Kven Sea
Encyclopedia
Kven Sea is mentioned as the northern border for the ancient Germany
in the "The Old English Orosius", the history of the world published in England
in 890 CE with a commission from King Alfred the Great
himself. It was probably the same as the Gulf of Finland
, although Arctic Ocean
and Gulf of Bothnia
have also been suggested.
viking
Ottar
. It seems probable that information about Kven Sea was originally also from him. Kven Sea by that name is unknown outside Orosius.
Borders of the ancient Germany were described in Orosius as follows::
It seems that the text refers to the Arctic Ocean
(or its southern part Barents Sea
, or even the White Sea
), but gives it a name "Kven Sea". The name is however not found anywhere else. The text does not cite Ottar as its source, but it seems reasonable to assume so. Ottar's story elsewhere in Orosius contained a lengthy description how he sailed along the coast of Arctic Ocean far to the east, presumably even deep into the White Sea
. He listed different people he met along the way, but he didn't mention Kvens to have any presence on that area. Thus it would not be expected that he had named that sea as the "Kven Sea" if there were no Kvens around at all.
Scribes working on Orosius had other problems with the northern seas:
which refers to the Baltic Sea
, including Kattegat
and Skagerrak
. However, Baltic Sea extends to the east of Sweden as well and further deep to the north. As it seems that the scribes had lost most of the Baltic Sea from their notes, that gives room to the idea that it had been combined together with the Arctic Ocean. This approach would move the "Kven Sea" on the Baltic Sea. Gulf of Bothnia
, the northernmost section of the Baltic Sea, has been speculated to be the same as the Kven Sea. An equal possibility is Gulf of Finland
. This might even be more likely, since Vikings' eastern routes along the Russian rivers to the Black Sea
, Constantinople
and Greece
started from the Gulf of Finland and having Gulf of Finland as the northern border for the ancient Germany is more suitable than Gulf of Bothnia.
s that describe the era during which Ottar lived, use the name "Helsingjabotn" for the Gulf of Bothnia, for example in the Orkneyinga saga
. If Kven Sea was a name used for the Gulf of Bothnia, it along with all of its possible variations seem to be completely missing from the Scandinavia
n namespace in later times. This is easiest explained so that they were not the same. It has however been suggested that "Kajano More" appearing in Russia
n documents from the 14th to 16th centuries in different spellings as the name for the Gulf of Bothnia might have been an equivalent of Kven Sea. This however does not explain its absence in Scandinavian sources.
If the name "Kven Sea" was used for the Gulf of Finland and if, as it seems probable, "Kven" was originally
a dialectal Norwegian name for "Finn", there is a clear continuum of the name as Finska viken in both Swedish and Norwegian. It must also be noted that Gulf of Finland was called a sea of its own still in the 16th century. In the north, Kven Sea and Finska viken are also the only seas, or parts of bigger seas, that are known to contain a name of a nationality.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in the "The Old English Orosius", the history of the world published in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 890 CE with a commission from King Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
himself. It was probably the same as the Gulf of Finland
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...
, although Arctic Ocean
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...
and Gulf of Bothnia
Gulf of Bothnia
The Gulf of Bothnia is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It is situated between Finland's west coast and Sweden's east coast. In the south of the gulf lie the Åland Islands, between the Sea of Åland and the Archipelago Sea.-Name:...
have also been suggested.
Kven Sea in Orosius
Included in Orosius, there is a short description of Kvenland by a NorwegianNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
Ottar
Ottar from Hålogaland
Ohthere of Hålogaland was a Viking adventurer from Hålogaland. Around 890 AD he travelled to England, where Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, had his tales written down....
. It seems probable that information about Kven Sea was originally also from him. Kven Sea by that name is unknown outside Orosius.
Borders of the ancient Germany were described in Orosius as follows::
- "From the TanaisTanaisTanais is the ancient name for the River Don in Russia. Strabo regarded it as the boundary between Europe and Asia.In antiquity, Tanais was also the name of a city in the Don river delta that reaches into the northeasternmost part of the Sea of Azov, which the Greeks called Lake Maeotis...
(River DonDon River (Russia)The Don River is one of the major rivers of Russia. It rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 kilometres southeast from Tula, southeast of Moscow, and flows for a distance of about 1,950 kilometres to the Sea of Azov....
) westwards to the Rhine, which takes its rise in the Alps, and runs northward, till it falls into that branch of the ocean which surrounds Bryttannia, and southward from the Tanais to the Donua or DanubeDanubeThe Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
, whose source is near that of the Rhine, and which runs to the northward of GreeceGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, till it empties itself into the Euxine, and north even to that part of the ocean which is called the Kven Sea (Cwen sea), there are many nations; and the whole of this extensive country is called GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
."
It seems that the text refers to the Arctic Ocean
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...
(or its southern part Barents Sea
Barents Sea
The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents...
, or even the White Sea
White Sea
The White Sea is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast. The whole of the White Sea is under Russian sovereignty and considered to be part of...
), but gives it a name "Kven Sea". The name is however not found anywhere else. The text does not cite Ottar as its source, but it seems reasonable to assume so. Ottar's story elsewhere in Orosius contained a lengthy description how he sailed along the coast of Arctic Ocean far to the east, presumably even deep into the White Sea
White Sea
The White Sea is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast. The whole of the White Sea is under Russian sovereignty and considered to be part of...
. He listed different people he met along the way, but he didn't mention Kvens to have any presence on that area. Thus it would not be expected that he had named that sea as the "Kven Sea" if there were no Kvens around at all.
Scribes working on Orosius had other problems with the northern seas:
- "The Swedes (Sweons) have to the south the arm of the sea called Ost --"
which refers to the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, including Kattegat
Kattegat
The Kattegat , or Kattegatt is a sea area bounded by the Jutland peninsula and the Straits islands of Denmark on the west and south, and the provinces of Västergötland, Scania, Halland and Bohuslän in Sweden on the east. The Baltic Sea drains into the Kattegat through the Øresund and the Danish...
and Skagerrak
Skagerrak
The Skagerrak is a strait running between Norway and the southwest coast of Sweden and the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area, which leads to the Baltic Sea.-Name:...
. However, Baltic Sea extends to the east of Sweden as well and further deep to the north. As it seems that the scribes had lost most of the Baltic Sea from their notes, that gives room to the idea that it had been combined together with the Arctic Ocean. This approach would move the "Kven Sea" on the Baltic Sea. Gulf of Bothnia
Gulf of Bothnia
The Gulf of Bothnia is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It is situated between Finland's west coast and Sweden's east coast. In the south of the gulf lie the Åland Islands, between the Sea of Åland and the Archipelago Sea.-Name:...
, the northernmost section of the Baltic Sea, has been speculated to be the same as the Kven Sea. An equal possibility is Gulf of Finland
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...
. This might even be more likely, since Vikings' eastern routes along the Russian rivers to the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
and Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
started from the Gulf of Finland and having Gulf of Finland as the northern border for the ancient Germany is more suitable than Gulf of Bothnia.
Kven Sea in other sources
Noteworthy is the total absence of the name "Kven Sea" from all Norwegian and Swedish sources. SagaSaga
Sagas, are stories in Old Norse about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, etc.Saga may also refer to:Business*Saga DAB radio, a British radio station*Saga Airlines, a Turkish airline*Saga Falabella, a department store chain in Peru...
s that describe the era during which Ottar lived, use the name "Helsingjabotn" for the Gulf of Bothnia, for example in the Orkneyinga saga
Orkneyinga saga
The Orkneyinga saga is a historical narrative of the history of the Orkney Islands, from their capture by the Norwegian king in the ninth century onwards until about 1200...
. If Kven Sea was a name used for the Gulf of Bothnia, it along with all of its possible variations seem to be completely missing from the Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n namespace in later times. This is easiest explained so that they were not the same. It has however been suggested that "Kajano More" appearing in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n documents from the 14th to 16th centuries in different spellings as the name for the Gulf of Bothnia might have been an equivalent of Kven Sea. This however does not explain its absence in Scandinavian sources.
If the name "Kven Sea" was used for the Gulf of Finland and if, as it seems probable, "Kven" was originally
Origin of the name Kven
The origin of the name "Kven" is unclear. The name appears for the first time in a 9th century Old English version, written by King Alfred of Wessex, of a work by the Roman author Orosius, in the plural form "Cwenas"...
a dialectal Norwegian name for "Finn", there is a clear continuum of the name as Finska viken in both Swedish and Norwegian. It must also be noted that Gulf of Finland was called a sea of its own still in the 16th century. In the north, Kven Sea and Finska viken are also the only seas, or parts of bigger seas, that are known to contain a name of a nationality.