As “Quid Plura?” stumbles toward (mirabile dictu) its tenth year, I’m amused by the unforeseen ways the blog continues to evolve—and heartened that people still stop by and comment, even during a slower or stranger year. Whether you’ve been visiting throughout 2016 or just happened to find yourself here on a whim, I hope you’ll find something worthwhile in this rundown of the year that was.

In 2015, I started a yearlong poem about moving to the Maryland woods. Through August 2016, I posted the first drafts of the monthly installments here. Start with the prologue and then continue through September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, and August.

How can you have a more medieval Halloween? Carve your jack-o’-lanterns out of turnips.

This was the year, alas, of creepy clown sightings. Find out what they have in common with Carolingian folk scares.

Congrats to the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia! This blog celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Blackfriars by taking in a performance of Henry VI, Part 2.

Many scholars claim to want a wide-ranging readership. I found a medieval literature professor who actually means it.

Articles about writers’ letters and journals are rarely as interesting as the sources themselves—but Amit Majmudar, poet laureate of Ohio, brought Lord Byron to life with one heck of a book review.

Dismayed by the din of a blustery year, I found time to review some books too:

• the best biography we’re likely to get of Dungeons-and-Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax.
• The Epic of Clare, a wonderful poem in which the end of the world helps a teenager on the high-school track team find her true purpose in life.
• A.M. Juster’s translation of Saint Aldhelm’s riddles, the rare resource for scholars that’s also a good poetic read.

I also celebrated the four-year anniversary, and not-half-bad sales, of a certain gargoyle-poem book of my own.

Thanks, as always, for your eyeballs, emails, comments, and links! In 2017, I’ll continue to write about medievalism, poetry, and the arts—and while I doubt I’ll post with anything other than perplexing randomness, I can safely promise that whatever turns up here you’ll never find anywhere else.