Overview

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.

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Reviews

"""Brown overlays a glowing web of connections on Iceland's folkloric--and literal-- andscape of ice and fire, illuminating the answers to the many questions she poses."" -- ""New York Times Book Review"" ""Occupies a nice middle ground between the scholarly and popular. She takes elves seriously as a cultural belief and knows how to tell a story about them and their role in the history and lives of Icelanders."" -- ""Iceland Review"" ""This compelling and highly readable book offers a thought-provoking examination of the nature of belief itself, drawing compelling conclusions among humans, storytelling, and the environment."" -- ""BookPage (starred review)"""

Author Information

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. Ann M. Richardson is an Earphones Award-winning narrator.

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