Journey from the Arctic

The author was apparently, as Voltaire put it, "A perfect Englishman - traveling without motive." Yet Brown had a deeply personal reason to ride by horseback from Lapland, through Sweden, into Norway during the winter of 1954. He believed that a journey on horseback was the most absorbing and eventful way to travel, a way to discover the world that becomes a mode not just of travel but of life. What follows is a truly remarkable account of how Brown, a Danish companion, and their two trusty horses attempt the impossible, to cross the silent Arctic plateaus, thread their way through the giant Swedish forests, and finally discover a passage around the treacherous Norwegian marshes. Though he was often busy dodging snow storms or trying to find shelter with skeptical Laplanders, Brown tells a vivid tale inhabited not just by the native people of the Far North, but their neighbors, the trolls, goblins, and giants of Nordic legend as well. "Journey From the Arctic" is thus more than an amusing adventure story. It is the true account of the only equestrian expedition in the late twentieth century to make a winter passage across the fabled Arctic Circle. Amply illustrated with photographs Brown took while traveling, the book is sure to be of interest to students of both horses and history.