Surprised Eel Historian, PhDさんのイラストまとめ

@stone_grunge

A couple of things:

1. these numbers are the records I've found, and there were almost certainly more
2. rents are hard to track; they usually only appear in record when they're created or ended. So there were likely ongoing, unrecorded rents

Still...that's a big drop-off. /2

There is a fun "medieval" tale that shows up in a lot of guidebooks for Ely & the Fens explaining why there are so many eels in the region. The story tells how St. Dunstan got mad at a bunch of impious & rebellious local monks & turned them (and their families) into eels. Bam. /1

Hey! I got my #kzoo2020 program today, & I'll tell you what: if you only go to ONE paper on eels at Kalamazoo you should make it mine. You won't find a better one!

Plus you get to hear from Erin Crowley-Champoux & @dr_xpi on food & medieval identity!

Start your Kzoo off right!

Early modern English has lots of eel metaphors. Some I don't understand, like this one from 1626 where an "Old Dottard" likes to lie "against a fire basting himselfe til his complexion smel like New∣gate or the inside of a Clownes Eele skin sheath."

A clown's eel-skin sheath?

It's cold and stupid outside, but this is Æthelstan the eel, and he keeps drafts away. My wife made him for me last year from a sock.

He's named for the Æthelstan in Wulfstan's "Vita Sancti Æethelwoldi" who turned back into an eel because he was an unrepentant hedonist

I really enjoy this 1694 map(s) by Thomas Burnett of the world without water. What a lumpy, bumpy globe!

I love maps that show the world in unexpected orientations. Like this one, from 1853. #maps #disorientingspaces

In contribution to #SundayFishSketch, here is an eel pen that my son drew for me last year. He got me an eel pin for Christmas, but wanted to get a pen. He couldn't find one to match his vision, though...