Searching for scholarly publications having to do with literal dragons has proven to be tricky for an amusing reason I did not foresee; China. The dragon looms so large in the popular consciousness that geopolitical commentators and other political scientists use it as shorthand for the ever-rising Chinese economy. An auspicious sign, theoretically, but also […]

In this first entry of the blog, I had a few fairly simple tasks in mind; to introduce myself and the justify my interest in OMR texts. To try and “justify” my interest might seem like an odd goal on a university course, writing for an audience of fellow students and the professional academics who’ll […]

Well, my friends, the end is nigh; no, not Harold Camping’s prophesied apocalypse, but the end of this MA course (the taught portion at least), and therefore the end of this ramshackle account of same! Our journey draws near to its final terminus, but before we leap off and try to outrun the conductor, there’s […]

Between sombre meditations on the nature of evil and piteous screeds wracked with intellectual self-doubt, things are getting a little dour on the road here. But happily, the solution is obvious; it’s time to get silly, everyone! Let’s talk about Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter is a long-running series of video games developed by Capcom, coming […]

Gentle reader, you may be surprised to learn that I have my faults; it’s true! While a casual perusal of this blog so far might paint me as a confident, debonair academic (no, don’t laugh), I am in fact, not The Most Interesting Man in the World. What I’m driving at here is that my […]

What’s this doing here? Oh yes, now I remember. Sorry I’ve been away for so long, ‘twas a long bitter January rife with academic soul-searching and not a little food poisoning. But I have done some reading, research, and reflection which I shall relate right now. On the evening of January 30th (or a midnight […]

As I write this, it’s the 26th November, two days before we get our essay titles for the first semester of the MA. Given that I’ll probably be very busy between now and the new year, I thought it would be as well to spend this time working up an entry about my experiences so […]

I would comfortably wager that every soul reading this is familiar with at least one dragon in a work of modern pop culture they enjoy. Tolkien’s Smaug is merely the most famous of the fantasy great’s many wyrms. The Harry Potter series suffers no shortage of serpents. HBO went to great expensive to showcase CGI […]

Humble apologies, my fellow travellers. The road was long and crooked, not to mention washed into a sea of mud by the recent downpour. Hell on the ankles. As a consequence, I have let this field lie fallow and kept you waiting by the fireside for my arrival longer than I ought to have. The […]

Hail, friends and fellows. God grant ye good evening and preserve ye. I pray ye each take a seat by the hearth and allow your gentle host to introduce himself. Welcome to my MA blog, tentatively entitled Graved Under Mold. My name is Robbie Lyons and I wrapped up my BA in English at UCC […]