Foreword Reviews
"For decades, cultural historian Nancy Marie Brown has been fascinated by Iceland, a nation of natural and
supernatural wonders. Her book Looking for the Hidden Folk is a mischievous guide to reclaiming sacred connections
to places as a way of sparking environmentalist commitments. Brown delights in the fact that, in Icelandic, the word for home is the same as that for world: heima. An impish literary handbook, Looking for the Hidden Folk takes Iceland as a model of how to treat the whole world as a precious, aweinspiring home."
Seven Days
"Haunting and enticing. The author's descriptions of the countryside are staggering — not just the images she conjures but the reactions they inspire in her. Ultimately, Brown seems to want to use Looking for the Hidden Folk to shake readers out of their comfort zones, encouraging us to slough off the protective layers of skepticism we have about the world. If we're open to it, we might catch a glimpse of something magical."
Bookpage (starred review)
"A fascinating inquiry into the Icelandic belief in elves. This compelling and highly readable book offers a thought-provoking examination of nature of belief itself, drawing compelling conclusions among humans, storytelling, and the environment."
editor's choice New York Times Book Review
"In Looking for the Hidden Folk, Brown overlays a glowing web of connections on Iceland’s folkloric — and literal — landscape of ice and fire, illuminating the answers to the many questions she poses. Her passionate defense of the huldufólk would gratify the most sensitive elf."
Gisli Sigurosson
"Using ideas and stories about the hidden folk in Iceland as a stepping stone into the human perception of our homes in the world where stories and memories breathe life into places, be it through the vocabulary of quantum physics or folklore, Nancy Marie Brown makes us realise that there is always more to the world than meets the eye. And that world is not there for us to conquer and exploit but to walk into and sense the dew with our bare feet on the soft moss, beside breathing horses and mighty glaciers in the drifting fog that often blocks our view."
Seven Days
"Haunting and enticing. The author's descriptions of the countryside are staggering — not just the images she conjures but the reactions they inspire in her. Ultimately, Brown seems to want to use Looking for the Hidden Folk to shake readers out of their comfort zones, encouraging us to slough off the protective layers of skepticism we have about the world. If we're open to it, we might catch a glimpse of something magical."
Iceland Review
"Nancy Marie Brown’s “Looking for the Hidden Folk" 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."
Hakai Magazine
"Brown, a cultural historian, has traveled to and written about Iceland for over three decades, and her resulting book is a quirky and fascinating exploration, even a “mischievous guide,” that helps animate the Icelandic landscape and inspire its protection."
Here and Now WBUR
Ashtoningly in-depth”
starred review Bookpage
"A fascinating inquiry into the Icelandic belief in elves. This compelling and highly readable book offers a thought-provoking examination of nature of belief itself, drawing compelling conclusions among humans, storytelling, and the environment."
Booklist
"Wherever readers stand on the elf question, they'll come away with a new appreciation for Iceland and its mysteries."
Egill Bjarnason
"Nancy Marie Brown reveals to us skeptics how rocks and hills are the mansions of elves, or at least what it takes to believe so. Looking For the Hidden Folks evocatively animates the Icelandic landscape through Brown's past and present travels and busts some prevalent clichés and myths along the way — this book is my reply to the next foreign reporter asking about that Elf Lobby."
BookPage (starred 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.”
New York Times Book Review
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.”
Booklist
"Wherever readers stand on the elf question, they'll come away with a new appreciation for Iceland and its
mysteries."
Thomas Swick
Nancy Marie Brown is a scholar and a pilgrim, and Iceland (plus much else) is here illuminated through her knowledge and passion.
starred review Bookpage
"A fascinating inquiry into the Icelandic belief in elves. This compelling and highly readable book offers a thought-provoking examination of nature of belief itself, drawing compelling conclusions among humans, storytelling, and the environment."
Forward Reviews
"For decades, cultural historian Nancy Marie Brown has been fascinated by Iceland, a nation of natural and
supernatural wonders. Her book Looking for the Hidden Folk is a mischievous guide to reclaiming sacred connections
to places as a way of sparking environmentalist commitments. Brown delights in the fact that, in Icelandic, the word for home is the same as that for world: heima. An impish literary handbook, Looking for the Hidden Folk takes Iceland as a model of how to treat the whole world as a precious, aweinspiring home."
Gísli Pálsson
"This is a sweeping and moving journey across time and space – through myth and theory, language, and literature – into the world of wonder and enchantment. Beautifully written, Looking for the Hidden Folk offers a compelling and surprising case for the recognition of forces and beings not necessarily 'seen' in everyday life but nevertheless somehow sensed, exploring their complexity and why they matter."
Pat Shipman
Astonishing, lyrical, and thought-provoking. Yes, I am a scientist, but this book makes me consider a new reality. I am captivated.
Terry Gunnell
"A love song to the living landscape of Iceland and the cultural history in which it is clothed, inspired by the author‘s numerous encounters with the country and its people over the last decades"
Michael Ridpath
"In this fascinating book Nancy Marie Brown shows how the stories of Iceland’s hidden people are a natural human response to the island’s extraordinary landscape, and makes the reader question whether dismissing such belief as irrational is itself irrational.
Ármann Jakobsson
"Nancy Marie Brown's Looking for the Hidden Folk is an elegantly written and wonderfully individualistic exploration of Icelandic culture through the ages, combining a shrewd appraisal of traditions with an acute interest in the modern world and all its intellectual quirks."
The Boston Globe
Brown’s enthusiasm is infectious as she re-teaches us our history.
BookRiot
"Combines archaeology, history, and literature. So cool.
The New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)
I eagerly pursued this book, which is as much about Brown’s adventures as Gudrid’s, for the very same reasons.
The New Yorker
Full of exciting detective work, along with absorbing excursions into the history of the Vikings, of chess in the Middle Ages, and of walrus ivory (known as arctic gold).”
author of Becoming Charlemagne Jeff Sypeck
"For readers who've long sensed that older winds blow through the works of their beloved Tolkien, Song of the Vikings is a fitting refresher on Norse mythology. Nancy Marie Brown shows how mere humans shape myths that resonate for centuries.
Booklist (starred)
This book is a delight for chess players, of course, but also for gamers of all sorts as well as anyone interested in the intricacies of the provenance of art and in endlessly fascinating minutiae.
From the Publisher
Advance praise for Looking for the Hidden Folk:
The New Republic
Beautiful. A fascinating tale of science and religion, one that provides further perspective on the plight of Islamic science today.
Tom Shippey
Rivetingly told.
Michèle Hayeur Smith
"This truly enjoyable and very well researched book is a must-read for anyone interested in Viking Age history and the history of women."
author of the Magnus Iceland Mysteries Michael Ridpath
"In this fascinating book Nancy Marie Brown shows how the stories of Iceland’s hidden people are a natural human response to the island’s extraordinary landscape, and makes the reader question whether dismissing such belief as irrational is itself irrational.”
Gísli Sigurðsson
"Using ideas and stories about the hidden folk in Iceland as a stepping stone into the human perception of our homes in the world where stories and memories breathe life into places, be it through the vocabulary of quantum physics or folklore, Nancy Marie Brown makes us realise that there is always more to the world than meets the eye. And that world is not there for us to conquer and exploit but to walk into and sense the dew with our bare feet on the soft moss, beside breathing horses and mighty glaciers in the drifting fog that often blocks our view."
Library Journal
08/01/2022
Skeptics might be thrown by the subtitle, but this book covers much more than elves in Iceland. Brown (The Real Valkyrie) calls for readers to be open to ideas and beliefs that will enable them to better appreciate and understand the earth. Using history, mythology, science, and literature, the book challenges readers to look beyond their current mindsets. The book references a wide range of thinkers and writers, including Tolkien, Barrie, Muir, Coleridge, and Nisbett. Others cited include an Icelandic elf-seer (a believer in their existence), a saga scholar, anthropologists, and neuroscientists. Brown's own travels and experiences in Iceland are also detailed, such as getting closer and closer to an active volcano. Calls to save the environment can be a tough sell to people; calls to change their mindset, to challenge their beliefs, can be even more difficult to achieve. Readers who appreciate exploring spiritual experiences in nature will be drawn to this style of writing. Those who already adhere to certain religious beliefs may have a difficult time accepting some of the book's assertions. VERDICT For readers who are willing to free their minds and engage with nature.—Elissa Cooper
