“Looking for the Hidden Folk: How Iceland’s Elves Can Save the Earth “
with Nancy Marie Brown
Thursday, July 9, 2026 at 3 PM Eastern Time
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In the summer of 2016, on her 21st trip to Iceland, author Nancy Marie Brown took a walk with an elf-seer: Ragnhildur Jonsdottir.
“We walked in a lava field she and her elf friends had protected from destruction when a new road was built nearby,” Brown writes in her book Looking for the Hidden Folk. “We didn’t talk much about elves or the Hidden Folk as we walked. Instead, we photographed lava crags and stacks and pillars, pillows of silver-green moss, caves and clefts and individual lichen-splashed rocks. We wandered about pointing out plants. We talked about art and inspiration. What is inspiration? Why do some places attract artists and spark creative thought? Why are some places beautiful—and how do you define beauty? And we shared an experience I still can’t explain. Said Ragnhildur, as we left the lava field, ‘Now do you believe in elves?’”
Reflecting on her own encounters with Iceland’s Otherworld, Brown reveals how the stories we tell shape the world we see. She argues that our beliefs about the Earth will preserve, or destroy, it. In this time of climate crisis, Iceland and its elf lore suggest a different way of thinking about the Earth, one that offers hope. Author of nine highly praised books about Iceland and the Viking Age, Brown “makes a strong case for everyday wonder,” says the New York Times.
Nancy Marie Brown is the author of Looking for the Hidden Folk, The Far Traveler, Song of the Vikings, Ivory Vikings, The Real Valkyrie, and other highly praised books of nonfiction. As a writer she asks, What have we overlooked? Whose stories must not be forgotten? For twenty years, she worked as a university science writer and editor; now she writes from a farm in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Icelandic horses graze outside her window, and every summer she travels to Iceland in search of inspiration.
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Upcoming Summer Salon
Scholar Salon 100
Thursday, July 23, 2026 at 12 NOON Eastern Time
“Living Goddess Traditions in Land Salzburg and the Salzkammergut”
with Krista Rodin
This Salon recording will also be available to members when processed after the event.