This book had a fair amount of art history, Norse mythology and twelfth century history. It made a fair argument for its premise of Margaret the adroit as the creator of the chessmen and was an entertaining overview of several subjects. Wished there were more pictures, but thank goodness the internet provides for that now ( )

Interesting story about a curious set of chess pieces and the historical detective work involved in tracing their origin. Good info about Vikings and Icelandic sagas. Kind of fun but I can’t think of many friends who would enjoy this book. ( )

I'm sort of parking this one here for later -- it's pretty fascinating, in the icelandic connection, in the viking history, in the incredible story of these remarkable works of art -- I love a great sense of humor, and whoever carved these chessmen clearly had that. I've dipped into the book a couple of times now, but haven't really been in a scholarly mood lately. Also, while I love ancient things, you're just never going to lose the ambiguity -- there's almost never a definitive answer on anything, and I'm in the mood for some satisfying conclusions.

However, all that being said I had no idea these existed (they're gorgeous) or that there was a person named Margaret the Adroit, or anything about the political mechanations of Icelandic bishops, or the furious debate of chess scholars. Cool stuff. ( )

A fascinating look at some chess pieces carved from walrus ivory and found on the Scottish Isle of Lewis in the 1830s. Nancy Marie Brown comes at the story of these little carvings from every possible angle. Where where they made? Who made them? How did they end up buried on the Isle of Lewis? In looking at these questions Brown goes into the history of Iceland, Norway, the Church(Roman, Lutheran, Church of Scotland) not to mention the history of chess.

The walrus ivory carvings are now in several museums in England, Scotland and Denmark. Perhaps they were carved in Iceland in the 12th Century by a woman named Margaret who lived in the household of an Icelandic Bishop. This book has made me want to go see these artifacts and visit all the places where they may have gone. Still much mystery here and many question about the chess pieces that can never be answered. ( )

This is a fascinating book, taking me to places and times with which I am only slightly familiar. The author uses the debate about the origin of the Lewes Chessmen (she strongly prefers Iceland to Norway) as entree to discussions about many aspect of Northern society in the early middle ages. Because the book is mostly organized thematically (trade, the church, kingship etc) the chronology can sometimes be somewhat difficult to follow, especially if like me you were listening to this book on a road trip rather than reading a hard copy.
One topic seemed to me to be missing; all trade and travel was by means of the dangerous northern seas, I would like to have known more about the ships themselves and how they were sailed. ( )