- Title
- Ivory Vikings
- The mystery of the most famous chessmen in the world and the woman who made them.
- Author
- Nancy Marie Brown
- Format
- Audio
This book was recommended by someone on Mastodon. (Sorry anonymous someone, I lost track of your post.) It looked right down my alley and I really enjoyed it. There’s a lot of speculation here (and lots I’m not educated enough on the subject to judge). But the idea of an Icelandic woman as carver of such an iconic piece of art is really exciting.
I think what I liked best about this book is that it was my first introduction to Icelandic history and literature. It strikes me that Iceland seems to be in this magical place in history: not so new like colonial American history that all the facts are laid bare, but not so old that the origins are entirely unknowable. I really love the teasing apart of history and legend. It’s almost like these legends are thiiiiis close to verifiable. I’ll definitely be reading some Icelandic Sagas soon.