Nancy Marie Brown
I like extremes: Science and sagas. Science and faith. History and fantasy. The Dark Ages and modern times. Fire and ice. My books combine extremes. They ask, What have we overlooked? What have we forgotten? What knowledge must not be lost? For 20 years, I worked as a science writer at a university. Now I write from a farm in northern Vermont, where the days are quiet and cool. Four Icelandic horses graze outside my office window. Every few years I take an adventure--and write a book about it.
Works
Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them
Discovered in the 1830s on a remote Hebridean beach, the 93 Lewis chessmen are the best-known Scottish archaeological treasure of all time. At the Scottish National Museum and the British Museum, they are among the most viewed and beloved objects. Songs, fantasies, thrillers, and films feature these quirky figurines that the New York Times has called “the most important chess pieces in history.”
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 400 years when Norsemen ruled the North Atlantic, and the sea road connected places we think of as far apart and culturally distinct: Norway and Scotland, Ireland and Iceland, Greenland and North America. Finally, Ivory Vikings brings from the shadows a talented 12th-century artist, Margret the Adroit of Iceland.
Website
Location
East Burke, VT
Author Contact
Category
Fiction & Literature, General Non-Fiction, Biography & History
agent Contact
Michelle Tessler
212-242-0466