Fencing Bear at Prayer

I meant to write this post yesterday, but I got distracted on social media ... And, well, I had a paper to read for an exam I am participating in this afternoon. And there was fiddle to practice, although I haven’t always been doing as well with learning the tunes since our class went over to Zoom. I wanted to watch another episode of  Buffy the Vampire Slayer , but I got caught up redesigning the stickers for my Telegram chat ... Somehow the hours just dribbled away, and before I knew it, it was time for bed. I have excuses. Of course I have excuses. I was tired thanks to teaching my Tolkien class . I had spent two days looking for slides of monsters ( spiders, dragons, and   feonds, oh, my! ). It is stressful teaching on Zoom, even with the practice I have had . I wanted to think more carefully about how to set up the argument for this post. I... Dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble. The days since March 21 when Illinois went on lockdown have been dribbling by. T...

Come join Fencing Bear and friends over on Telegram, where the dragons keep their memes—and poetry! We have had quite the opening week! As of this evening, I had 183 subscribers to the channel and 82 members in the chat . Not bad for a bear who didn’t know how to train her Group Guardian bot a week ago ! Mornings I post links to Mass live-streamed from St. John Cantius in Chicago, followed by a stanza from “ Dragon Song ” for the chat to discuss. (We are on stanza 8; things are heating up as the dragons take wing!) Over the course of the day, I share articles, images, occasional thoughts, Ankerstein builds, stickers, and videos—content you won’t get on my Facebook or Twitter. If I get my courage up, I might even start sharing some of my fiddle tunes. Okay, maybe not—it depends on how much you beg! But Telegram also supports voice and video messages, so you never know! Links from my channel will guide you elsewhere in Telegram to channels with memes, photos of architecture,...

I have my own Telegram chat! Think classroom/fencing salle/church, where Elves, Bears, Frogs, Professors, and other magical creatures come to grab a cookie (homemade!), read the latest posts from my Fencing Bear at Prayer channel , and talk about dragons at any time of day—or night, for that matter. A common room for dragon lore—and poetry. We have a dragon! We spent last night training it to welcome newcomers and read them the rules. That took some doing, particularly training the dragon to flame anyone (a.k.a. mute) who attempted to flood the room with stickers or gifs. Because we want to have stickers, just not too many all at once. ( No idea whatsoever who would do a thing like that! ::Hides mirror:: .) Now that we have arranged the furniture, hung a few pictures, and gotten the drinks ready, we are eager to have others join us. Will you come play? The bout rules are simple: “Salute your opponent, wear a fencing mask, remember to laugh.” Telegram has written ru...

This is quite possibly the best interview I have ever done, if you would like an introduction to my scholarship. Many thanks to R.C. Apologist and Aeveirra Nova for the opportunity to talk about my work—on R.C.’s birthday, no less! The Q&A was especially challenging. Listen at R.C. Apologist ! For a complete list of my videos, podcasts, and radio appearances, see Bear On Air .