Ann Naddodsdóttir ( non, Ann Naddoðsdōttir; fl. c. 10th century) was possibly a daughter of

Naddoddr Naddodd ( non, Naddoðr or ; is, Naddoður ; fo, Naddoddur; fl. c. 9th century) was a Norse Viking who is credited with the discovery of Iceland. Biography Naddodd was born in Agder in what is today southern Norway. He was one of the earli ...

, the

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

attributed with the discovery of

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

Bressay Stone

Her name may appear on a gravestone outside the cemetery of a church in

Bressay Bressay ( sco, Bressa) is a populated island in the Shetland archipelago of Scotland. Geography and geology Bressay lies due south of Whalsay, west of the Isle of Noss, and north of Mousa. With an area of , it is the fifth-largest island in Shet ...

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

. In 1864, a stone slab was found outside the cemetery, dating from the early 10th century. The slab features carved Christian crosses and decorations of

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

n origin on the front and back faces. It also has various lettering carved along the edges in the

ogham Ogham (Modern Irish: ; mga, ogum, ogom, later mga, ogam, label=none ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish langua ...

alphabet. In 1996, Celtic historian

Katherine Forsyth Katherine S. Forsyth is a Scottish historian who specializes in the history and culture of Celtic-speaking peoples during the 1st millennium AD, in particular the Picts. She is currently a professor iCeltic and Gaelicat the University of Glasgo ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

managed to decipher the text as part of her Ph.D. dissertation.Katherine S. Forsyth: ''The Ogham Inscriptions of Scotland. An Edited Corpus''. Harvard University Dissertation, Cambridge, Mass. 1996 One text says *" –– meaning: CRRO CC (gaelic for "cross") *"" meaning NAHHTVVDDA D *"" meaning DATTRR (Norse for "daughter") *"" meaning N - And the other says: *"" meaning BEN ES MEQQ DDR NN (MEQQ is Gaelic for "Mac", son-of) It mentions the following names: Nahhtvdda d, Ben es, Ddr nn :''See

Ogham inscriptions Roughly 400 known ogham inscriptions are on stone monuments scattered around the Irish Sea, the bulk of them dating to the fifth and sixth centuries. Their language is predominantly Primitive Irish, but a few examples record fragments of the ...

'' According to Dr. Forsyth (and other previous scientists) it can be translated in

Old Norwegian nn, gamalnorsk , region = Kingdom of Norway (872–1397) , era = 11th–14th century , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = North Germanic , fam4 = West Scandinavian , fam5 ...

to: "HER: KROSSUR: NADDODDSDÓTTIR: ANN" and: "(AV) BEINIR SONUR DRÓIN" Dr. Forsyth (2020) has also noted the possibility of ''DATTRR'' representing a

Pictish Pictish is the extinct language, extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited num ...

cognate of

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium ...

''duxtir'', likewise meaning "daughter".Forsyth, Katherine - Protecting a Pict?: Further thoughts on the inscribed silver chape from St Ninian’s Isle, Shetland. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (2020) p. 11

Descendant theory

Forsyth says that this Ann Naddodsdóttir was a Faroese Viking. The son Beinir Dróinsson (MacDroan) who raised the grave might be identical to Beinir Sigmundsson who according to

Færeyinga saga The Færeyinga saga (), the saga of the Faroe Islands, is the story of how the Faroe Islanders were converted to Christianity and became a part of Norway. Summary It was written in Iceland shortly after 1200. The author is unknown and the original ...

was the brother of Brestir Sigmundsson who together ruled their own half of the Faroe Islands. They both died in 970. Brestir's son

Sigmundur Brestisson Sigmundur Brestisson (961–1005) was a Faroese Viking chieftain, and was responsible for introducing Christianity to the Faroe Islands in 999. He is one of the main characters of the Færeyinga saga. According to the Færeyinga saga, emigrant ...

apparently introduced Christianity to the Faroe Islands in 999. If this is true Sigmundur was already of Christian faith at birth.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naddodsdottir, Ann 10th-century Faroese people Viking Age women People associated with Shetland