Search Results for: oxford

Magical Items at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum

Comments 1 comment

  Bull’s heart pierced with iron nails and thorns as a protection against witches. Found in a chimney at Shutes Hill Farm, Somerset, date unknown (c) Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. A new exhibition at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum showcases 180 real-life magical items. Spellbound: Magic, Ritual & Witchcraft explores the history of magic from the early modern era to the present day through objects ranging from Renaissance crystal balls to folk charms against witchcraft. It looks at basic human…

Read More Read More

Tolkien Manuscripts and Artwork On Display in Oxford

Comments 5 comments

Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves, a watercolor Tolkien painted for the first edition of The Hobbit, published in 1937. Bilbo is seen sitting astride a barrel floating down the forest river, having helped the dwarves (who are hidden inside the wine barrels) to escape from the dungeons of the Elvenking. This was Tolkien’s favorite watercolor and he was disappointed to find that it had been omitted from the first American edition. Credit: © The Tolkien Estate Limited…

Read More Read More

Raphael’s Drawings at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Comments 0 Comment

The heads and hands of two apostles, c. 1519–20. Black chalk with over-pounced underdrawing with some white heightening. One of the highlights of my regular stays in Oxford is visiting the Ashmolean Museum. With its fine collections of all periods, especially Medieval Europe and Ancient Egypt, it’s a place I and my family keep going back to. It also has excellent special exhibitions. I wrote up last summer’s exhibition on Underwater Archaeology for Black Gate, and this year we got…

Read More Read More

Visiting Minster Lovell Hall in Oxfordshire, England

Comments 1 comment

Minster Lovell Hall with St. Kenelm’s Church to the left As usual in the summer, my family and I are in Oxford, where I ensconce myself in the Bodleian Library and research my books. It’s been a rainy summer, in stark contrast to last month’s frying heat of Lanzarote, and so we haven’t been able to get out and about much. Good for my wordcount, bad for my travel addiction. So when the clouds finally broke last weekend we rushed…

Read More Read More

Visiting a Holy Well in Oxfordshire, England

Comments 4 comments

Oxford is one of the most popular day trips for visitors to London thanks to its beautiful university and world-class museums such as the Ashmolean and Pitt-Rivers. It’s also worth staying overnight so that you can take advantage to the surrounding area, which offers some pleasant country walks. One of the more enjoyable is a two-mile stroll along the Thames (locally called the Isis) that takes you to the hamlet of Binsey and the medieval church of St. Margaret’s. Set…

Read More Read More

Norman and Pagan Traces near Oxford

Comments 4 comments

Oxford is a popular destination in England thanks to its famous university and fine architecture, which includes a rare Saxon tower. What’s less well-known is the pleasant stroll along the River Isis two miles down to Iffley village. The walk will take you past the university boathouses, a pasture, an excellent pub, and some fine river views. Just past the pub, you’ll come across a lock and bridge taking you to a small village that contains one of the best-preserved…

Read More Read More

A Saxon Tower in Oxford

Comments 0 Comment

Ha! I bet you were expecting another Spanish post, weren’t you? Well, I spend the summers in Oxford, so this week you’re getting something a little more northern. When I’m not researching my next book in the Bodleian Library, I set out to explore the city and surrounding countryside for sights of historical interest. Oxford is a beautiful university town filled with fine architecture. It’s also an ancient city with roots back into prehistory. It first came into prominence in…

Read More Read More

Short Fiction Review #33: Oxford American Future Issue

Comments 0 Comment

Oxford American Issue 70 contemplates life in 2050 with 11 stories that share a pessimistic view of America’s future beset by natural and man-made disaster, human folly and avarice.  In other words, just like it is today, only worse. While dystopia has always been a fundamental science fictional trope (indeed, the one that has historically been most likely to gain literary credence, e.g., Brave New World and 1984), there was a time, particularly during the Golden Age of the 1930s…

Read More Read More

My Three Problems with the Three-Body Problem

Comments 9 comments

The Three-Body Problem (Tor Books, November 11, 2014). Cover by Stephan Martiniere In the middle of trying to explain quantum mechanics to me, my physicist friend stopped in frustration and said, “This would all make a lot more sense if you understood math.” Alas, I am one of those recovering English majors who never could wrap their heads around anything more basic than simple arithmetic (and not so good at even that). Intellectually, I can intuit how mathematical prowess unleashes…

Read More Read More

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes Shelfies (#3)

Comments 9 comments

I was posting Shelfies over in a the r/bookshelf subreddit. The Mods seemed to be growing more persnickity, and spam selling posts were getting more common, so I quit the group. I’ve already done a couple posts here at Black Gate with my shelfies from over there. Here’s the third and final one from my Sherlock Holmes shelfies. Links to the prior posts at the end. Holmes Shelfie #15 I am aware of four sets of annotated Sherlock Holmes. We’ll…

Read More Read More