tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62213572009-11-07T12:30:16.916-12:00Like a clean cow chewing cud...so Bede describes the poet Caedmon. This blog is a place to report news, calls for papers, news items, and other things of interest to the Late Antique, Patristic, Early Medieval, and Book Arts folk and to just chat about things medieval. Also see other blogs at <a href="http://theheroicage.blogspot.com/">The Heroic Age</a> and <a href="http://modernmedieval.blogspot.com/">Modern Medieval</a>.theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.comBlogger193125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-13110161837373549682009-10-30T16:59:00.003-12:002009-10-30T17:01:02.632-12:00

From the folks at io9 the sci-fi blog comes this comment on the future of the professorate: http://io9.com/5391566/the-internets-already-killed-the-mainstream-media-and-its-academics-turn-next. Prescient perhaps, but much has already been discussed here, at Modern Medieval, In the Middle, the Chronicle of Higher Ed, Inside Higher Ed...etc. Interesting though that some of the things we've all

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-16669816311929722142009-10-30T01:14:00.002-12:002009-10-30T01:18:11.998-12:00

As usual this time of year, I'm overwhelmed with things to do, so posting and even thinking about stuff and things has just not happened. But I thought I'd share a link to an article from Inside Higher Ed Favorite Spouse printed for me and I read on the train. It's very interesting and articulates much of my own feelings about the move to for-profit education and learning as a commodity and the

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-10168135344438800252009-10-12T11:53:00.001-12:002009-10-12T11:53:00.764-12:00

Believe it or not, I began the following on 8/15, when I was in danger of becoming caught up on posts in queue. For what it's worh, here it is.Several items over the last year have come across the proverbial desktop(s) concerning publishing and the needs and concerns of academic publishing especially as related to online publishing. One in particular came up a few months ago as Matt Gabriele

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-20424740486498962412009-10-04T18:15:00.003-12:002009-10-05T04:12:59.263-12:00

Over on the Facebook group wall for International Congress on Medieval Studies, Eve Salisbury wrote and queried: Yesterday at a meeting of MI faculty, the director told us that some people out there think the Congress has deteriorated in quality; some even call it (according to the report) "looney." Of course, I think that's a characterization worth developing, but I'm wondering what the members

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-8839435187052474612009-09-20T05:47:00.003-12:002009-09-20T05:58:00.135-12:00

Well, trying to complete two papers and prepare for the job market, so posting, answering emails and the like have taken a back seat. But I had an winsome embarrassment recently I thought I'd post.I have a friend earning her PhD at a foreign uni thousands of miles away. I do not know her adviser or this adviser's work. But my friend is doing a chapter on Aelfric....and adviser suggested that

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-49316590829395827242009-09-07T07:34:00.002-12:002009-09-07T11:09:07.981-12:00

Hello. Its been a bit since I've updated. I do have a few things in the drafts, but life has been interrupted by the need to complete a long overdue paper for a collection and write a second for another collection due VERY VERY SOON plus some other projects hanging out there--not to mention Heroic Age 13, papers coming for HA 14 and 15, Congress 2010 abstract, Years Work in Old English Studies

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-45279648930093681242009-08-10T10:06:00.001-12:002009-08-10T10:13:30.006-12:00

Well, another post that took about two weeks. Last week was not my most productive I have to say, but I'm back in the saddle so to speak and so offer this meditation...probably cutting off my nose to spite my face by doing so.Way back when there was a discussion about The Man of Law's Tale on In the Middle that generated a bit of discussion. One of the things that I suggested in the comments

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-71679676908204588812009-07-27T03:59:00.000-12:002009-07-27T08:59:15.605-12:00

So this past week I've received news from 2 places that I will not be working at those places. Well, more than 2, but those 2 are academic jobs I wanted, rather than mundane jobs I need. And yes, the distinction is a purposeful one and I mean it.Both were very gracious in their rejections of my candidacy. One I was close. I was their second choice and I was told in the end what made the

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-27379138011297925662009-07-25T16:52:00.000-12:002009-07-25T16:52:00.475-12:00

To follow up my post about Codex Boernerianus and its fascinating contents, I offer the following bibliography, hopefully it will help.On the manuscript itself:The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts has images of the manuscript from a facsimile made I believe in 1909.The SLUB Dresden Digitale Bibliothek has some new images of it.The rather excellent Encyclopedia of New Testament

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-9716527538584917642009-07-21T16:53:00.000-12:002009-07-21T16:53:00.250-12:00

I mentioned a week or so ago the passing of Martin Hengel. Here is a moving tribute to him. And Gospel.Net, not a site I'd really known before, has translations and images of a lot of extra canonical gospels. In some cases, they simply have links to other sites; in other cases they have English translations, and in a few cases they have links to images of the papyri/manuscripts! So if you're

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-25412882512285072042009-07-16T06:55:00.000-12:002009-07-17T08:19:38.942-12:00

As regular passers-by know, I'm interested somewhat avidly in the Adventus period. One of the issues of that period has been what happened to the Celtic speakers so that few Celtic words became part of Old English. The old model of course was that the English came in and pushed the Celts west to Wales and Cornwall, north into Scotland, and off the island to Brittany. That view has been

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-59859087486310872132009-07-14T07:23:00.001-12:002009-07-15T05:07:10.603-12:00

As most are aware by now, Codex Sinaiticus is online now. Since it's been in the news frequently the last couple of weeks, enough to crash the servers once news was released, there have been many reports on it in the media. Dan Wallace of Dallas Theological Seminary, and far more interesting and important to me, of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) has collated

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-31241785967386115952009-07-10T06:03:00.003-12:002009-07-12T06:55:37.393-12:00

I'm a bit late on some of this, but here goes:First, I found out this week that I am but a second choice for a position I had applied for and some one else will be filling the bill. Congratulations to that person whomever he or she may be. Second, Martin Hengel died last week, Thursday I think, after a bout with cancer at age 82. Hengel was instrumental in Second Temple Judaism, Christian

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-17456628997070151122009-07-06T08:52:00.000-12:002009-07-06T08:52:00.347-12:00

Returning to the series at last, I'd like to introduce you to Codex Boernerianus. Now the two of you reading this might be thinking, "Hey, that's not "literature", its a manuscript. Swain, you ruminate you, you're stretching the meaning of literature here." And you wouldn't be wrong to say so. But this codex is of interest for several literary reasons.Boernerianus is a ninth century diglot (

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-46434467461200783282009-07-03T04:36:00.000-12:002009-07-03T04:37:34.024-12:00

The CFP for Congress 2010 seems to be up. http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/Assets/pdf/congress/Sessions10.pdf

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-29537689842964463562009-06-30T07:49:00.002-12:002009-06-30T07:55:16.467-12:00

I'm hoping to enlist your help. I'm generating headwords for an upcoming encyclopedia from Brill on NW Europe in the period 400-1100. I'll likely be posting other groups of headwords and asking for input and even a reader or two (dozen?)to contribute articles. Anyway, the headwords may be found here: headwords for Languages and Linguistics and related matters; just send comments to larsprec@

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-19937096894864221772009-06-29T05:36:00.000-12:002009-06-29T05:36:01.083-12:00

I've been reading a book about Capt. Cook that I referred to in an earlier post and when I finish the book, I will post here a bit more. Ok, so I've also just finished The University in Ruins which will earn a post over at Modern Medieval, but I digress. Anyway, I like Bede. I like thinking about Bede, and early Anglo-Saxon England, writing about Bede and early Anglo-Saxon England, talking

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-40303986095581997282009-06-26T02:00:00.000-12:002009-06-26T07:58:47.850-12:00

I mentioned awhile back reading Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide and made some comments on its contents and usefulness. I read somewhere in the long ago, in the before time, either by or about C. S. Lewis that for every modern book one reads, one should read an old work. Especially in my reading for my chosen profession, I try to keep this as a rule of thumb: for every scholarly

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-70146285444966846272009-06-18T17:10:00.003-12:002009-06-18T17:46:31.342-12:00

So....this might be a long shot. But I was reading my daily dose of the Bestaria Latina Blog and noted that one of today's proverbs is: Induis me leonis exuvium...you dress me in a lion's skin....This is from Erasmus' Adagia and he there gives it two interpretations, one from myth, the other on fable. In mythology, Hercules is depicted draped in a lion's skin: the first task of Hercules' 12 was

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-50856328187233249832009-06-13T10:57:00.000-12:002009-06-13T10:08:11.285-12:00

There are some texts that one returns to again and again. For me, Boethius' Consolatio is one of them. I first encountered this work in undergrad, lo, these many years ago, and have returned to it periodically over the years, both personally and professionally.I recently returned to the text after some 5-6 years since I've really looked at it, using this time the Penguin translation. Back in

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-31634259604028122172009-06-12T04:07:00.001-12:002009-06-12T04:07:41.453-12:00

Please forward the following:The Editorial Board of The Heroic Age is very pleased to announce the publication of our twelfth issue. Point your browsers to http://www.heroicage.org and click on "Current Issue." Information elsewhere on the site has also been updated including the staff, links pages, and the Call for Papers. Please take a look; comments are always welcome. I have taken the

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-40976834460107795772009-06-07T08:58:00.001-12:002009-06-07T10:56:34.434-12:00

Way back a long, long time ago now, I introduced Within, aka as De quodam piscatore quem ballena absorbuit. I eventually followed it up with some discussion that suggested that the Latin poem written by Letaldus may actually be a lost Old English piece of literature. I close off my dear Within poem with the following bibliography. It certainly isn't a vast collection of works, nor is the

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-91472393468916941172009-05-29T16:10:00.000-12:002009-05-29T16:10:00.066-12:00

I've mentioned previously that I'm working my way slowly through the readings in E. V. Gordon's An Introduction to Old Norse. I know a few Tolkienistas occasionally check in here who are not otherwise medievalists, so I'll mention that just in case the Gordon name rings a bell that he was a friend, colleague, and collaborator with Tolkien. Gordon was tutored by Tolkien in 1920, and then

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-81030748418079743632009-05-29T08:01:00.002-12:002009-05-29T08:05:54.172-12:00

I have another post almost ready to go, but while the two of you who read this wait with o, such bated breath for the pearls of my wisdom, I thought I'd share this gem from McSweeneys titled Norse Spirituals.

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6221357.post-6438002374049132392009-05-25T07:52:00.002-12:002009-05-25T08:09:57.394-12:00

At long last catching up on some posts. This is a strange set of coincidences that only has a smidge of medieval content, but here goes anyway.I'm reading a book recommended by Favorite Spouse, in fact she made me promise that once the diss was done and in that this was the book that I would read. Well, I did promise, though I didn't actually start any book until pretty recently, and I'm now

theswainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537larsprec@gmail.com0