Steffen Hope
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hopesteffen.bsky.social
Steffen Hope
@hopesteffen.bsky.social
2.8K followers 780 following 5.5K posts
Norwegian medievalist, bibliophile, music lover and art enthusiast.

[Header: Valenciennes - BM - ms. 0320, f.120v]
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hopesteffen.bsky.social
Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · Dec 16
Some months ago, a collection of articles edited by Grzegorz Pac, myself, &Jón Viðar Sigurðsson was published by Brepols. The book is in open access, & can be found here: www.brepols.net/products/IS-....
Cover of the book, which features a medieval illumination. The illumination depicts King Wenceslas carrying a bowl to some nobles seated at a table. Behind the king, the archangel Michael appears, holding a spear in his left hand, and placing his right hand on Wenceslas' head in benediction. Wenceslas points backwards to the angel.
hopesteffen.bsky.social
I've been struck by this attitude in several works of utopian literature. The most glaring case is The Southern Land, Known (1676) by Gabriel de Foigny, in which giant hermaphrodite Australians have done away with all the insects in their country.
thierryaaron.bsky.social Dr. Aaron Thierry @thierryaaron.bsky.social · 1d
This passage shocked me to my core.

The loss of biodiversity isn't a tragic accident or oversight, it was the plan!
December 7, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
thierryaaron.bsky.social
This passage shocked me to my core.

The loss of biodiversity isn't a tragic accident or oversight, it was the plan!
December 6, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
parishchurches.org
Figurative Norman fonts in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Unwrapped.
December 7, 2025 at 12:38 PM
hopesteffen.bsky.social
Inside you there are two wolves, they say. Judging from the noises emitted from my stomach just now, inside me there's a stag in heat desparately trying to attract a doe.
December 6, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
daveaddison.bsky.social
I'm very happy to see that my new article on the martyrs of Zaragoza is out in this year's Traditio. Many thanks to the Traditio team, who were wonderful to work with! doi.org/10.1017/tdo....
THE ‘INNUMERABLE’ OF ZARAGOZA: A MARTYR CULT BETWEEN CITY AND MONASTERY | Traditio | Cambridge Core
THE ‘INNUMERABLE’ OF ZARAGOZA: A MARTYR CULT BETWEEN CITY AND MONASTERY - Volume 80
doi.org
December 5, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
enniusredloeb.bsky.social
An elephant for Friday
#ElephantonFriday
BnF MS Français 15213; 14th c; ff.82v, 92v @gallicabnf.bsky.social
December 5, 2025 at 5:39 PM
hopesteffen.bsky.social
I'm currently travelling through the fjords towards Bergen, & I am once again struck by my deep love for the Norwegian ferries. They enable us to take a break in our travels, get refreshments, & enjoy the scenery. It is an important bulwark against the hegemony of car culture.
In the foreground is the golden black surface of a fjord, with very small billows moving idly towards the photographer. Almost in the centre of the picture, the sunlight paves a road across the water, catching the crest of a low wave. In the background, a mountain-range is silhouetted against the golden sheen of the sun as it is in the process of being swallowed up by a long cloud. In the upper half of the photograph, puffy and steam-like clouds are layered in front of one another, seen gilded by the sunlight against a distant pale blue sky.
December 5, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
rmblf.bsky.social
Conférence (hybride) – Fernand Peloux, « Eulalie, Juste et Rufine. Écriture, réécriture et transmission des Passions de saintes de l’Hispanie antique »

rmblf.be/2025/12/05/c...
Conférence (hybride) – Fernand Peloux, « Eulalie, Juste et Rufine. Écriture, réécriture et transmission des Passions de saintes de l’Hispanie antique »
Fernand Peloux, « Eulalie, Juste et Rufine. Écriture, réécriture et transmission des Passions de saintes de l’Hispanie antique » Informations pratiques : 17 décembre 2025 Univ…
rmblf.be
December 5, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
petertarras.bsky.social
As a little treat for you, here's an #ArabicBible Advent calendar 🧵. Every day I'll post a verse from the Christmas story from one of the oldest Arabic Gospel lectionaries, Sinai ar. 72, dated 897 CE (and a few other texts in between). [2nd attempt, I won't be offended if you point out my nonsense.]
December 2, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
rmblf.bsky.social
Publication – « Hagiographica Wisigothica », éd. José Carlos Martín-Iglesias, Salvador Iranzo Abellán

rmblf.be/2025/12/04/p...
Publication – « Hagiographica Wisigothica », éd. José Carlos Martín-Iglesias, Salvador Iranzo Abellán
L’Espagne wisigothique n’a pas beaucoup cultivé le genre hagiographique. Le Corpus Christianorum a déjà publié quelques œuvres hagiographiques de cette époque, comme les Vitas ss. patrum Emeretensi…
rmblf.be
December 4, 2025 at 6:38 AM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
enniusredloeb.bsky.social
Eyeless in Gaza

BL Stowe 17; 'The Maastricht Hours'; 14th century; Liège; f.122v
December 3, 2025 at 4:19 PM
hopesteffen.bsky.social
Sadly an evergreen point in this ridiculous age.
mthrjo.bsky.social Jo Come, O Come Emmanuel. @mthrjo.bsky.social · 4d
I'm not denying that the anti-trans lobby contains some scary people, but sometimes you have to decide which side you're *really* on.
December 3, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
leedsims.bsky.social
If you are into sagas and poetry our next seminar is for you. Sign up to attend online: forms.office.com/e/ngg1zukWH3 More details at ahc.leeds.ac.uk/medieval/eve... #medievalsky #poetry #sagas #orkney #shetland #icelandic #northernisles #vikings @judithjesch.bsky.social @ragnasislands.bsky.social
Poster for a talk called Twisted Ribbons of Song: The Saga of the Earls of Orkney and poetry from or inspired by northern Scotland. Date: Tuesday 9 December, 5.30 pm, Baines Wing G36 (and online) Speakers Judith Jesch and Charlotte Eichler. Text: The medieval Icelandic Saga of the Earls of Orkney contains 82 stanzas composed from the tenth to the twelfth century by residents of and visitors to Orkney and Shetland. At this event, Judith Jesch, Professor of Viking Studies at Nottingham, will introduce the saga and its poetry and read selected examples in both Old Norse and her English versions. Award-winning Leeds-based poet Charlotte Eichler will read some of her published and unpublished poems inspired by the Saga and by visits to Orkney and Shetland as part of Judith’s Ragna’s Islands project. Photos of book cover of Judith's translation of the saga (which includes four Lewis chessmen) and picture of Charlotte on Fair Isle writing amidst stones and grass
December 3, 2025 at 12:01 PM
hopesteffen.bsky.social
Because these past few weeks have been rather miserable weatherwise, I'm reliving a tip from this summer, when I sought out a distant promontory in my native fjord, & had to row all the way back home due to trouble with the outboard engine.
View from the side of a fjord. IN the foreground, the slightly creased surface of the water reflects the verdure of the forested mountainside, with the blue of the sky is reflected in a small patch in the lower right-hand corner. In the middle of the picture, two promontories on either side of a small, shallow bay jut into the fjord. A gorge runs grey through the greenness, leading a stream of white water down to the farthest promontory, whose pebble beach gleams invitingly between the green of the foliage and the green of its reflection. The mountain tapers slowly towards the right side of the photograph, revealing a triangle of blue, cloudless sky in the right-hand corner of the picture.
December 3, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
andrewayton.bsky.social
Repost with #naval #maritime hashtags. Late medieval English naval history is abundantly documented and deserves to emerge from the shadows.
andrewayton.bsky.social Andrew Ayton @andrewayton.bsky.social · 5d
Naval records too - here, a crew list for the Magdaleyn of Ipswich from 1374.
TNA, E 101/32/29, no. 2.
I wrote about it in Anne Curry's Festschrift, published by @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social
boydellandbrewer.com/book/documen...
A narrow strip of parchment on which is written the names of the armed men, archers, mariners serving on the Magdaleyn of Ipswich in 1374.
December 2, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
jdmccafferty.bsky.social
Silver pfennig of #nuntastic Agnes II, Abbess of Quedlinburg c. 1148-1203 (British Museum)
December 2, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
enniusredloeb.bsky.social
Fr. Rufillus illuminator & scribe:

"Me, Myself, and I: the Story of Two Medieval Selfies" by @erikkwakkel.bsky.social
medievalbooks.nl/2018/09/20/m...

Cod. Bodmer 127; Passionary of Weissenau; 12th c; f.244r
Amiens, Bibliothèque municipale, Lescalopier 30; Ambrosius, Hexaemeron; 12th c; f.29v
December 2, 2025 at 9:20 PM
hopesteffen.bsky.social
The two sausage Scandinavians cancel each other out

- Greg Davies, Taskmaster S20E09
December 2, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
unsissel.bsky.social
Please share!
Two new postdoc positions have opened in the RADHEART project at the University of Bergen.
The first is on ancient Rabbinic literature from the 2nd – 7th century CE.

#AcRel #sblaar #AncientBlueSky

www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Study of Religion (289814) | University of Bergen
Job title: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Study of Religion (289814), Employer: University of Bergen, Deadline: Friday, March 6, 2026
www.jobbnorge.no
December 2, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
idatolgensbakk.bsky.social
Today I'm going to see a dragon! 🧵
#museumlife
Heraldic shield of Skiptvedt (municipality in Eastern Norway). The shield is a silver dragon on red background.
December 2, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
enniusredloeb.bsky.social
'A'(dam protoplastus et colonus paradisi, princeps humani generis et delicti, ad imaginem Dei factus, universitati praelatus, qui creaturis nomina dedit..)

BnF MS Latin 1906; Various including S. Isidorus Hispalensis, De Ortu et Obitu Patrum; 12th century; f.67r @gallicabnf.bsky.social
December 1, 2025 at 9:07 PM
hopesteffen.bsky.social
I have been following Ann's work for nearly a decade, & it has been incredibly rewarding. I have also read Tété-Michel Kpmoassie's account of his time in Greenland & it is one of the best books I have encountered. I am very happy to see these two paths converge like this.
annmorgan.bsky.social Ann Morgan @annmorgan.bsky.social · 6d
My Trip to Greenland with Tété-Michel Kpomassie

As followers of this blog will know, my hero is Tété-Michel Kpomassie, the author of the landmark travel memoir An African in Greenland, translated by James Kirkup, which was my Togolese choice for my 2012 project to read a book from every country.…
My Trip to Greenland with Tété-Michel Kpomassie
As followers of this blog will know, my hero is Tété-Michel Kpomassie, the author of the landmark travel memoir An African in Greenland, translated by James Kirkup, which was my Togolese choice for my 2012 project to read a book from every country. After the book was rereleased as a Penguin Modern Classic in 2021, Kpomassie and I became friends.
ayearofreadingtheworld.com
December 1, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
annmorgan.bsky.social
My Trip to Greenland with Tété-Michel Kpomassie

As followers of this blog will know, my hero is Tété-Michel Kpomassie, the author of the landmark travel memoir An African in Greenland, translated by James Kirkup, which was my Togolese choice for my 2012 project to read a book from every country.…
My Trip to Greenland with Tété-Michel Kpomassie
As followers of this blog will know, my hero is Tété-Michel Kpomassie, the author of the landmark travel memoir An African in Greenland, translated by James Kirkup, which was my Togolese choice for my 2012 project to read a book from every country. After the book was rereleased as a Penguin Modern Classic in 2021, Kpomassie and I became friends.
ayearofreadingtheworld.com
December 1, 2025 at 12:42 PM
hopesteffen.bsky.social
I'm trying to write something sensible about medieval holy landscapes. In about an hour, my father & I will make an attempt to pull a birch-tree out of a pool in a river, so that it will be easier to catch fish there in the summer. This is one of the symmetries of being a medievalist in the fjords.
December 1, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Reposted by Steffen Hope
petertarras.bsky.social
As a little treat for you, here's an #ArabicBible Advent calendar 🧵. Every day I'll post a verse from the Christmas story from one of the oldest Arabic Gospel lectionaries, Sinai ar. 71, dated 897 CE (and a few other texts in between).
December 1, 2025 at 9:49 AM