When you update a blog only sporadically, you never know who’s reading, or if anyone’s reading—but to my amazement, people kept popping back here throughout 2011 to see what was new.

Whether you’re a new reader, an old-timer, or just looking for something to read during a slow week, here are the “Quid Plura?” highlights from the year that was.

We are starburst, we are golden: medieval poets get us back to the garden.

Ghosts, violence, family grudges: “All My Children” was a true Icelandic saga.

The August earthquake shook up thoughts on wobbly English cathedrals.

Meet Ralph Adams Cram, the architect who implored us to move into medieval towns.

Biiiiirds fly…or not: the medievalism of dead Arkansas blackbirds.

Poets who spit blood: Christopher Logue’s “War Music” on stage in New York.

Boys, barbarians, verse: Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan, was one prolific poet.

Women loathe fantasy—or so claimed the New York Times.

No, “everything” isn’t online: What we throw away when we rush to go all-digital.

In Virginia, you may glimpse “medieval” Richmond.

In Louisiana, explore the castle Mark Twain loathed…

…or chase saints and monsters in New Orleans…

…or tailgate at a Cajun ring-joust.

You’ll find medievalism squarely in Savannah, if you wander long enough.

Something in the water? Gargoyles stalk Princeton and Perth Amboy.

In 2011, reviews of Lloyd Alexander’s non-Prydain books rolled jauntily along…

And Let the Credit Go
The Drackenberg Adventure
The Jedera Adventure
The Xanadu Adventure
The Philadelphia Adventure

…while “Looking Up,” the series of poems about the National Cathedral gargoyles, continued:

A goat’s canticle for Walafrid.
The lullaby of a skeletal horse.
The mad song of Cerberus.
An unhappy insect sentinel.
A Rilke’d raccoon.
A hamster at the museum.
A snake with an Anglo-Saxon appetite for hare.
A Mardi gras gator.
A Good Friday memento mori.
An administrator, fooled by façades.
A tiger mother singing of Midsummer goblins.
A dog on the trail of a thief.
The Nordic boast of a bowing, beheaded bat.
A monster, desperate for silence.
A homesick Jersey devil.
Bunnies at odds over gratitude.
A dragon and bird, doomed to dance.

Thank you for reading, browsing, commenting, linking, and emailing me throughout 2011! I’ll be here in 2012; hope you’ll be as well.