Ivory Vikings, Nancy Marie Brown
Ivory Vikings, Nancy Marie Brown
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
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Ivory Vikings
The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them

Author: Nancy Marie Brown

Narrator: Tony Ward

Unabridged: 10 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 09/01/2015


Synopsis

In the early 1800's, on a Hebridean beach in Scotland, the sea exposed an ancient treasure cache: 93 chessmen carved from walrus ivory. Norse netsuke, each face individual, each full of quirks, the Lewis Chessmen are probably the most famous chess pieces in the world. Harry played Wizard's Chess with them in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Housed at the British Museum, they are among its most visited and beloved objects. Questions abounded: Who carved them? Where? Ivory Vikings explores these mysteries by connecting medieval Icelandic sagas with modern archaeology, art history, forensics, and the history of board games. In the process, Ivory Vikings presents a vivid history of the 400 years when the Vikings ruled the North Atlantic, and the sea-road connected countries and islands we think of as far apart and culturally distinct: Norway and Scotland, Ireland and Iceland, and Greenland and North America. The story of the Lewis chessmen explains the economic lure behind the Viking voyages to the west in the 800s and 900s. And finally, it brings from the shadows an extraordinarily talented woman artist of the twelfth century: Margret the Adroit of Iceland. NANCY MARIE BROWN is the author of highly praised books of nonfiction, including Song of the Vikings. She is fluent in Icelandic, and spends her summers in Iceland. She has deep ties to the Scandinavian cultural institutions in the U.S. Brown lives in East Burke,VT.

About Nancy Marie Brown

Nancy Marie Brown is the author of several highly praised cultural histories, including The Real Valkyrie, Song of the Vikings, and Ivory Vikings. These titles have been favorably reviewed in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Economist, the Times Literary Supplement, the Wall Street Journal, and many other journals. Brown has spent decades studying Icelandic literature and culture. She lives on a farm in Vermont where she keeps four Icelandic horses and an Icelandic sheepdog.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jaylia3

When ninety-three meticulously carved, 12th century, walrus ivory chessmen were discovered in the decidedly protestant sands of Scotland’s Isle of Lewis in 1831, a haul that included 16 alarmingly Catholic-looking bishops, no one knew where they had come from (Fairies?), and while we still aren’t su......more

Goodreads review by Howard

4 Stars for Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them (audiobook) by Nancy Marie Brown read by Tony Ward. This was quite a history lesson about the Vikings and the game of Chess. It was interesting to hear when and where the chess pieces likely c......more