Gaelic origins of Icelandic words and landmarks challenge orthodox view of Viking heritage, says author
ccording to folklore, a Gaelic-speaking warrior queen called Aud was among Iceland’s earliest settlers. Her story is central to an emerging theory that Scottish and Irish Celts played a far bigger role in Iceland’s history than realised.
“Every Icelander who has been living for a long time in another Scandinavian country – who has learned to speak Norwegian, Danish or Swedish very well – comes home back to Iceland, hears words in Icelandic never spoken in these languages,” Fridriksson said. It has growing support among academics after groundbreaking DNA research over the past 20 years by the deCODE genetics company in Reykjavik and the University of Oxford found that 63% of Iceland’s earliest female settlers were of Irish and Scottish origin, as were 20% of early male settlers.
In a recent paper on Iceland’s Irish links, called Gaelic Whispers, Prof Gísli Sigurðsson of the Árni Magnússon Institute in Reykjavik showed that many of Fridriksson’s arguments are gaining currency. But Sigurðsson said that not all of his claims were substantiated. More work by linguists, particularly specialists in early Gaelic, was needed, he added.
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