6 Years on Patreon / Interview This Weekend / Early Access: Þrymskviða (Patreon)

As of today, I've been on Patreon for 6 years. It's incredible to reflect on how much that journey has changed my life, and on how much that journey itself has changed. For example, four years ago today I had about half the number of Patreon supporters as today (1,381, which has been pretty stable for about five months now). And two years ago, when I got my last paycheck from the University of Colorado, I had about 1,100. So there was a surge in 2018-2020 that I can't really account for, but that made the possibility of leaping into full-time public education conceivable and then real. Thank you for being there, whether you've been here since day 1 (Seven people have!), or just since yesterday! And thank you Stella for everything you do for this community.

I also have an early video for you, my much-requested "deep dive" into Þrymskviða, which won't be on the Youtube channel for a month or so but which you can watch on Vimeo here.

And on this coming Sunday, June 5th, we'll have our next Patreon-exclusive live interview, with Professor Helen Davies of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Professor Davies's research is centered on Old English manuscripts, medieval maps, and the use of new technologies to learn more about these primary sources for the study of the past. She and I have gotten to know each other in Colorado, but as she's teaching a class in England this summer, we'll use our typical trans-Atlantic time slot, 10:00 a.m. U.S. Mountain time / 17:00 Greenwich. The Zoom link is https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/92350132651 and the password will be: digitalhum

Finally, I was a fairly early adopter of Patreon, and I'm still on their "legacy" plan (where I don't have to give them as much of my earnings as later adopters, but I don't get the same level of support and have to "upgrade" to one of their new plans to get it). I have a suspicion that this has something to do with my incredibly buggy, not to say worthless, Patreon messages. I feel bad for anyone who's sent a thoughtful or kind message, or just a "hi" on Patreon messages that seemed to get ignored--I've tried to be as upfront about how badly those work, but I know not everyone will see those reminders. To be clear, I still almost never get notifications for Patreon messages, can't see the new ones every time I look at them, and I find that my replies are almost never seen by the people who sent them in the first place. Maybe "upgrading" Patreon is the right step to take in those circumstances, but for now I think that the community page has worked pretty well for most communications.

Anyway, come to the Davies interview this Sunday if you can, and thank you for your continued kindness and support over an incredible six years!

All the best for now,

Jackson Crawford