Boasting and Gloves: Some Thoughts on Hondscio, Grendel’s Forgotten Victim
I’ve taught Beowulf to undergraduates for a number of years now, covering a wide range of topics, from the ‘hellish’ nature of the natural environment and the social role of gift-giving, to the...
View ArticleFrom Beatus to Buffy: A Few Notes on the Mouth of Hell
It’s been twenty years since Buffy the Vampire Slayer first hit the airwaves. As a child, I thought the fact that Sunnydale High School was located atop a ‘hellmouth’ – a portal to the demonic realms –...
View ArticleBrief Update: Revenants and Alchemical Monsters
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve made any updates. Real life has the habit of getting in the way. Just to keep the engine turning over, I thought I’d provide a couple of links to blog posts I put...
View ArticlePublications Galore
Once again, life has kinda gotten in the way of doing any blog updates in recent months. Hopefully things will get a little less hectic in the near future, but in the meantime I thought I’d take the...
View ArticleWilliam of Malmesbury and the Witch of Berkeley
Ask any medievalist to name a famous witch and odds are that the Witch of Berkeley will figure high in someone’s list. First appearing as a digression in William of Malmesbury’s Gesta regum Anglorum...
View ArticleNew Publication
Happy to announce the publication of my new article, ‘Necromancy for the Masses? A Printed Version of the Compendiun Magiae Innaturalis Nigrae’, in the journal Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft. As you may...
View ArticleEvent Horizon and Medieval Demonology
I am not ashamed to admit that I absolutely adore the film Event Horizon (1997, dir. Paul W. S. Anderson). The tale of a spaceship – the eponymous Event Horizon – reappearing seven years after going...
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Arise, Blog (also: I have a new book)
Well, it’s been a long time since I last posted here. A lot has happened since March 2019, after which life kind of got in the way. The biggest news was the publication of my first monograph,...
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Sleep and the Herbal Tradition – a blog for the JRRI
Fig 1. Title Page, ‘A Boke of the Properties of Herbes’ (1548), Medical (pre-1701 collection) 318, John Rylands Library. Manchester Alongside the publication of my book, in 2019-20 I spent a pleasant...
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What’s in a name? The Enduring Influence of the Eighteenth-Century Vampire Craze
With Halloween just round the corner, my thoughts turn to what to write for a spooky-season blog post. As someone whose major research interests reside in the cultural history of the supernatural,...
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