Are the world's most famous chessmen Icelandic?

The chessmen, made of walrus ivory and whale bone may …

The chessmen, made of walrus ivory and whale bone may have been made by an Icelandic woman. Photo: The British Museum

Ancient chessmen known as the Lewis chessmen, found in Scotland nearly two hundred years ago could be Icelandic. A new book by Nancy Marie Brown suggests that they were made by Margret the Adroit in Iceland at the end of the twelfth century.   

Icelandic amateur historian Guðmundur G.Þórarinsson made the same suggestion six years ago, a theory which dismissed by international scholars. Brown, an American who has written extensively on the Viking age, concurs with Þórarinsson in the book The Mystery of the Most Famous Chess­men in the World and the Wom­an Who Made Them. 

The chessmen were discovered in early 1831 in a sand bank on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. There are various local stories concerning their arrival and modern discovery on Lewis. Nearly all the chessmen are carved from walrus ivory and some are carved from whale teeth. 

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