Margret the Adroit ( is, Margrét hin haga) was an Icelandic carver of the 12th and early 13th centuries.

Career

Margret the Adroit appears in a single textual source: the Icelandic saga ''

Páls saga biskups ''Páls saga biskups'' (The Saga of bishop Páll) is an Old Norse account of the life of Páll Jónsson, bishop of the Icelandic episcopal see Skálholt. The saga is recorded in three seventeenth century manuscripts and subsequent copies: Stock. ...

'' (Saga of Bishop Páll). She lived in

Skálholt Skálholt (Modern Icelandic: ; non, Skálaholt ) is a historical site in the south of Iceland, at the river Hvítá. History Skálholt was, through eight centuries, one of the most important places in Iceland. A bishopric was established in Sk� ...

, as the wife of Thorir the priest, who assisted Bishop Páll Jónsson and managed the

see See or SEE may refer to: * Sight - seeing Arts, entertainment, and media * Music: ** ''See'' (album), studio album by rock band The Rascals *** "See", song by The Rascals, on the album ''See'' ** "See" (Tycho song), song by Tycho * Television * ...

after the bishop's death in 1211. At the time, it was common for bishops to send and receive expensive gifts from other bishops and noblemen. According to the saga, "Margret made everything that Bishop Pall wanted." As a gift for the Archbishop, Bishop Páll commissioned a "bishop's crozier of

walrus ivory The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the fami ...

, carved so skilfully that no one in Iceland had ever seen such artistry before; it was made by Margaret the Adroit, who at that time was the most skilled carver in all Iceland." He also commissioned an

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

and "Margret carved the walrus ivory extremely well."

Claims regarding the Lewis Chessmen

In 2010 at a conference at the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

on the

Lewis Chessmen The Lewis chessmen ( no, Lewisbrikkene; gd, Fir-Tàilisg; sco, Lewis chesmen) or Uig chessmen, named after the island or the bay where they were found, are a group of distinctive 12th-century chess pieces, along with other game pieces, most o ...

, Gudmundur Thorarinsson (a civil engineer and a former member of the Icelandic Parliament) and Einar S. Einarsson (a former president of Visa Iceland and a friend of the chess champion

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11� ...

) argued that Margret the Adroit made the chessmen. It is a claim that US author

Nancy Marie Brown Nancy Marie Brown (born 1959) is an American author, having written five non-fiction books. In ''The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman','' she reconstructed the life of Gudrid (born ca. 980), an Icelandic voyager known through the Vinland sa ...

supports in her 2015 book, ''Ivory Vikings, the Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them''.

References

Notes

* ''Páls saga'' is edited and translated in

External links

The Lewis Chess pieces
at National Museums of Scotland
British Museum: The Lewis Chessmen
* ''The Economist''
"Bones of Contention"

Chess News: "The enigma of the Lewis chessmen""Are the Isle of Lewis Chessmen Icelandic?" by Guðmundur G. Þórarinsson
(summary of argument)
Chess News: "The Lewis Chessmen on a Fantasy Iceland"
(counterargument to Þórarinsson's) {{authority control Icelandic women artists Medieval Icelandic artists Icelandic sculptors Icelandic women sculptors 13th-century sculptors 13th-century Icelandic people 13th-century Icelandic women Medieval artists