Find Request It
Cover Image

Looking for the hidden folk how Iceland's elves can help save the earth

"Icelanders believe in elves. Why does that make you laugh? asks Nancy Marie Brown, in this wonderfully quirky exploration of our interaction with nature. Looking for answers in history, science, religion, and art--from ancient times to today--Brown finds that each discipline defines what is real an...

Full description

Saved in:
Main Author: Brown, Nancy Marie (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Pegasus Books, 2022.
Edition:First Pegasus Books hardcover edition.
Subjects:
Iceland.
Landscapes.
Fairies.
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Summary:"Icelanders believe in elves. Why does that make you laugh? asks Nancy Marie Brown, in this wonderfully quirky exploration of our interaction with nature. Looking for answers in history, science, religion, and art--from ancient times to today--Brown finds that each discipline defines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has its own way of perceiving and valuing the world around us. And each discipline defines what an Icelander might call an elf. Illuminated by her own encounters with Iceland's Otherworld--in ancient lava fields, on a holy mountain, beside a glacier or an erupting volcano, crossing the cold desert at the island's heart on horseback--Looking for the Hidden Folk offers an intimate conversation about how we look at and find value in nature. It reveals how the words we use and the stories we tell shape the world we see. It argues that our beliefs about the Earth will preserve--or destroy it. Scientists name our time the Anthropocene: the Human Age. Climate change will lead to the mass extinction of numerous animal species unless we humans change our course. Iceland suggests a different way of thinking about the Earth, one that offers hope. Icelanders believe in elves--and you should, too."--Amazon.com.
Physical Description:xiii, 274 pages, 16 pages of plates : illustrations ; 22 cm
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-274).
ISBN:1639362282
9781639362288
Author Notes:Nancy Marie Brown is the author of several highly praised cultural histories, including The Real Valkyrie , Song of the Vikings , and Ivory Vikings . These titles have been favorably reviewed in the New Yorker , the New York Times , the Economist , the Times Literary Supplement , the Wall Street Journal , and many other journals. Brown has spent decades studying Icelandic literature and culture. She lives on a farm in Vermont where she keeps four Icelandic horses and an Icelandic sheepdog.

Similar Items