Pictish Women: Nectudad or Nahhtvvddadds

Nectudad – This spelling is the National Museum of Scotland's standardization of NAHHTVVDDADDS from an ogham inscription on a stone now in NMS. I understand there is a newish theory that at least some of the "Pictish" ogham inscriptions were in fact using Norse and "daughter" was indeed one of the words this theory turned around. I still need to hunt down the article/book where this theory is laid out, but it may be behind the reasoning for
CRROSCC : NAHHTVVDDADDS : DATTRR : ANN...
being translated by the National Museum as “The cross of Nectudad, daughter of An...”

If they're right, then Nectudad certainly sounds like it could be a feminine version of Nectan. So even if "dattrr" is Norse in origin, it still seems likely we are dealing with a Pictish name here. I think there are other reasonable ways one could standardize the name, such as Nechtudad or Nachtudad, but I would recommend consulting someone more versed in ogham than I.

Of course, the Norse usually put “daughter” as a tag at the end of the father's name, for instance Kolla Sveinsdóttir as “Kolla daughter of Sveinn” which would give us instead Crosc daughter of Nectudad, with “ann-” beginning some other part of the inscription. I believe the combination of the similarity of croscc and cross and the other neighboring languages that use an X daughter of Y format combine toward making “Nectudad” rather than “Crosc” the daughter in question.

On the other hand, “dattrr” need not be of Norse origin at all, but may come into Pictland through Gaelic or even from earlier Celtic languages parallel to its cognate in Gaelic. There are “a series of Gaelic names for women beginning with the element Der-/Dar- which has been shown to be a Gaelic cognate of the English word 'daughter', derived from a reduced form of the Proto-Gaelic *ducht(a)ir. A close cognate of this word, a derivative of the Indo-European word for 'daughter' (the English word is itself a descendant of the Germanic derivative), has now been attested in the continental Celtic language Gaulish as duχtir...In the inscription, χ= /χ/” (Clancy “Philosopher King”). Given these early and widespread cognates, it is not beyond possibility that “dattrr” could be a rendering of a Pictish term for “daughter” or “daughter of,” though we know so little of the Pictish language that this must remain mere speculation.

Selected Bibliography:

Clancy, Thomas Owen. “Philosopher-King: Nechtan mac Der-Ilei” The Scottish Historican Review, Vol. LXXXIII, 2. Oct. 2004. pp125-49.

See also Royal Irish Academy, Dictionary of the Irish Language (compact edn, Dublin. 1983), under der.

M.A. O'Brien, 'Der-, Dar-, Derb-in female names', Celtica, iii (1956), 178-9.

E. Hamp. '*dhugHter in Irish', Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft, xxxiii (1975), 39-40.

National Museum of Scotland

(This is a re-post from 2010. I would now have more to add to--and perhaps subtract from--it. I will include it for now, however, rather than omit it and will hope to offer a revision in the not too distant future.)

Pictish Women: Drusticc or Drustric

Drusticc or Drustric – A woman in the 6^th century said to be daughter of Drest and mother of Lonan, son of Talmach. She is mentioned in the Book of Leinster, the Book of Ui Maine, and Liber Hymnorum. Liber Hymnorum includes a story about her being sent to study with Mugind, abbot of Whithorn. Drusticc fell in love with Rioc (also studying there) and begged to be married to him but another student, Talmach, was sent to her instead. In the Book of Leinster, (fol. 373A?) “Drustric daughter of Trust” is in a list of mothers of saints as the mother of Lonan, son of Talmach. Lonan seems to be a saint in Galloway. Drest or Trust is a common name in the Pictish king lists and probably common through the rest of the Pictish warrior nobility.

As of yet, I've only read summaries of these accounts in secondary sources from the middle of the 20^th century. I'd love to get see the original texts or, baring that, find more recent scholarly accounts. But the old stuff is what is available in searchable full text and thus easier to find references in. Part of the Book of Leinster is available on the CELT archive, but I haven't been able to find the list of mothers of saints or any mention of Drustric. Nor do the folio numbers as given online approach anywhere near 373. (I tried 37A in case there was a subtle difference in numbering practice, but to no avail.)

Another potential problem with Drustric is that her father is apparently mentioned in at least one location as the king of the Britons or king of the northern Britons. Nora Chadwick notes that this might refer to the king of Strathclyde. Hector Chadwick, however, makes an argument for Trust, Drustic's father, as a Pictish king. Key to his argument is the fact that Trust or Drust or Drest is unattested as a British name, but well attested as a Pictish name and, in fact, the name of a Pictish king at the appropriate time in the 6^th century.

Chadwick, Hector Munro. Early Scotland: the Picts, the Scots & the Welsh of southern Scotland. 1949. Pg 12. 

 

Chadwich, Nora K., Kathleen Hughes, Christopher Brooke, Kenneth Jackson, Studies in the Early British Church, 1958, pp. 61-2.

Pictish Sourcebook.

(This is a re-post from 2010)

Pictish Women: Eithne

(Repost from 2010)
For a number of years, since I decided on a Pictish persona in the SCA, I've been keeping my eyes peeled for Pictish women's names. These are generally assumed to be vanishingly hard to find. Most of the web sites I came across either claimed there were none known or one or, at most, two.

Over the years I have found quite a few names that are worthy of, at the very least, consideration in this topic. Many of them have some dubious or debatable aspect to them: whether the name is really Pictish, whether it is really a woman's name, whether it was the name of a real person and not created for a legendary context alone. Nevertheless, given the scarcity of evidence for female Pictish names, it seemed worthwhile to bring these names together with a consideration of both their evidence and their problems.

But although I've done quite a bit of research and compiled quite a few names with shorthand notes to myself, I've been dragging my heels actually writing it all out and putting it up for people to use.

So, I've decided to use this space to try to edit my notes and get them out into the world. If anyone wants to offer feedback on any of the names, or offer additional names or documentation, etc., please feel free!

So, to start us off, one of the most famous ones:

Eithne – the death of “Eithne ingen Cinadhon” is recorded in the Annals of Ulster in 778: “Eithni ingen Cinadhon moritur” (U778.11 in the Annals of Ulster, Electronic Texts Edition, University College Cork, http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001A/). Incidentally, this stands alone as the last entry for 778. Cinadhon is most likely Ciniod son of Uuredech, an 8^th century Pictish king. His death is noted, among other places, in the same annal at the beginning of 775: “Mors Cinadhon regis Pictorum” (U775.1) three years before Eithne's death. 

 

Eithne is also a Gaelic name, one relatively popular in Ireland at the time and still in use today, the origin of the Anglicized name “Enya.” While this might make the name less distinctively Pictish, this is one of the best documented names for a Pictish woman we have. 

 

Whether the name would have been recognizably an Irish borrowing or was in common use in Pictland as well is impossible to say. It's also entirely possible that the name would have been slightly different in Pictish and the Irish annalist altered it slightly to bring it in line with the familiar Eithne. See the alternate spelled versions of the Pictish king list for examples of such spelling shifts.