Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Finn Longman

@finnlongman.com

3.4K followers 540 following 6.5K posts

Author (THE BUTTERFLY ASSASSIN trilogy; THE WOLF AND HIS KING) and medievalist specialising in the Ulster Cycle. #1 fan of Láeg mac Ríangabra. they/them | siad/iad ♿🏳️‍🌈 https://finnlongman.com

finnlongman.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · Oct 15

Intro thread! I'm Finn, an author & medievalist. My books:

· THE BUTTERFLY ASSASSIN trilogy: a teenage assassin tries to live a normal life
· THE WOLF AND HIS KING (2025): a queer retelling of Bisclavret
· THE ANIMALS WE BECAME (2026): a queertrans take on Math fab Mathonwy

FinnLongman.com/books

I write both YA and Adult fiction, with three books published and three forthcoming. You can find more information about most of my books on their dedicated pages — use the dropdown menu or c…

FinnLongman.com

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 2d

The saddle can still be removed, albeit with difficulty, I just can't change the height anymore...

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 2d

I'm not taking an angle grinder to an electric bike that's two months old because the saddle post clasp is stuck 🙃 I'm sure somebody with really good pliers and more upper body strength than me could deal with it. When I take it to get serviced later this month I'll ask them to do it, probably.

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 2d

You see, it is supposed to be hexagonal. But it is now circular due to getting badly mullered. But the allen key is still hexagonal. This is a problem.

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 2d

Have managed to absolutely muller the hex bolt on my bike saddle post so it can no longer be turned in either direction so I guess I'm stuck with this saddle position until I encounter someone with a tool to remove and replace it 🫠

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 2d

This sounds intriguing, buying as soon as I'm on a computer since it turns out I do NOT know my account password to log in on mobile :') Ever I am stymied by forces beyond my control (my own passwords)

Reposted by Finn Longman

BuDS Disability Service @buds-disability.bsky.social · 2d

If you can’t isolate, wear a tight-fitting PPE respiratory mask (FFP2/FFP3) whenever you are in contact with other people. Remember, as so few people are eligible for NHS Covid boosters this winter, an uncontrolled Covid wave could do very serious harm to older & clinically vulnerable people. (2/2)

Reposted by Finn Longman

BuDS Disability Service @buds-disability.bsky.social · 2d

If you or someone you have met does have symptoms of Covid, please do the decent, patriotic thing and keep it to yourself. Unless you are absolutely unable to do so, please isolate until your symptoms have been gone for a couple of days. (1/2)

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 2d

I think if I hadn't stopped playing music for years due to disability I would never have been able to come back to it like this. My teenage perfectionism and classical background made improv terrifying and unenjoyable, but now, free from the pressure to be "good" like that, I can just... have fun

Reposted by Finn Longman

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 3d

When I was in about year 10, I briefly joined the school improv group (music, not theatre), only to drop out after one or two rehearsals because it stressed me out too much not to have sheet music and set parts to play. Oh, how the turns have tabled... wish I could show past me this!

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 3d

When I was in about year 10, I briefly joined the school improv group (music, not theatre), only to drop out after one or two rehearsals because it stressed me out too much not to have sheet music and set parts to play. Oh, how the turns have tabled... wish I could show past me this!

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 3d

Oh, that's excellent news! I read a library ebook of the old version (very long hold lists! It's popular!) but had been finding a physical copy hard/expensive to get hold of but this way I can get one AND there's more of it? Yay!

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 3d

Check in with me in a year to find out what conclusion I actually end up drawing

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 3d

Going in at the start of my PhD: so gender is gonna be a key factor in defining how these relationships work, right?
Partway in: okay no it's not. but class,
While writing this chapter: nope it's not even about class so much as it's about narrative framing and the role of nostalgia and youth

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 3d

Also, sometimes I get a headache and then go and lie down on the sofa and immediately realise that moving one point into a different paragraph and combining it with that vague point I hadn't made yet will enable me to... draw a different conclusion again. So I guess I'll do that later.

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 4d

Sometimes I go into a piece of academic writing thinking I know what my conclusion will be, and then by the time I've actually set out all the evidence and analysed it, I've talked myself around to making the opposite point I thought I was making

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 4d

Once again I'm in the "Longman (2022) argued that XYZ, but they were actually totally wrong, it's ABC, literally just ignore all of that I don't know what I was on about" zone

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 4d

(And look, pre-planning is good, but sometimes you need to figure out your argument by making it because otherwise you will never put words on the page and will just spend the next six months reading in circles around it.)

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 4d

Which is fine I guess but really does make writing abstracts and things before doing the research almost impossible. And also means the more time I spend on a topic the more likely I am to disagree with everything I've previously said about it in passing 😅😅

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 4d

Sometimes I go into a piece of academic writing thinking I know what my conclusion will be, and then by the time I've actually set out all the evidence and analysed it, I've talked myself around to making the opposite point I thought I was making

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 5d

I used to have rainbow masks but I can't get them anywhere anymore, it's so tragic.

Reposted by Finn Longman

Laura @lauropea.bsky.social · 6d

professional secret: vikings didn't exist. medievalists invented them in 1968 in the wake of the first wave of Tolkienmania to trick people into spending their careers reading saints' lives and homily books

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 6d

I'm feeling extremely normal and fine about this

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 6d

Me, currently translating an early modern variant of Comrac Fir Diad in which, after being unable to bring himself to behead Fer Diad, "do ghabh Cu Culainn cenn Fir Diadh 'na uchd ⁊ do bhadar sreabha fola ag tionnsaighin chuirp Fir Diadh ar Cu Culainn", seeing this art yesterday on Tumblr: 😶🫠😭

Sissi ✨comms open! @sissiarte.bsky.social · 6d

"It was all play, all sport
till Fer Diad came to the ford."

Will I ever be over this chapter in the Táin Bó Cúalinge? Probably not... I started this like a year ago but I finally got around to finish it :_)

(Inspired by Ivan the Terrible and His Son by Ilya Repin)

#art #illustration

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 7d

Whatever this infix is doing here (if that's even what it is. it may be a cannibalised extra syllable caused by doing terrible things to this verb with unnecessary prefixes), it's wrong / not actually serving much of a grammatical purpose, so we can safely ignore it, I think.

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 7d

I'm terrible at textual dating but based purely on the verbs I cannot believe this text is seventeenth century in the slightest. Tbf, I don't think anyone is actually seriously arguing that it is, they just haven't bothered to date it prior to its surviving MS.

Finn Longman @finnlongman.com · 7d

why is there an infixed pronoun in this seventeenth century prose text