Sin Eaters and Walking Corpses in Welsh Folk Belief: A Brief Note
As many of you may be aware, my main area of interest lies in the cultural history of the walking corpse. I’m especially fascinated by medieval accounts of the marauding, troublesome dead. I’ve...
View ArticleAn Alchemical Miscellany from the John Rylands Library
The horror film As Above, So Below (dir. Dowdle, 2011) taps into the popular perception of alchemy as a mysterious, decedent, unnatural art. Delving deep into the Parisian catacombs in an attempt...
View ArticleEmotions and Vampires
Hi Folks, I’ve been surprisingly busy over the last few weeks, hence a lack of posts. In the meantime I just thought I’d direct you to an essay on vampires I wrote for the Inner Lives: Emotions,...
View ArticleBoasting 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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