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ascolotl.bsky.social
Kit
@ascolotl.bsky.social
140 followers 190 following 120 posts
PhDing on Anglo-Welsh Arthurian Romance @ Cambridge; recovering theatre kid, socialist, cyfarwydd • 🇨🇦 • he/him
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ascolotl.bsky.social
This too on swearing is particularly lovely
A photo of the same book, with the first sentence slightly cut off (because it isn’t relevant). The visible section reads “selves to the reader.” And then continues “I have been hampered by the convention of not using impious and impolite words, because the whole shape of our discourse was conditioned by the use of such words. The very repetition of them made them seem litur-fical, certainly deprived them of malice, and occasionally, when skilfully disposed, and used according to established but flexible tradition, gave a kind of significance, and even at moments a dignity, to our speech. Sometimes their juxtaposition in a sentence, and when expressed under poignant cir-cumstances, reached real poetry. Because of publication, it has been necessary to consider conventional susceptibilities. Some such expressions have nevertheless of necessity become part of the form this writing has taken. Quite obviously they do not constitute blasphemy in any theological sense, and that is all I would consider. Private X's tirade of oaths means no more than 'I do not like this Vale of Tears'; whereas Flossie's 'O, bother!' would waste a countryside had she an efficacious formula. I say more: the 'Bugger! Bugger!' of a man detailed, had often about it the 'Fiat! Fiat!' of the Saints.”
November 5, 2025 at 9:45 PM
ascolotl.bsky.social
Struck by the genius of this observation from David Jones (in his preface to In Parentheses)
A photo of a section from an old book. It reads “We who are of the same world of sense with hairy ass and furry wolf and who presume to other and more radiant affi-nities, are finding it difficult, as yet, to recognise these creatures of chemicalsas true extensions of ourselves, that we may feel for them a native affection, which alone can make them magical for us. It would be interesting to know how we shall ennoble our new media as we have already ennobled and made significant our old-candle-light, fire-light, Cups, Wands and Swords, to choose at random.”
November 5, 2025 at 9:38 PM
ascolotl.bsky.social
Blue Jays beat the Yanks? Time for the Oh Canada trap beat remix hype video, I think
October 6, 2025 at 6:45 PM
ascolotl.bsky.social
Justine Pelletier, je me souviens TABARNAK
A screenshot of Justine Pelletier’s beyond audacious dummy for Canada’s first try against NZ tonight. Over her I have laid the word “me”, over the Black Fern player I have written “my thesis”, and in the space Pelletier is about to run into, I have written “watching Canada win RWC 25”
September 19, 2025 at 8:47 PM
ascolotl.bsky.social
I took one yesterday on a whim! He is now adorned with a smiley face and sits on my desk :)
A conker from a horse chestnut, against a white desk. A simple smiley face is drawn on the lighter part.
September 17, 2025 at 4:40 PM
ascolotl.bsky.social
The “sickos yes haha yes” meme
August 27, 2025 at 4:21 PM
ascolotl.bsky.social
Big night tonight boys I'm rolling up with my
A screenshot of a dictionary, in Welsh. The headword is 'cethern', and the English translation is 'crew of rascals'
August 21, 2025 at 1:59 PM
ascolotl.bsky.social
A lil bit of digital art of my favourite bird!
A digital, screensaver sized painting. It features a bird sat on a tree branch, against a blue background (the bottom two thirds are covered by splotchy green foliage with occasional spiral shapes, the top third by white cloud). The bird is a pīwakawaka or New Zealand fantail. It is a small grey round boy with a yellow-orange chest. Its most notable feature is its huge, fan-shaped white and grey tail.
August 17, 2025 at 11:59 AM
ascolotl.bsky.social
Nothing but respect for *my* Meowor
A dappled grey cat doing a looooong stretch, lying down on a mantelpiece above a blue-tiled fireplace. Her tail hangs down one side
August 10, 2025 at 3:12 PM
ascolotl.bsky.social
Met a Peregrine Falcon named Eric lads
A man with dark hair and glasses stands smiling at the camera. He is wearing a blue shirt and tan chinos; his right hand is in his pocket and his left is raised, with a thick leather glove. Plopped on his hand is a peregrine falcon; an approximately foot tall bird with dappled brown and white feathers, a grey head, and yellow eyes.
July 10, 2025 at 5:36 PM
ascolotl.bsky.social
I should probably do some self-promotion on here sooo

Come along to session 820 at #IMC2025 (5pm, Tuesday night) to hear me talk about Welsh widows in Arthurian Romance (and some other brilliant papers on Medieval Wales)!!
A screenshot of my slideshow; this slide reads ‘conclusions’ in olive on a beige background. The bottom third is taken up by illustrations from a manuscript of various medieval people playing instruments, shouting and pointing
July 6, 2025 at 11:37 AM
ascolotl.bsky.social
Back from another wonderful @celticstudents.bsky.social conference! As ever in awe of the wonderful people who put in so much work to make sure it runs smoothly. Lovely to see friends old and new, pick up ideas and projects, and visit Aber!

It’s a hard life being an academic but someone’s got to…
A photo from a first person perspective of a ruined castle next to the sea, between which runs a road. In the foreground, out of focus, is a large ice cream cone with grey and white and yellow ice cream.
June 15, 2025 at 2:14 PM
ascolotl.bsky.social
Just another day reading old editions of the Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies (we’re bringing back phrenology I think?!?)
A table of ‘Merionethshire Adult Men Measured Before 1928’, featuring measurements of head length, ‘nose’, face length, and more
May 19, 2025 at 12:13 PM
ascolotl.bsky.social
I’m sure other folks are exhausted by signing petitions to try to justify our existence; I found it quite cathartic to write to [email protected] alongside signing and express my opinion 👇👇
A screenshot of an email. It reads: Archive Cuts Dear Bangor University Administrators, I am writing to express my dismay at the proposed cuts to Bangor's Archival team. I am a PhD student working on Medieval Welsh literature at Cambridge, and the access and aid provided by the archive team has been invaluable to me; they have gone above and beyond to help my requests and improve the quality of my research. At a time when Celtic Studies programmes everywhere are suffering, this is an opportunity for Bangor to show leadership and faith in researchers who now more than ever need archivists to aid them as their own programmes come under threat. I hope my voice is one of many asking you to do better.
May 16, 2025 at 11:52 AM
ascolotl.bsky.social
Continuing a trend from the old place of documenting the cool birds I meet so:

met a vulture lads
A vulture — a black bird with a bright red face — sits on a wooden fence in front of greenish-yellow grass.
April 7, 2025 at 7:59 PM
ascolotl.bsky.social
See endorsements from The Cambridge Independent and CambsNews, who I did not in fact pay to say thisS
Screenshot of a search result on google from cambridgeindependent.co.uk, with an article titled 'Our pick of the highlights from the Cambridge Festival 2025', published 28th February 2025. Underneath is written "There's a double-whammy of Arthurian legend on offer at the festival. First up is Kit Treadwell - Who Was King Arthur? (22 March) Treadwell..." before being cut off. A screenshot from cambsnews.co.uk, summarising my talk as "Treadwell will explore how medieval authors adapted the Arthurian legend to engage with issues of identity, tolerance, and coexistence, reflecting on how these themes remain relevant in today's world".
March 19, 2025 at 10:02 AM
ascolotl.bsky.social
I study real languages that aren’t gwerth agis cronek
The distracted boyfriend meme, where “Middle Cornish sentence with a personal pronoun” is distracted from “agreeing with the pronoun” by “conjugating the verb in the third person singular”
October 11, 2023 at 1:45 PM
ascolotl.bsky.social
Right going to start trying to use this place more so guess what: I’ve been thinking about Beowulf

Specifically how best to translate it for younger folks, after trying to explain what I do to my eight and twelve year old niblings. Really love this from one of my longtime favourite poets…
A screenshot from an article that reads: “In the introduction to his 1952 translation of Beowulf, the Scottish poet Edwin Morgan ventured that in translation 'communication must take place; the nerves must sometimes tingle and the skin flush, as with original poetry. Morgan's aim was to 'interest and at times to excite the reader of poetry without misleading anyone who has no access to the original. Fidelity and accuracy are all well and good, but a true translation must speak to the reader.” The crop includes the next sentence’s beginning; “it must…”
October 11, 2023 at 10:22 AM