Anniken was born in the Eastern lands, daughter of Grettiawyn (her mother was captured as a young woman and taken to the East as a slave) and an Eastern chieftain. She was a very late child to her parents, having one older brother twenty years her senior, who still resides in the lands past the Sea of Rhun.

All of Anniken's childhood can be considered happy. Both of her parents loved her dearly and dotted over her, the name Anniken however, given to her by her mother and only used by her mother. She was also given a name of Eastern root, but she does not wish to remember it, despite fond memories of her father. All through her childhood she was secretly eductaed by her mother in the culture of the Rohirrim, and even though she had never seen the lands of her Rohirrim forefathers, she nonetheless felt a deep strong longing to one day do so, as well as that she considered Rohan her true home, despite having been born and raised in the Eastern lands.

Her father died when Anniken was 12, she mourned him deeply, together with her mother, but remained well protected due to moving into her brother's household, who had grown into a respected warrior among the Easterlings. However, when Anniken reached womanhood, she was married off to another Easterling warrior, this to ease tensions between her brother's and her husband's households. This was to change Anniken's life into a living hell. Her husband was of terribly cruel nature, mistreating his wife and later the daughter she bore him (Alinchen alas back then carrying an Eastern name), in brutal ways. Anniken endured, as to not cause problems between the families, but her desperation and fear grew with the years, until she decided her survival and that of her daughter was at stake, should she remain in her husband's company for much longer. She informed only her mother of her plans to escape, telling her she would be trying to get to Rohan. There was no persuading her otherwise, and 2 days after her daughter's second birthday, she indeed ran away.

Her desperate flight succeeded well against the odds. Anniken managed to unhindered reach the lands of the Free People, but the route she had chosen took her past Mirkwood, where she encountered a small band of orcs. In terror she hid her little daughter in a bush, telling the child to remain quiet, while she herself ran on, making much noise to draw the attention of the orcs upon herself, hoping she could eventually shake them to return to her baby girl. This plan was foiled by her exhaustion, the orcs caught up with her and overwhelmed her. Anniken's world turned black, receiving multiple blows to the head, and when she woke, she found herself rescued by a company of wood-elves, alas she had lost any sense of her own identity, aside from the name her mother had given her. She did not even remember her own child at that time.
The elves took great pity on the almost mortally wounded woman, and thus they took her with them to nurture her back to health. This was to lead to 3 years of Anniken's life spent in the domain of the wood-elves, who spotted her natural talents as a huntress and furthered them, while same time hoping her memory would return. The elf healers were convinced she had not truly lost all her memories, but was unknowingly blocking them, to avoid some great pain lurking in her past, an assessment indeed true. A part of Anniken's mind kept the memories hidden, especially the fact that she had left her little daughter behind, no matter how well meaning her actions had been.

As much as Anniken came to love the wood-elves for the kindness they had bestowed upon her, there was a deep restlessness within her, which led her to decide she had to leave and journey instead. The elves agreed that she belonged with her own race, also hoping that through traveling her memories may would finally find a way forth from the depth of her inner workings, and so Anniken spoke her good-byes to the elves and set out, first journeying to the Dale Lands. She visited settlements along The River Running, making a living from selling meat she had hunted, and finding herself among humans again, helped her memories to indeed slowly rise. Her body had fully healed, and while her mind was still unwell, she had grown much in strength, this aiding her to deal with some of which she came to remember, although she shared none of it with anyone she encountered. Eventually, after about 2 years in the Dale Lands, her memories came to be fully restored, and the close proximity to the Eastern Lands began to weigh heavy on her. In her dreams, she now lived through those moment over and over again, where she had hid her child, waking drenched in sweat from the fear and overwhelming sadness, haunted day and night by her own imagination in regards to what must have happened to her little daughter. It was clear to her beyond doubt that Alinchen could not have survived, assuming her to either have ended killed by further orcs or maybe wild animals, or at least that her child would have starved to death, having only been 2 years of age, unable to fend for herself.

Anniken decided she had to deal with these terrible memories by bottling them up once more. Whenever the memories rose, she began to sternly push them away and focus on her own future instead. Well trained by the wood-elves, also as a tracker, Anniken began to accompany merchants, and made herself a name as despite being female, providing valuable services as a reliable protector on journeys. Her stern, dutiful work ethics and her quick bow, served her well in finding employment, and she began to accompany trade caravans far and wide through out Middle Earth. It had always been her greatest longing to see Rohan, but when she finally came to travel through the lands she had always considered her home, she found the Mark to trigger too many of the painful memories she so desperately tried to keep oppressed, and she began to avoid taking on employment leading her through the Riddermark. Instead she ended working for many years in the Breelands, as well as even Gondor. Few areas of Middle Earth she has not visited, having crossed the icy plains of Forochel just the same as having battled her way through the Misty Mountains. 

Anniken, though she managed to survive her terribly painful memories, has been shaped by them in many a ways. She will push herself and others to the limit when it comes to guarding and protecting those who can not guard and protect themselves, and she does not accept failure as an option, this directly linked to the great guilt she carries within, feeling she failed her own child. She has lived a life of trying to make up for that past, while same time also nurturing a deep rooted resentment of males. She has refused any advances of men, from rich merchants to fellow hunstmen, which has led to her also being bestowed with the by-name 'The Icemaiden'. You hire the Icemaiden, you know your journey will be a safe one, but don't get any ideas about finding your bed warmed too... a saying to have sprung to life among the merchants of Middle Earth.

For almost two decades, Anniken lived a life on the road, but by chance one night she overheard a merchant in an Inn speaking about a reward, linked to finding a girl with a star shape scar on her right hand, and that he had managed to finally secure that sum. She questioned him about the details of his tale, and he informed her the reward had been available for many years, put forth by an old woman living in Rohan. These news shook Anniken to the core, for her daughter had carried just such a scar on her right hand, and everything the merchant told her seemed to indicate that her mother, who Anniken had believed to have remained in the East, had instead returned to Rohan herself, and this not enough, it also appeared that her daughter had indeed been found too.

Hoping against hope after a life time of believing her daughter dead.. Anniken pulled last minute out of her newest contract, to travel to the Rohirric village the merchant had given her details about.
And here she finally found herself reunited with her mother as well as her long lost child.. a joy she would never have dared to think still possible, a blessing beyond anything she could have imagined.

Now Anniken lives in Rohan, finally among those of her kin, and despite a life time away from the Mark, of the 3 females of her family, she is the one being of truest Eorlingan heart- and mindset. The Mark and the people of the Mark mean everything to her, also as she finds her own nature reflected in them. Her life of combat makes her a true Shieldmaiden of Rohan, proud and willful and determined to fight for her people, she is a Rider of the Mark, easily holding her own amongst men.