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worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth
@worthjrw.bsky.social
150 followers 360 following 45 posts
Doctoral Candidate at UCL. Investigating Langobard Ethnic Identity, Language, and Onomastic Practice in the Medieval Charters, 568-774 CE. I have bones to pick with Philology. He/Him.
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gzornetta.bsky.social
Giulia Zornetta @gzornetta.bsky.social · 3d
Ms. 4, Leges Langobardorum (11th century): Lombard / Latin legal vocaboulary 💙

Biblioteca statale del monumento nazionale della Badia di Cava dei Tirreni

#medievalsky
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James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Sep 9
Only 10 days left! If you know of anyone who might be interested in joining us to this coming IMC ("long beard" not a requirement), then please forward this over!
worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Aug 22
The Lombards - not to be confused with the Lumbar - form the backbone of this panel. Whether you specialise in Late Antiquity or the Renaissance, we'd love to hear from you! After all, who *are* the Lombards to you? #IMC2026 #MedievalSky
Call for Papers Identifying the Lombards through Time: Constructing Lombard Identities and Social Norms The place of the Lombards within the history of Medieval Italy is remarkably ambiguous and mired by the ideas of legacy. Machiavelli, in posing the “Lombard Question”, stated that by the fall of the Kingdom, ‘they retained nothing of their foreignness except their name’ (Istorie Fiorentine, I.11). It is of no surprise therefore that earlier, often nationalistic, treatises had tended to dismiss the Lombard settlement as a temporary disruption, after which Italian history returned to its “natural course”. However, more recent research has often emphasised the complex, multifaceted impact of Lombard rule across Italy. In deconstructing the image of Lombards as “Germanic barbarians”, studies into Lombard religion, law, language, and customs have highlighted distinctions between the various polities (the Northern Kingdom and the Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento). But Lombard identity was not simply geographically determined: both prior to the AD 568 settlement and after the 774 Carolingian conquest, the referent intended by the term “Lombard” transformed in various ways. This strand aims to consider this diachronic perspective: to understand these changes, not just of who the Lombards were to themselves, but how in turn we and others have perceived them. We welcome papers on, but not limited to, the following topics: - Memory and Historicisation - Social or Familial Stratification - Gender and the structuring of Power - “Romanising” the “Germanic” - Political Dynasties and Legacies - The Language of Legal Dialectic - Religious Syncretism and Isolationism - Linguistic Development and Survivalism Prospective speakers are asked to send prospective titles and abstracts of 300 words with a short bibliography and biography to James Worth (james.worth.18@ucl.ac.uk) and Kaiyue Zhang (kaiyue.zhang@history.ox.ac.uk) by Friday 19th September 2025.
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Reposted by James Worth
gzornetta.bsky.social
Giulia Zornetta @gzornetta.bsky.social · Sep 9
if you know anyone who might be interested, please circulate this Call for Papers:

"Rethinking Popular Religion from Late Antiquity to the Early Medieval Period"

📍Venezia / Università Ca' Foscari / 12-13th March 2026
💣 deadline: 30th September 2025

#medievalsky #cfp #Venice @rmblf.bsky.social
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Reposted by James Worth
samdrowe.bsky.social
Samuel Rowe @samdrowe.bsky.social · Aug 22
Circulating this CfP for Leeds #IMC2026 on the evolution of the Lombards and Lombard identities through time. #MedievalSky #skystorians
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worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Aug 22
The Lombards - not to be confused with the Lumbar - form the backbone of this panel. Whether you specialise in Late Antiquity or the Renaissance, we'd love to hear from you! After all, who *are* the Lombards to you? #IMC2026 #MedievalSky
Call for Papers Identifying the Lombards through Time: Constructing Lombard Identities and Social Norms The place of the Lombards within the history of Medieval Italy is remarkably ambiguous and mired by the ideas of legacy. Machiavelli, in posing the “Lombard Question”, stated that by the fall of the Kingdom, ‘they retained nothing of their foreignness except their name’ (Istorie Fiorentine, I.11). It is of no surprise therefore that earlier, often nationalistic, treatises had tended to dismiss the Lombard settlement as a temporary disruption, after which Italian history returned to its “natural course”. However, more recent research has often emphasised the complex, multifaceted impact of Lombard rule across Italy. In deconstructing the image of Lombards as “Germanic barbarians”, studies into Lombard religion, law, language, and customs have highlighted distinctions between the various polities (the Northern Kingdom and the Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento). But Lombard identity was not simply geographically determined: both prior to the AD 568 settlement and after the 774 Carolingian conquest, the referent intended by the term “Lombard” transformed in various ways. This strand aims to consider this diachronic perspective: to understand these changes, not just of who the Lombards were to themselves, but how in turn we and others have perceived them. We welcome papers on, but not limited to, the following topics: - Memory and Historicisation - Social or Familial Stratification - Gender and the structuring of Power - “Romanising” the “Germanic” - Political Dynasties and Legacies - The Language of Legal Dialectic - Religious Syncretism and Isolationism - Linguistic Development and Survivalism Prospective speakers are asked to send prospective titles and abstracts of 300 words with a short bibliography and biography to James Worth (james.worth.18@ucl.ac.uk) and Kaiyue Zhang (kaiyue.zhang@history.ox.ac.uk) by Friday 19th September 2025.
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James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Jul 30
Ovviamente, la scuola degli storici di Goofy
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James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Jul 11
Quite bluntly, this says absolutely nothing about Lombard ability with Latin (or perhaps also Greek, if their close links with the ERE are to be believed) in the 6th century: but it does perhaps say a lot about how Lombards may have attributed importance to languages in different parts of Italy.
worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Jul 11
In turn, what this suggests is that such names are not the answer to the question "what language did the Lombards speak (or not)" but rather reflect (at least in part) on the meaning they attributed to the language they *chose* to use in this situation (be it ILang or not).
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James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Jul 11
Although names (toponyms and anthroponyms) can reflect culture and language, we have to recognise that they also function as strategies of power imposition and identity-formation. And this did not preclude the idea of later "reestablishment" via new names or "new-old names".
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James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Jul 11
My query to this would be: on what grounds can we say that these were not renamed to be in "Langobardic" (or ILang), as a form of later historical constructivism? Or less cynically, that the names were deliberately a political tactic (establishing Lombard hegemony) rather than lack of knowledge?
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worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Jul 11
Something odd in older philological texts are the wild presumptions being made. Gamillscheg (1935, p. 62), for instance, simply throws out that the Lombards entered Italy 'fast ohne Kenntnis des Lateinischen' (barely knowing Latin), and bases it on Germanic toponyms.
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worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Jul 8
You should definitely come next year! It's a brilliant experience - although maybe far too expensive without the bursary
worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Jul 8
Thanks to @seaxeducation.bsky.social for the opportunity to speak at the @imc-leeds.bsky.social #onomastics panel. It was wonderful to participate in such a vibrant field, and hear so many fascinating papers!
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worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Jul 5
Excited to talk on the Associative Naming practices of Names as "Lombard Histories Beyond Paul the Deacon" at Tuesday's 14:15 @imc-leeds.bsky.social #onomastics panel as chaired by @seaxeducation.bsky.social.
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worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Jul 3
When you graduate from your degree just to end up working in a completely unrelated field.
woody and buzz lightyear from toy story giving each other high fives
ALT: woody and buzz lightyear from toy story giving each other high fives
media.tenor.com
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worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Jun 25
It was a pleasure chairing and speaking today at @themamoconf.bsky.social as part of the panel at @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social Strand Campus.

Thanks to all the organisers for making this happen!
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Reposted by James Worth
themamoconf.bsky.social
MAMO Conference 2025 @themamoconf.bsky.social · Jun 15
Our final panel in the Middle Ages in Modern Games thread at MAMO is Wednesday's 'Education and Exploration'!
Feat. Josip Mihaljević (Old Church Slavonic Institute), James Worth (@worthjrw.bsky.social, UCL), and Thom Gobbit (@booksoflaw.bsky.social, Graz). 👇 #MAMOmonth
Session 2B: The Middle Ages in Modern Games (IV): Education and Exploration [Room K018] Josip Mihaljević (Old Church Slavonic Institute): Web Games for Learning and Promoting the Glagolitic Script James Worth (University College London): Creating the Age of Apocalypse: Game Mechanics as Pedagogical Tools for imparting a Historiographical Periodisation of West Roman Collapse in Total War: Attila Thom Gobbitt (Karl Franzens Universitat, Graz): Rules Lawyers’ Time: Early Medieval Laws, Plot, and Gamification
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James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Jun 6
Somehow, Arius returned.
a man in a white shirt says heavy sigh in front of a group of people
ALT: a man in a white shirt says heavy sigh in front of a group of people
media.tenor.com
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James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · Jun 2
The confusion, the sense of helplessness, even the simple loss of self-identity really hits through that one line.
worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · May 31
If they had kept it, it may have become confusing: with the rise of modern goth culture and the more common use of "vandal" as reference to a ruffian, one would sound like the ruler of quite an odd bunch.
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James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · May 31
Refs: Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum. I could (and maybe should!) have pulled better ones out (e.g., Beowulf; Hildebrandslied), but right now Paul effectively lives rent-free in my head, so I figured "Why not?".
worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · May 31
I would go on, but I've just realised I've put too much energy into this which ought to be going into my thesis. But such a small scene moves me greatly - as one (like others!) who regularly doubts and questions himself, the phrase "Who am I, Gamling?", his fear, will never not be powerful.
worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · May 31
And it is at the end of Helm's Deep when Théoden, bolstered (rather than pronged) by Aragorn finally gains his own true voice, speaking not in retort or floundering through anger, but as a King, resolved and firm.
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James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · May 31
The Battle of Helms Deep, whilst on the surface, is a major - well - battle between armed forces, has more akin to the didactic use of battles in some early medieval chronicles as remarks on character and its transformation: see the cases of Wechtari (HL V.23) or Cunincpert and Seno (HL V.39-40).
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James Worth @worthjrw.bsky.social · May 31
I love that moment: Aragorn and Théoden see one another no longer as another king with whom they must jostle for some position of royal authority, but as equals and (dare I say) brothers-in-arms, facing the impossible.
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