Inspired by the god of Wednesday: Wanderer and storyteller, half-blind, with a wonderful horse. Icelanders believe in elves. Why does that make you laugh? In my new book, Looking for the Hidden Folk: How Iceland's Elves Can Save the Earth , I look for answers to Iceland's "elf question" in history, science, religion, and art, from ancient times to today.
I find that each discipline defines and redefines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has its own way of perceiving and valuing or not the world around us. And each admits to its own sort of "elf. 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 species unless we humans change course.
Iceland suggests a different way of thinking about the Earth, one that to me offers hope. Icelanders believe in elves, and you should too. In Brown's impassioned, informative love letter to Iceland, the cultural historian explores the country's relationship to its lore, in the process making a persuasive case for wonder. An impish literary handbook, Looking for the Hidden Folk takes Iceland as a model of how to treat the whole world as a precious, awe-inspiring home.
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. Read more reviews of Looking for the Hidden Folk on my Books page, here. Published by Pegasus Books - October - pp. I write about Iceland and Vikings, science and sagas. My books combine extremes: medieval literature and modern archaeology, myths and facts.
