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Title details for Looking for the Hidden Folk by Nancy Marie Brown - Wait list

Looking for the Hidden Folk

How Iceland's Elves Can Save the Earth

by Nancy Marie Brown
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In exploring how Icelanders interact with nature—and their idea that elves live among us—Nancy Marie Brown shows us how altering our perceptions of the environment can be a crucial first step toward saving it.
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 can be defined, in the Icelandic perception, by its own sort of 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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 4, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781639362295

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781639362295
      • File size: 21839 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Booklist

      October 1, 2022
      This rambling collection of linked essays considers the existence of elves. The ""hidden folk"" of Iceland, to be exact: well-known elves who stand out as recurring characters in Icelandic sagas and whose presence today causes highways to be diverted and special, sacred places to be left undisturbed. Brown (The Far Traveler, 2007; Ivory Vikings, 2015) visits Iceland frequently and is considered to be an expert in Icelandic literature and culture. She brings in elements of history, religion, science, politics, neuroscience, and environmental conservation to her considerations, quoting experts ranging from current financial gurus and tour guides to J. R. R. Tolkien. She also quotes known and unknown heralds from the past, sharing folktales and poems that date back over a thousand years. Brown admits that she feels a special connection to nature in Iceland, unlike any other place she's ever been. This results in glorious descriptions of Iceland's geysers and lava formations, plus some unforgettable descriptions of erupting volcanoes. Wherever readers stand on the elf question, they'll come away with a new appreciation for Iceland and its mysteries.

      COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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