Helen McKee
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helenthev.bsky.social
Helen McKee
@helenthev.bsky.social
380 followers 270 following 130 posts
Likes dead languages and medieval manuscripts. Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway and King’s College London. She/her.
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helenthev.bsky.social
Fantastic episode: really thoughtful and balanced.
In the late spring of 1903, my grandmother (aged 8), her 3 younger sisters and their mother all caught diphtheria. The two youngest sisters both died, within a day of each other, one (pictured below) aged 4 years and one 10 months.
An old photograph (from c. 1902) of three little girls, all looking solemnly at the camera. They all have long hair with fringes obviously cut at home, and they wear long white pinafores. My grandmother, the biggest, is on the left. In the middle, raised up on a stool, is the littlest: this is Irene, who died aged 4 in May 1903.
November 6, 2025 at 11:02 AM
helenthev.bsky.social
My friend came back from a visit to Japan and gave me a cuddly Snorlax! #tinyjoys
A cuddly Snorlax (a blue-and-white Pokémon with its eyes shut in sleep, claws and adorable fangs) sitting on a kitchen worktop, dozing but propped up against a pumpkin.
November 6, 2025 at 7:59 AM
helenthev.bsky.social
Here are the first six lines of this folio. It can be found online at gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...
et benedicentur in te et in semine tuo. cunctae trib(us) / terrae et ero custos tuus quocumque perrexeris. / et reducam te in terram hanc nec dimittam. nisi / conpleuero uniuersa quae dixi. cumque euigilasset / Iacob de somno. ait uere d(omi)n(u)s est in loco isto. et / ego nesciebam. pauensque. q(u)am terribilis inquit …
October 21, 2025 at 3:00 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
Unreasonably delighted to be teaching a seminar on Luxeuil minuscule (one of THE most difficult scripts IMO) and to be asked for help with this word …
The word ‘terribilis’ written in Luxeuil minuscule (from the Luxeuil Lectionary, f. 236v). (Actually I love this script and don’t think it’s terrible at all.)
October 21, 2025 at 1:29 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
Galway Bay under the moon. 🌔 So happy to visit this beautiful place.
A photograph of Galway Bay with a gibbous moon casting its path across the waves.
September 3, 2025 at 9:18 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
An amazing view from an organ loft with which to start the day (at Royal Holloway)! My favourite bit is the morning sunlight picking out the painted sunrise at the east end.
Royal Holloway’s beautiful Victorian chapel, seen from the organ loft. Sunlight streams through the tall windows and at the far end it reflects off a gilded sunrise painted against blue sea and sky.
August 11, 2025 at 8:29 AM
helenthev.bsky.social
@royalholloway.bsky.social = ridiculously photogenic! 🏰
A view of part of Founder’s Building. The sky is deep blue; half of the terracotta bricks are in shadow, while the others glow in the morning sunlight.
August 11, 2025 at 8:21 AM
helenthev.bsky.social
The guidebook EG wrote to the Buckler’s Hard chapel has been replaced by an up-to-date one, but this does mention her, and the chapel is instantly recognisable from its description in ‘The Bird in the Tree’. It still smells of incense, too. 3/3
The statue of the BVM from St Mary’s Chapel, Buckler’s Hard. She is carved from dark wood and has a crown, long wavy hair, a serious expression, long medieval-type robes, and cherub heads peeping out from under her hem. Next to her is a vase of flowers.
August 7, 2025 at 2:08 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
There’s a museum with models of the site as it once was, and of ships built there — very interesting. I was disappointed, though, that there was no acknowledgement of the role Buckler’s Hard played in the life and novels of Elizabeth Goudge (it was because of her that I’d wanted to visit).
Close-up of a model showing the area around the Hard as it was on 3 June 1803, with ‘Swiftsure’ under construction and ‘Euryalus’ about to launch. Planks for shipbuilding lie on either side of the village street and in fields beyond.
August 7, 2025 at 1:56 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
Fulfilled a long-cherished ambition today and visited the old shipbuilding village of Buckler’s Hard (near Beaulieu, in the New Forest). ⚓️🌳 Even in the summer holidays it was a peaceful and beautiful spot. 1/3
View of the single street of red-brick 18th-century cottages at Buckler’s Hard, set back from a central path with grass on either side. There are dark trees in the distance.
August 7, 2025 at 1:44 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
Lovely to find (almost) my cat’s name in a manuscript #Pangur
The word ‘pangor’, written in Caroline minuscule, enlarged from Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS. 221, f. 8r.
July 24, 2025 at 8:04 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
The invariable issue with @manderleypress.bsky.social books is that they are SO BEAUTIFULLY packaged that one doesn’t want to open them!! 😍
The Manderley Press edition of Rosemary Sutcliff’s ‘Sun Horse, Moon Horse’ (introduced by Tiffany Frances Baker) — perfectly gift-wrapped in turquoise tissue paper and tied with a saffron ribbon. There’s a matching bookmark and postcard with the book’s cover design (by Isabel Greenberg) of a man in tunic, leggings and cloak looking up at the White Horse of Uffington, beneath the sun and a crescent moon.
July 5, 2025 at 11:33 AM
helenthev.bsky.social
And here is a painting of Pangur (as himself rather than Tevildo!) by my son’s incredibly talented friend! 😻
Oil painting of the front half of a brown tabby cat against a grass green background. The cat gazes intently out, his eyes slightly narrowed, and extends the claws of his right paw. His ears are pricked and his brow looks slightly furrowed.
July 4, 2025 at 6:21 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
Children made me a birthday card featuring our beloved tabby as Tevildo, Prince of Cats 🐱🥰
Drawing of a tabby cat with a serious expression and a broad dark stripe down his back. The heading is ‘Pangur, Prince of Cats’ in Elvish, and various captions recall Tolkien’s description of Tevildo: beautiful tail lashing, monstrous purring, eyes glowing like green lamps, whiskers as stout and sharp as needles, the mightiest of all cats!
July 4, 2025 at 1:06 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
Perk of being married to an organist: The heavenly view from the organ loft of the Lady Chapel at Guildford Cathedral 😇
View of the Lady Chapel from high up at the west end. The building is of pale cream stone and the windows have clear glass. The ceiling is also cream but with bands painted teal with gold stars; minimalist white and gold lamps hang from it on long, pale cords. There is a modern wooden carving of the Virgin and Child above the altar, which bears a gold-and-red cross and matching candlesticks and has a pale gold frontal. The sanctuary carpet is pale grey-blue with faded gold decorations. Seating consists of pale wooden benches with grey upholstery.
July 1, 2025 at 9:53 AM
helenthev.bsky.social
This was actually my first thought, but on closer inspection the Hobgoblin has travelled even further into space than the moon!
The Hobgoblin from Finn Family Moomintroll, travelling the universe with his top hat and his black panther (here sitting on a moon near a ringed planet).
June 13, 2025 at 10:33 AM
helenthev.bsky.social
Today’s face gazing out at us from a millennium ago is from the endleaf of MS 221 @parkerlibcccc.bsky.social
An ink doodle of a head. The face has carefully drawn eyes, eyebrows and nose; there is a large chin (with a soul patch?? It’s what it looks like), and above this a small, neat smile (reminiscent of an archaic Greek statue). The hair is fair and thick and gathered into a braid at the nape of the neck.
June 13, 2025 at 9:09 AM
helenthev.bsky.social
My daughter introduced me to the LotR illustrations by Ukrainian artist Sergey Yuhimov and I am thrilled not only by the amazing geometric capitals (straight out of an Insular gospel book) but also by the portrayal of Tom Bombadil 😍
A painting by Sergey Yuhimov of Tom Bombadil guiding the hobbits. It’s influenced by Eastern Orthodox iconography, and Bombadil - with his dark beard, huge eyes, and blue cloak - looks like a saint on an icon. The characters’ names are written above their heads, while IARWAIN BENADAR is in gorgeous geometric capitals, supported by an angelic figure blowing a trumpet.
June 3, 2025 at 6:04 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
@lyftfloga.bsky.social and I were discussing foxfires on the train home and had a very interesting conversation with a lady across the aisle who had just had an uncanny encounter with a fox in Hyde Park.
‘Foxfires on New Year’s Eve at the Formal-Dress Hackberry Tree’ — uncannily pale salmon-pink foxes, their breath forming fires, gathering under a tree in the middle of a dark night. A procession of countless more foxes (likewise topped by flames) can be seen snaking off into the distance.
May 28, 2025 at 3:55 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
Wall after wall of limpid beauty. The pictures were perfectly presented, too, with minimal fuss (plain grey walls) but a quiet soundtrack of birds and falling rain.
‘Ferry on the Fuji River, Suruga Province’ by Utagawa Hiroshige — a woodblock print of boats being poled across deep blue water to a jetty on a flat, grey-green plain. Beyond this, trees and a mountain range appear in bands of darker grey, green and pale blue. The sky is pale yellow.
May 28, 2025 at 3:36 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
At the British Museum for the #Hiroshige exhibition …
Shot of the outside of the British Museum Reading Room / Great Court Gallery, with a poster advertising ‘Hiroshige: artist of the open road’
May 28, 2025 at 12:40 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
Very impressed by the students who presented talks — and it was great to catch up with @callidusdominus.bsky.social
May 24, 2025 at 7:07 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
Lovely day at #OERGISC2025 @royalholloway.bsky.social ! Chilling afterwards with @lyftfloga.bsky.social and the gang 🍷
May 24, 2025 at 7:04 PM
helenthev.bsky.social
Getting set up for the annual intellectual feast that is the @royalholloway.bsky.social Old English Reading Group International Summer Conference! #OERGISC2025
A pile of lanyards ready for the conference. They are labelled in OE — Upastignesse Waeca (‘Online Monitor’), Drync-Lareow (‘Drink-Master’), etc.
May 24, 2025 at 11:32 AM
helenthev.bsky.social
Really fascinating and enlightening talk by @gillycarr.bsky.social: ‘80 Years Later: Remembering the Wartime Past in the 21st Century’.
Screenshot from Gilly Carr’s Zoom talk, showing photographs of Holocaust sites in Kaunas, Lithuania. The slide’s title is ‘Lack of heritage interpretation for linked sites’.
May 20, 2025 at 6:12 PM