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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss
@lucyallengoss.bsky.social
900 followers 890 following 330 posts
Medievalist, feminist, dabbles in horticulture. Writing more and more about infertility/reproduction. Yorkshire. https://lucyallengoss.substack.com/ My book is Female Desire in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women and Middle English Romance
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Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · 1d
Yes, and they were shorter anyway (my parents still have a rural phone number that's a digit shorter than all automated forms expected it to be, and I remember both times it acquired new digits).
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Reposted by Lucy Allen-Goss
louiestowell.bsky.social
Louie Stowell @louiestowell.bsky.social · 1d
The ancient ones performed feats of memory, as their culture required them to commit long strings of numbers to their mind palaces.
bleary.off-the-records.com
bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 2d
If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.
Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing? 2? Questions I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up. Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · 5d
I know - hence the 'now I've got your attention' bit. It's a bit of a running joke amongst medievalists that people think witch-burning was a medieval thing.
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · 5d
Did you know they burned witches in medieval times?

Right, now I've got your attention, here's some *actual* medieval witching - and it is entirely adorable, if slightly smutty.

lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/what-the-w...
What the Witch and her Cow-Sucking Bag can tell us about Early Modern Misogyny
Medieval witch stories, and a literary grandmother for the Wife of Bath
lucyallengoss.substack.com
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · 6d
The Witch and her Cow-Sucking Bag is, and always will be, the best ever medieval witch story. lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/what-the-w...
What the Witch and her Cow-Sucking Bag can tell us about Early Modern Misogyny
Medieval witch stories, and a literary grandmother for the Wife of Bath
lucyallengoss.substack.com
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · 7d
This looks excellent.
rcpsgheritage.bsky.social
RCPSG Heritage @rcpsgheritage.bsky.social · 12d
Daemonologie: A King's Obsession with Witches 🧙‍♀️

Join us and author Steve Veerapen, for an intriguing evening exploring how a king's paranoia stoked the fear that the devil was stalking early 17th Century Scotland!

📆Thursday 30 October 2025
🕙7pm GMT
🎫£10

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/daemonolog...
Title page from King James VI & I's book on Daemonologie
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · 10d
Some of them are, though apparently it's not a good idea as there's an acid in them that really ought to be cooked. NB, I discovered this several years ago, *after* my toddler munched handfuls. She suffered no ill effects. :D
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · 10d
So satisfying!
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · 11d
*Want*
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · 11d
New post meandering around nostalgia, and food, and Eamon Duffy on memory and loss.
lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/dill-sour-...
Dill, Sour Cream, and Memories
The wind is getting up again now.
lucyallengoss.substack.com
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · 12d
Lovely! Thank you. :D
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · Sep 15
Snarking at Greenblatt's Marlowe. But also, Cynthia Harnett doing (so I am assured) an extremely accurate, lovely depiction of a fifteenth-century boy enjoying writing in Latin. lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/breaking-b...
'Breaking Bread with the Dead': Marlowe, Greenblatt, and Living Latin
‘Breaking bread with the dead, sir, it’s what we do.’ The speaker in Alan Bennett’s History Boys (the 2006 film of the 2004 play) is 18-year-old Akhtar, en route to Oxbridge, entirely convinced of his...
lucyallengoss.substack.com
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Reposted by Lucy Allen-Goss
lauratisdall.bsky.social
Laura Tisdall @lauratisdall.bsky.social · Sep 15
New blog post: some recent reading reviewed, from Booker-shortlisted historical fiction to 70s SF to a forthcoming literary novella drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2025/09/15/r... #booksky
Reading Diary, September 5th to September 13th, 2025
Graeme Macrae Burnet, His Bloody Project. This Booker-shortlisted novel purports to be a collection of papers concerning a (fictional) notorious murder case; in 1869, a seventeen-year-old crofter c…
drlauratisdall.wordpress.com
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · Sep 14
This is a reflection on Greenblatt's Marlowe biography, and a medievalist's take on his presentation of grammar school Latin. I do think he misunderstands some of the joy that might underpin Marlowe's plays. lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/breaking-b...
'Breaking Bread with the Dead': Marlowe, Greenblatt, and Living Latin
‘Breaking bread with the dead, sir, it’s what we do.’ The speaker in Alan Bennett’s History Boys (the 2006 film of the 2004 play) is 18-year-old Akhtar, en route to Oxbridge, entirely convinced of his...
lucyallengoss.substack.com
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · Sep 8
Ooh! I shall look forward to it. And how appropriate!
lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · Sep 8
No idea! (What an inadequate medievalist am I?!). But I will go look; thank you!
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · Sep 8
How wonderful!
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · Sep 8
Ha! It does. And if you do, please let me know?
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · Sep 8
It should, shouldn't it?!
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · Sep 8
Ha! Don't all the best things include the humours? (Actually, I would *love* to see a medieval reference to how the humours affect us drunk and sober ...).
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · Sep 8
Thanks!
lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · Sep 8
It is a bit late. But no harm! I'll have a browse.
lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · Sep 8
I know, right?! :D I actually posted this question on behalf of a friend, and 10 minutes in I thought 'ah, this one is going to run and run'. Good times.
lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · Sep 8
I'm really going for medieval, if possible. I think the Porter is drunk rather than hungover?
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lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Lucy Allen-Goss @lucyallengoss.bsky.social · Sep 8
Ale-killed! Wonderful! Thank you so much.
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