience downtime.
June 12, 2025 at 7:46 AM
The Dictionary of Old Norse Prose is a lexicographical miracle, so it’s frustrating to read that LLM web crawlers are rendering its website harder to use.
Very interesting (if also frustrating!) to see knock on effects of gen AI’s increased use on other websites/internet resources such as the Dictionary of Old Norse Prose…
While I (Tarrin) appreciate ChatGPT's interest in Old Norse, it is causing headaches for us and shows that the much-touted increase in energy and resource usage in the AI era has flow-on effects to other infrastructures, such as ONP's, which previously have been fairly energy-efficient.
June 12, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Very interesting (if also frustrating!) to see knock on effects of gen AI’s increased use on other websites/internet resources such as the Dictionary of Old Norse Prose…
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
If you're interested, the main culprit seems to be ChatGPT's web crawler. This hasn't been a problem with other web crawlers such as Google, Bing, etc. The difference seems to be that web searches aren't particularly interested in very slow, data-heavy pages.
June 12, 2025 at 6:24 AM
If you're interested, the main culprit seems to be ChatGPT's web crawler. This hasn't been a problem with other web crawlers such as Google, Bing, etc. The difference seems to be that web searches aren't particularly interested in very slow, data-heavy pages.
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
Our web services are experiencing very heavy demand at the moment, which is at times overloading the servers. We should get an upgrade soon but until then you may experience downtime.
June 12, 2025 at 6:24 AM
Our web services are experiencing very heavy demand at the moment, which is at times overloading the servers. We should get an upgrade soon but until then you may experience downtime.
I got this letter today too. Very saddened to see this takeover :(
Amsterdam University Press is sending out letters today notifying series editors and authors that they have been taken over – or shall we say: annexed? – by Taylor & Francis. Not a good day. The evil empire of academic publishing is growing.
June 6, 2025 at 3:38 PM
I got this letter today too. Very saddened to see this takeover :(
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
Intensive PhD course Ecocritical Theory: Literature, Culture and Environment
www.uia.no/om-uia/fakul...
At the University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway, 26–28 November 2025. Can be taken as a 2 or 5 ECTS course.
Registration open now.
#envhum #ecocrit
www.uia.no/om-uia/fakul...
At the University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway, 26–28 November 2025. Can be taken as a 2 or 5 ECTS course.
Registration open now.
#envhum #ecocrit
Ecocritical Theory: Literature, Culture and Environment
- Universitetet i Agder
Les denne saken på UiAs nettsider.
www.uia.no
June 5, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Intensive PhD course Ecocritical Theory: Literature, Culture and Environment
www.uia.no/om-uia/fakul...
At the University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway, 26–28 November 2025. Can be taken as a 2 or 5 ECTS course.
Registration open now.
#envhum #ecocrit
www.uia.no/om-uia/fakul...
At the University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway, 26–28 November 2025. Can be taken as a 2 or 5 ECTS course.
Registration open now.
#envhum #ecocrit
“Smoke from Canadian forest fires can be seen in the sky over Denmark”
Tonight I noticed the sky was hazy and the sun bright orangey-red as it was about to set and it reminded me of forest fire season back in Canada. Turns out that was exactly what it was 😢
Tonight I noticed the sky was hazy and the sun bright orangey-red as it was about to set and it reminded me of forest fire season back in Canada. Turns out that was exactly what it was 😢
Røg fra canadiske skovbrande kan ses på himlen over Danmark
En grumset himmel og en rødere solnedgang viser, at røg fra canadiske skovbrande har nået Nordeuropa.
politiken.dk
June 3, 2025 at 7:26 PM
“Smoke from Canadian forest fires can be seen in the sky over Denmark”
Tonight I noticed the sky was hazy and the sun bright orangey-red as it was about to set and it reminded me of forest fire season back in Canada. Turns out that was exactly what it was 😢
Tonight I noticed the sky was hazy and the sun bright orangey-red as it was about to set and it reminded me of forest fire season back in Canada. Turns out that was exactly what it was 😢
Nice walk yesterday morning to have a peek at Bølgen (The Wave) apartments in Vejle.
May 24, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Nice walk yesterday morning to have a peek at Bølgen (The Wave) apartments in Vejle.
Great day so far at Nordic Lexicography Conference
May 21, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Great day so far at Nordic Lexicography Conference
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
Og sidste på panelen har vi redaktør og leder i ONP Tarrin Wills: “Den digitale brug af præskriptiv normalisering i en historisk ordbog” (The digital use of prescriptive normalisation in a historical dictionary)
May 21, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Og sidste på panelen har vi redaktør og leder i ONP Tarrin Wills: “Den digitale brug af præskriptiv normalisering i en historisk ordbog” (The digital use of prescriptive normalisation in a historical dictionary)
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
Nu fra ONPs redaktører Simonetta Battista og Johnny Lindholm, “ONP som deskriptiv og præskriptiv ressource” (ONP as a descriptive and prescriptive resource)
May 21, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Nu fra ONPs redaktører Simonetta Battista og Johnny Lindholm, “ONP som deskriptiv og præskriptiv ressource” (ONP as a descriptive and prescriptive resource)
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
Nu begynder det første panel. Vi starter med Ellert Þór Jóhannsson, “Uformelle ord i Blöndals ordbog: En undersøgelse af ‘populær, daglig tale’” (Informal words in Blöndal’s dictionary: an investigation of ‘popular, everyday speech’)
May 21, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Nu begynder det første panel. Vi starter med Ellert Þór Jóhannsson, “Uformelle ord i Blöndals ordbog: En undersøgelse af ‘populær, daglig tale’” (Informal words in Blöndal’s dictionary: an investigation of ‘popular, everyday speech’)
Off to an early start today! Heading to Vejle in Jutland by train with my Dictionary colleagues for conference of the Nordisk forening for leksikografi (Nordic Lexicography Association)
May 21, 2025 at 5:05 AM
Off to an early start today! Heading to Vejle in Jutland by train with my Dictionary colleagues for conference of the Nordisk forening for leksikografi (Nordic Lexicography Association)
Reposted by Sheryl McDonald
Great to see this fascinating research published - congrats to Élodie Lévêque, @matthewcollins.bsky.social et al.
A series of Medieval books was bound in sealskin, possibly because the Cistercian monks just liked the color, new research reveals. 🧪🏺
Medieval monks bound these 'hairy books' in sealskin imported by Norse traders, study finds
A scientific analysis of dozens of 12th- and 13th-century books found in European monasteries reveals they were bound in sealskins procured by Norse traders from as far away as Greenland.
www.livescience.com
April 9, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Great to see this fascinating research published - congrats to Élodie Lévêque, @matthewcollins.bsky.social et al.
This sounds like a great citizen science opportunity in the humanities/history/paleography!
📢 Exciting news to end the week - we are hosting an online transcribathon on Friday 25th April! All are welcome to transcribe fascinating C18th letters. Zoom rooms will also be open for sharing tips, questions and interesting finds. Please share and join us! 📝
transcribathon.eventbrite.com
transcribathon.eventbrite.com
March 24, 2025 at 2:58 PM
This sounds like a great citizen science opportunity in the humanities/history/paleography!
I think I might be a winter bather now?? 😱
March 22, 2025 at 2:35 PM
I think I might be a winter bather now?? 😱
Female scribes! Putting this on my reading list!
March 12, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Female scribes! Putting this on my reading list!
Old Norse word of the day for the first day of Lent: fasta
fasta (sb. f.): 148 cits, e.g. fasting, fast, hunger, (in penance) fasting, (religious) fast, period of fasting ‘Nv ero þæir fleiri dagar er med ymvssum fasttvm oc helgum græinazst’ (GulKrN in Holm perg 29 4°) onp.ku.dk/o19598 #OldNorse
March 5, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Old Norse word of the day for the first day of Lent: fasta