Nancy Marie Brown, author of the newly published, "The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman" appeared in Kroch Library Nov. 20 to read from and sign copies of her book. The reading was sponsored by Cornell University Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, home to the renowned Fiske Icelandic Collection.
In 'The Far Traveler,' Brown employs her remarkable narrative skill to reconstruct the life of the Icelandic Gudrid (Gurur orbjarnardttir), who gave birth to the first known European child in North America 1000 years ago and later, widowed, went on pilgrimage to Rome before retiring to a contemplative life in northern Iceland. The book also weaves archaeology, economics, ecology and saga literature into an engaging tapestry of the Norse world in which women, no less than men, could be important and sometimes unusual characters.