Juliane Witte

@julianewitte

Medievalist :) I work with Old Norse-Icelandic literature with a focus on female anger, emotion and monster studies, reception/Medievalism, and narrative networks @ University of Tübingen

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Juliane Witte@julianewitte· 2d

I'm up on a hill, ready for the eclipse, and scared for my eyes although I have the special glasses thanks to @alarcos.bsky.social 😅

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· 5d

Toothless knows nothing about Caturday, International Cat Day, or much of anything else, except about being the cutest 🥺

A photo of my black cat, who I named Toothless when I found him 10 years ago, cause I'm original! He's curled up on a yellow blanket in that way cats have where their feet are under their heads? Like half of him is curved but his legs are super straight and up?!

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· 11d

Now attempting to read El Cantar de mio Cid and I don't know if it's this translation or something else (maybe the heat?), but I'm struggling. Admittedly the Preface didn't help as the first line had my eyes rolling so hard I might have done some damage...

A photo of a book against a white wall. The book is 'The Poem of the Cid', a translation of the medieval Spanish poem El Cantar de mio Cid', by Lesley Byrd Simpson. It is the University of California Press edition.

A photo of the first page of the Preface to the translation. The line that made me roll my eyes is highlighted. It states that the poem is remarkable, quote, 'for its vigorous realism and a refreshing absence of that childlike abuse of the marvelous which strains one's credulity to the breaking point in the contemporaneous Chanson de Roland and the Nibelungenlied', end quote. Le sigh...

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· 11d

'Priory' turned into a buddy read (yay!) so while my friend catches up I read 'Dream Count' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie! A really intriguing and often beautiful book, but also a difficult read, both for the Covid lockdown reminder and its intimate discussions of Nigerian womanhood.

A book resting on knees. The book is 'Dream Count' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the cover features a stylized flame against a white backdrop.

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· 13d

Time for a 'Priory' reread so I can finally get to 'A Day of Fallen Night'! (I know it's technically a prequel but I wanna go back anyway. Also yes, my copy of 'Priory' has been sub-bleached to sh*t 😅) Each ist just shy of 900 pages, so this'll be both fun and bad for my wrists... #BookSky

Two books set on a table, a plant behind them. The book on the left, with a red-blue cover featuring a dragon is 'A Day of Fallen Night' by Samantha Shannon. The book on the right with a yellow cover showing a blue dragon twined around a tower is 'The Priory of the Orange Tree' by Samantha Shannon.

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Jul 13

Now that everyone has returned from this year's @imc-leeds.bsky.social, I thought I'd share my CFP for next year's on female communities and networks again 😊 feel free to reach out with questions as well! #MedievalSky

In line with IMC’s thematic focus on communities, this series of sessions will explore female networks and communities in the Middle Ages from a variety of methodological, theoretical, and disciplinary angles. While many medieval sources focus expressly on men and male characters, relationships between women and female characters exist, even if they are sometimes hidden away at the margins. The goal of these sessions is to put female networks, communities, and relationships at the centre of our focus and thereby gain a more nuanced insight into the Middle Ages and our engagement with the time period and its various outputs.

In this context, both “network” and “community” are defined as broadly as possible, namely as relationships of any sort between medieval women, female characters in texts, and/or female audiences (both medieval and modern, both scholarly and popular). The aim of these sessions is to explore where and how such networks and communities can be located, how they are depicted, what effect they have upon their narratives or their historical surroundings, and how we connect to them now. The desire is for these sessions to be as broad and exploratory as possible, inviting scholars from a variety of disciplines.

Papers could address intersectional communities, religious networks, the performance of community, inclusion/exclusion, and much more in historical, literary, and/or material contexts. Doctoral Candidates, late-stage MA students, and Early Career Researchers are actively encouraged to send in proposals. I am planning an edited volume based on these sessions.

Please send an abstract (max. 300 words) and a short biography to juliane.witte@uni-tuebingen.de by the 31st of July 2026. Please do state whether you’d prefer to attend in person or online. Feel free to also reach out with any questions!

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· May 4

My preorder of The Public Scholar by @lollardfish.bsky.social finally made it to me! Look forward to picking up some tips 😊

A photo of the book The Public Scholar by David M. Perry against a background of trees and flowers.

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· May 2

Finally getting around to reading The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa! This one has been on my TBR (and bedside table) for ages 🫣 #Booksky

Photo of the cover of The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa against a leafy background. The cover feature a photo of a woman, with drawings and a stamp collageg over it.

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· May 1

Tag der Arbeit started off well 💪🏼

A photo of a protest featuring pride flats and banners.

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Mar 6

Let's do this 💪🏼

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Feb 27

Some of my feelings, represented by blurry memes:

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Feb 27

The PhD has been submitted and I'm feeling all kinds of ways about it! Thank you to everyone who helped me get here over the past few years ❤️

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Jan 17

Toothless' preferred shape is circle 🥺

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Dec 31

Part the last:

Favourites for November; 'The Tainted Cup' by Robert Jackson Bennett and 'The Spear Cuts Through Water' by Simon Jiminez.

Other favourites: Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood, The Brood by Rebecca Baum, The Iliad translated by Emily Wilson, The Sea Gives Back the Dead by Molly Olguin, Audition for the Fox by Martin Cahill, The Oddyssey by Lara Williams, A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher, Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao, The Labyrinth House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji, Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Butcher in the Forest by Premee Mohamed, Putting Myself Together by Jamaica Kincaid.

Anticipated books: Molka by Monika Kim, Trad Wife by Saragota Schaefer, The Universe Box by Michael Swanwick, The Misheard World by Aliya Whiteley, The Rabbit Test and other Stories by Samantha Mills, The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, Jade City by Fonda Lee, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty, The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling, Villain by Natalie Zina Walschots, The Lamb by Lucy Rose.

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Dec 31

Part deux:

Favourites for June: 'The City in Glass' by Nghi Vo and 'Austen Years' by Rachel Cohen.

Favourites for July: 'Liars' by Sarah Manguso and 'salt slow' by Julia Armfield.

Favourites for August and September: 'Dwelling' by Emily Hunt Kivel and 'The Lotus Empire' by Tasha Suri.

Favourites for October (Don't judge): 'Mate' by Ali Hazelwood and 'Herscht 07769' by László Krasznahorkai.

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Dec 31

Since Insta had to suffer from this, I thought I'd share the pain 😊 here are my favourite books of 2025! (Please don't tell me if there are typos, I'm not redoing them again) Part one:

Favourite books of January: 'Blood over Bright Haven' by M.L. Wang and 'Forbidden Notebook' by Alba de Céspedes, translated by Ann Goldstein.

Favourites for February: 'We Do Not Part' by Han Kang and 'The Book of Ile-Rien' by Martha Wells.

Favourites for March: 'Serial Killer Support Group' by Saratoga Schaefer and 'Sunrise on the Reaping' by Suzanne Collins.

Favourites for April and May: 'The Library at Mount Char' by Scott Hawkins and 'The Ryes Are the Best Part' by Monika Kim.

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Dec 11

Obligatory rune stone visit while in Utrecht. It's a copy of the larger 10th ct. Jelling stone, gifted in 1936 😊

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Nov 10

Super happy to get my copy of '"verlorn ist daz sluzzellin": Produktive Rezeption mittelalterlicher Werke im 21. Jahrhundert' today, where I contributed a chapter on Zemeckis' Beowulf! Look forward to reading the other contributions 😊

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Sep 23

My first article written during my PhD is out with NordEuropaForum 🥳 it's based on a page or so of my MA Thesis written while in Utrecht 😊 edoc.hu-berlin.de/items/d1dfc7...

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Nov 15

The PhD life (when it goes well!). From Simone de Beauvoir, 'The Age of Discretion', in The Woman Destroyed.

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Jun 10

It was an absolute pleasure to have Dr. Tom Grant deliver a guest lecture on "Beowulf and its Scandinavian Cousins" in my module today 😁

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Dec 22

The life of an academic is full of glitz and glamour and the motion-detector light turning off on you as you scan your 50th page out of a hundred.

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Nov 20

Normally I would be teaching my module on medieval monsters now but today we're striking because it's monstrous that a third of our students live at the poverty line, that PhDs receive part-time pay for full-time work, and that post-PhD there is no job security!

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Nov 9

We had an amazing first day at #GEMMA full of interesting ideas and exchanges about gender, emotion and monstrosity in the Middle Ages, topped off by a fascinating keynote from Sif Rikhardsdottir!

Juliane Witte@julianewitte· Oct 23

Very much looking forward to start teaching my seminar on monstrosity and the Other in Old Norse and Old English literature (with a sneak peek at some Middle English) today!