Naddodd ( non, Naddoðr or ; is, Naddoður ; fo, Naddoddur; fl. c. 9th century) was a Norse

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 ...

who is credited 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 ...

Biography

Naddodd was born in

Agder Agder is a county (''fylke'') and traditional region in the southern part of Norway. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder counties were merged. Since the early 1900s, the term Sørlandet ("south ...

in what is today southern

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

. He was one of the earliest settlers on the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

after Grímur Kamban became the first to settle there around 825. ''

Landnámabók (, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE. is divided into five parts and ov ...

'', a medieval Icelandic manuscript, describes in considerable detail the

settlement of Iceland The settlement of Iceland ( is, landnámsöld ) is generally believed to have begun in the second half of the ninth century, when Norse settlers migrated across the North Atlantic. The reasons for the migration are uncertain: later in the Middle ...

(Icelandic: ''landnám'') by the Norse in the 9th and 10th century. According to ''Landnámabók'', Iceland was discovered by Naddodd, who was sailing from

to the Faroe Islands, but got lost and drifted to the east coast of Iceland. Naddodd came upon the shore of a land with a bay and mountains near what is today the Icelandic town of

Reyðarfjörður Reyðarfjörður () is a town in Iceland. It has a population of 1,350 and is one of the most populated villages that constitute the municipality of Fjarðabyggð. History The town is at the bottom of the eponymous fjord, the largest on the east ...

. Although he climbed a mountain to look for smoke rising from fireplaces, he saw no sign of human activity. Naddodd decided to continue his journey to the Faroe Islands, but as he returned to his boat, it started to snow, so he named the land Snowland (''Snæland''). The island was later known as Iceland (''Ísland'') following the settlement of

Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarsson (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ; born 9th century) was the first Norseman to intentionally sail to Iceland. His story is documented in the ''Landnámabók'' manuscript; however, the precise year of his arrival is not ...

. Naddodd was the probable father of

Ann Naddodsdóttir Ann Naddodsdóttir ( non, Ann Naddoðsdōttir; fl. c. 10th century) was possibly a daughter of Naddoddr, the Viking attributed with the discovery of Iceland. Bressay Stone Her name may appear on a gravestone outside the cemetery of a church in ...

from

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 n ...

. Naddodd has distant relations to

Erik the Red Erik Thorvaldsson (), known as Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first settlement in Greenland. He most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color of his hair ...

and his son,

Leif Erikson Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson, ; Modern Icelandic: ; Norwegian: ''Leiv Eiriksson'' also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to have set foot on continental Nort ...

References

External links

History of Iceland
9th-century Faroese people 9th-century Icelandic people Norwegian explorers 9th-century Vikings 9th-century explorers {{Iceland-bio-stub

Biography

See also

References

Further reading

External links