Dr Evelyn Koch
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evelynkoch.bsky.social
Dr Evelyn Koch
@evelynkoch.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.1K following 730 posts
Early modern/19th-cent. English literature, science and literature, landscape in literature, fantasy, horror and weird fiction.
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Dr Evelyn Koch @evelynkoch.bsky.social · Oct 30
The latest Hither Shore is out now! Not only does it contain articles on the volume's topic #Tolkien and his editors, but various Tolkien editors reflect on their own experiences of editing Tolkien's works.
💙📚 #fantasy #lit #littwiss
Photo of the cover of Hither Shore Vol. 21 on the topic Tolkien and his Editors (Tolkien und seine Herausgeber:innen). The cover is orange and white and features an illustration of a shore by Anke Eißmann. The book stands upright on a board featuring the ring design, and a mini Bilbo sits in front of the book.
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
profastreete.bsky.social
Some monsters and prodigies to end the week (from Paré’s ‘Opera’, 1582).
Some monsters and prodigies to end the week (from Paré’s ‘Opera’, 1582). Some monsters and prodigies to end the week (from Paré’s ‘Opera’, 1582). Some monsters and prodigies to end the week (from Paré’s ‘Opera’, 1582). Some monsters and prodigies to end the week (from Paré’s ‘Opera’, 1582).
November 28, 2025 at 10:41 AM
evelynkoch.bsky.social
You do forget sometimes that there are also oddly funny bits in #ThomasHardy. Giles' party going all wrong in The Woodlanders could've been a sitcom episode.
And note the survival of the belief in spontaneous generation.
Still, I don’t deny I’m afeard some things didn’t go well with He and his.” Creedle nodded in a direction which signified where the Melburys lived. “I’m afraid, too, that it was a failure there!” “If so, ’twere doomed to be so. Not but what that slug might as well have come upon anybody else’s plate as hers.” “What slug?” “Well, maister, there was a little one upon the edge of her plate when I brought it out; and so it must have been in her few leaves of wintergreen.” “How the deuce did a slug get there?” “That I don’t know no more than the dead; but there my gentleman was.” “But, Robert, of all places, that was where he shouldn’t have been!” “Well, ’twas his native home, come to that; and where else could we expect him to be? I don’t care who the man is, slugs and caterpillars always will lurk in close to the stump of cabbages in that tantalizing way.” “He wasn’t alive, I suppose?” said Giles, with a shudder on Grace’s account. “Oh no. He was well boiled. I warrant him well boiled. God forbid that a live slug should be seed on any plate of victuals that’s served by Robert Creedle.... But Lord, there; I don’t mind ’em myself—them small ones, for they were born on cabbage, and they’ve lived on cabbage, so they must be made of cabbage. But she, the close-mouthed little lady, she didn’t say a word about it; though ’twould have made good small conversation as to the nater of such creatures; especially as wit ran short among us sometimes.”
November 28, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
oewordhord.bsky.social
fen-līc, adj: fenlike, marshy. (FEN-leech / ˈfɛn-liːtʃ)
#OldEnglish #WOTD
November 28, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
anatomicalcat.bsky.social
One of the absolute highlights of my trip to Ingolstadt in September was seeing the exhibition ´Ansichtssache’ (a matter of perspective) at the German Medical History Museum. It showed the knitted anatomy of Katharina Sabernig, and I can’t say how much I loved it!
À knitted version of the large intestine and mesentery in blues and oranges
November 27, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
dbellingradt.bsky.social
Good historians know that being a true German Protestant pamphletist in #earlymodern Europe included making pejorative jokes with sausage-content to vilify Catholic clergy.

Like this "Ja, ein Leberwurst" comment in a marginalia next to a passage cited from disliked Catholic sermon #skystorians
The marginalia "Ja ein Leber-Wurst". A page from a book titled "Centuria Tertia, Das ist Das dritte Hundert Der Außerwehlten grossen Unverschämbten Feisten Wolgemesten Erstunckenen Papistischen Lüge...", published 1616 in Gießen, Germany, with the liver sausage marginalia. Source: https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb11020770?page=139
November 27, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
karlgalle.bsky.social
All of this thread, plus a favorite example from my own research: a computer transcription would pick up the "correct" signature of one of my guys writing his code name in a secret message but not the fact that underneath it he had (oops) accidentally started to sign his real name.
Image of a manuscript letter in which Fabian von Lossainen, who is spying on Nicolaus Copernicus, accidentally starts to sign his real name with a flamboyant "F" (indicated by a red arrow added in the image) before realizing, "oh shit, I'm supposed to be using my code name for this letter, but I really can't be bothered to rewrite the whole thing" and therefore tries to overwrite the "F" with a signature of "H[ans] Liliental".
November 27, 2025 at 6:19 AM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
tolkienseminardtg.bsky.social
The latest Hither Shore is out now! Not only does it contain articles on the volume's topic #Tolkien and his editors, but various Tolkien editors reflect on their own experiences of editing Tolkien's works.
📚💙 #fantasy #lit #littwiss
Photo of the cover of Hither Shore Vol. 21 on the topic Tolkien and his Editors (Tolkien und seine Herausgeber:innen). The cover is orange and white and features an illustration of a shore by Anke Eißmann. The book stands upright on a board featuring the ring design, and a mini Bilbo sits in front of the book.
October 30, 2025 at 4:22 PM
evelynkoch.bsky.social
In a forest near the Augustenruhe in Marburg, you can find little offerings under some tree roots which have been consistently placed there for years. On the left, the current state in autumn 2025; on the right, the same place in 2020. #WyrdWednesday
Close-up of a cavity beneath some tree roots in which various little offerings are placed to make it look like a home for tiny fairies. There's a wooden mushroom, a little doll, a sign saying 'Frühling' (spring) and various nuts and bits and pieces. Close-up of a cavity beneath some tree roots in which various little offerings are placed to make it look like a home for tiny fairies. There are acorns, felt dolls, fir cones and a wooden sign saying 'Höhle der Elfen/Zerge' (home of the elfs/dwarfs).
November 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
horrorlex.bsky.social
Mushroom horror, from H.P. Lovecraft to THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS and THE LAST OF US, is really having a moment. Karel Šima's "Fungi in popular culture reconsidered: Four more-than-human entanglements" is #openaccess from @ejcs-journal.bsky.social.
doi.org/10.1177/1367...
On the left, a screenshot of the article "Fungi in popular culture reconsidered: Four more-than-human entanglements" in plain text. On the right, an image from the 1963 film MATANGO (a.k.a. ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE) showing a man with ugly fungal outgrowths on his face standing menacingly in a doorway.
November 25, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
ronanhession.bsky.social
The Google AI search results are a bit like an Irish person giving directions. They might not know the answer but they're happy to give it a go and guess along with you.
November 24, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social
Saturday #morningread
#ThomasHardy
Have a restful and warm weekend
✨✨✨
From NATURE WRITING EVERYDAY OF THE YEAR, ed. Jane McMorland Hunter
November 22, 2025 at 7:45 AM
evelynkoch.bsky.social
Went to see Hamish Hawk tonight - a very intimate gig with several new songs. Their Hogmanay gig won't be in such a familiar setting...
Hamish Hawk and his band being intense on a small stage.
November 20, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
oewordhord.bsky.social
sprǣc-hūs, n.n: a house for speaking. (SPRATCH-HOOS / ˈspræːtʃ-ˌhuːs)
#OldEnglish #WOTD
November 20, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social
THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent trees I have met on walks.

You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.
A man I met high in the Peak District who, due to crimes he would not disclose to me, had been turned into two conjoined Sycamore trees by a coven of witches and condemned to spend eternity waving his useless branch hands at the cold, cruel sky.
November 19, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
germantolksoc.bsky.social
Der neue Hither Shore ist da, mit vielen spannenden Inhalten. Was euch erwartet, findet ihr hier:
www.tolkiengesellschaft.de
November 19, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
libraryaac.bsky.social
Green with envy 🌵, because our collection now houses this new 2025 "Cambridge Handbook of Literature & Plants"? No reason! Order the book, ed. by @bonnielj.bsky.social today from our library and explore the essays on #LiteraryStudies & #Ecocriticism & #EnvironmentalHumanities & #CulturalStudies
Holding the Cambridge Handbook of Literature and Plants in front of a wall overgrown with large green leaves
November 19, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
anatomicalcat.bsky.social
It was lovely to see homage to the Hunterian Museum’s Evelyn Tables in @realgdt.bsky.social Frankenstein. These four tables were made in Padua, taking arteries, veins and nerves dissected in Padua’s famous anatomical theatre, pasting them to boards and varnishing them to protect and preserve
The top half of a pine board with the human nervous system laid out
November 18, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
evelynkoch.bsky.social
Well hello!
Two swans are approaching the river bank. Behind them are various ducks. The photo of the river is framed by tree branches and the light of the dusk is reflected in the ripples on the water.
November 18, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
mattdenny.bsky.social
And of course the most important "inspired by Michael" creation, Tom Bombadil
Tom Bombadil was a well-known figure in the Tolkien family, for the character was based on a Dutch doll that belonged to Michael. The doll looked very splendid with the feather in its hat, but John did not like it and one day stuffed it down the lavatory. Tom was rescued and survived to become the hero of a poem by the children’s father, ‘The Adventures of Tom Bombadil’, which was published in the Oxford Magazine in 1934. It tells of Tom’s encounters with ‘Goldberry, the River-woman’s daughter’, with the ‘Old Man Willow’ which shuts him up in a crack of its bole…with a family of badgers, and with a ‘Barrow-wight’, a ghost from a prehistoric grave of the type found on the Berkshire Downs not far from Oxford. Humphery Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien, A Biography, “The Storyteller”
November 18, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
putriprihatini.bsky.social
In 1928, Tolkien drew "Owlamoo" to dispel his son Michael's night fear of sinister owl creature.

This was 3 years after he created Roverandom, a tale about a dog turned into a toy and went to adventures, to comfort Michael because he was sad from losing his toy dog. #TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday
A hand-drawn illustration of an owl with thick unibrow and feathers in colors of turquoise, orange, black, and white. The owl folded its wings at the front and looked up. There is a name "Owlamoo" at the bottom right and year 1928 at the bottom left.
November 18, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
profmhwhitworth.bsky.social
2025 marks the centenary of A.N. Whitehead’s Lowell Lectures, Science and the Modern World; 2026 the centenary of the first British edition.

Nick Gaskill and I are organising a panel on Whitehead, focused on SMW, for the MSA/BAMS conference in 2026, and are looking for an additional contributor.
Jacket of the Free Association Books edition
November 18, 2025 at 2:26 PM
evelynkoch.bsky.social
Well hello!
Two swans are approaching the river bank. Behind them are various ducks. The photo of the river is framed by tree branches and the light of the dusk is reflected in the ripples on the water.
November 18, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social
Tuesday #morningread
#ThomasHardy
From Autumn: A Folio Anthology, introduced by Kathleen Jamie, illustrated by Petra Börner.
November 18, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Reposted by Dr Evelyn Koch
drbeard79.bsky.social
Snazzy poster for our Brontë Studies CFP on Poetry (more details here: think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...)

Submit! Share! Please and thank you!
Brontë Studies Special Issue - Call for papers To Be Forever Known: The Brontes and Poetry Abstract deadline: 1 April 2026 Background: Brontë poetry in manuscript
November 17, 2025 at 5:22 PM
evelynkoch.bsky.social
Some modern standing stones for #StandingStoneSunday: this is an art installation in Newtonmore in the Cairngorns. You have to zoom in to see the individual carvings on the stones.

📷 from 2023
A photo of four standing stones that circle a smaller square stone in the middle which has a small hole in its centre. Each standing stone has individual carvings such as Ogham signs, a shark, and persons. Behind the standing stones, there are panels with short phrases on them.
November 16, 2025 at 9:21 AM