medievalist: a nerd in excess

Today, I spent almost my entire day in Special Collections (which is actually just a set of portables out on the edge of town, but it sounds better to call it "Special Collections).

For the first 2 hours, we puzzled over things like this:



That, friends, is a copy of St. Gregory's Pastoral Care, dating around 890 AD. (Unfortunately, they didn't let us at the actual copy, as it's in Oxford.) But we all got our nerd on and had our first foray into deciphering hands (that is, handwriting). This one's in Anglo-Saxon, in case you were curious. Yeah, I know you weren't.

It was during this session that we were informed that our major assignment would be to transcribe a 15th century Scottish text. My whole class looked at me with disdain, because I was having trouble repressing my grin. (I'm the only one who's done any work on in Older Scots, which mystifies me, since we're at a Scottish university. To each their own, I guess ;))

And then we had a lovely break for lunch, which was needed for our tired brains and hungry stomachs. Of course that didn't stop us from discussing possible PhD proposals and how much we appreciate our boyfriends' well-organised bookshelves...

And then it was back to Special Collections, where we looked at a manuscript (which actually doesn't appear to exist on the internet, but you can just take my word for it-- it was REALLY cool in person). For the first time ever in my life, a professor literally plopped down ONE of NINE copies of a poem in the WHOLE FREAKING WORLD. Just sat it right in front of me, and left me and the two girls beside me to just do our transcribin' thing. I mean, I know that's kinda the point of getting this kind of education, but sometimes it just hits you, and then I think it's not out of place to be a little awed. Right? Right.

Anyhow, we were all leaving and remarking on how enjoyable our day of lectures had been, and how truly geeky we were for totally loving every second of puzzling over weird looking letters and being excited to go back and practise some more.

At which point one of us says, "Geek just doesn't quite cut it for us. I think we should come up with a word for how excessively nerdy we are."

And someone else chimes in, "I think the word's 'medievalist.'"

And all I can say is, too true.