THEY are symbols of Scotland and particularly the Outer Hebrides, and are among the most popular and important archaeological finds in the history of the British Isles.

Yet even as preparations are made for some of the Lewis Chessmen to finally come home permanently, there is renewed international controversy between historians and archaeologists over the endlessly fascinating chessmen – this time about where they really come from.

A new book has put forward a theory that they may have been created on Iceland rather than Norway as most often thought, while the person who did their exquisite carving may not have been a Viking warrior but an Icelandic woman known as Margret the Adroit.

It was revealed by the Stornoway Gazette yesterday that the six chessmen who have been selected for permanent housing on the Isle of Lewis will include a Queen, who will be joined by a King, bishop, knight, pawn, and warder/warrior, the last piece being the equivalent of the modern castle or rook.

The six will go on display in the new £18 million museum at Lews Castle west of Stornoway, which is due to open in December.

Now among the most famous of all mediaeval artefacts, the figurines were discovered in Uig bay by local crofter Malcolm Macleod in 1831, though there is some evidence they had been known about earlier.

Macleod sold them on to collectors – he himself was later evicted during the Lewis Clearances – and eventually the majority of the pieces, 67 chessmen and 14 “table-men”, went to the British Museum in London, with 11 ending up in the National Museum of Scotland.

Apart from temporary loans, the chessmen have never been resident on Lewis in the 184 years since their discovery.

Carved from walrus-tusk ivory and whale teeth, the chessmen’s creation has been dated to as late as the latter years of the 12th century, or early years of the 13th.

Only in recent years has the Isle of Lewis made a case for some of the chessmen to be repatriated to the island.

Cynics say this was after their commercial use began to be exploited – copies of the chessmen can be seen in the blockbuster movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

By coincidence, a new book by American author Nancy Marie Brown suggests an Icelandic rather than a Norwegian heritage for the chessmen.

The accepted theory over many decades was that the chessmen hailed from Trondheim in Norway, then a centre of excellence for the production of such figures.

Brown reports a different thesis in her book Ivory Vikings, The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them, in which she puts forward the theory that their creator could have been “an extraordinarily talented woman artist of the 12th century, Margret of Iceland”.

Though the possibility of Icelandic origin had been raised before, Brown’s knowledge of the literature of that country led her to Margret the Adroit, a theory she credits as originating with another author, Gudmundur Porarinson.

Margret’s existence has been proven, and her reputation was of a woman incredibly skilled at carving ivory, mostly for her main employer, Bishop Pall of Iceland.

An Icelandic origin would change many theories about the chessmen, and in her latest blog yesterday, Brown admits that there is a whole host of questions that need to be answered about these fascinating works of art.

She wrote: “Instead of facts about these chessmen, we have clues. Some come from medieval sagas; others from modern archaeology, art history, forensics, and the history of board games.”

Followers of the Norwegian theory of origin say they are waiting to read Brown’s book before responding to the new theory.