Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the Wor (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781137279378)

"A fascinating tale of discovery and mystery." --The Minneapolis Star Tribune

In the early 1800's, on a Hebridean beach in Scotland, the sea exposed an ancient treasure cache: 93 chessmen carved from walrus ivory. 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? Nancy Marie Brown's 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 brings from the shadows an extraordinarily talented woman artist of the twelfth century: Margret the Adroit of Iceland.

Author: Nancy Marie Brown
ISBN-10: 1137279370
ISBN-13: 9781137279378
Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
Language: English
Published: 09/01/2015
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.40w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2015
Publishers Weekly 06/22/2015
Library Journal 07/01/2015 pg. 92
Booklist 09/01/2015 pg. 36
New Yorker (The) 11/02/2015 pg. 89