By Nancy Marie Brown

“The mystery of the most famous chessmen in the world and the woman who made them.”

Drawing from medieval Icelandic sagas, modern archaeology, art history, forensics and the history of board games Ivory Vikings links the Lewis chessmen to the Vikings’ luxury trade in walrus ivory and to a Norwegian king’s fondness for wearing kilts.  It presents a vivid history of the four hundred years when Norsemen ruled the North Atlantic and the sea road connected places we think of as culturally distinct: Norway and Scotland, Ireland the Iceland, Greenland and North America.  Finally Ivory Vikings brings from the shadows Margret the Adroit of Iceland, the talented Twelfth century artist who carved the Lewis chessmen—maybe.

Signed copies available.

St. Martin’s Griffin, 2015