Kvens of the past
Encyclopedia
Kvenland, known as Cwenland, Kænland or similar in sources, is an ancient name for an area in Fennoscandia
. Kvenland is only known from an Old English
account written in the 9th century, and from Icelandic sources written in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Since the 17th century most historians have located Kvenland somewhere around or near the Bothnian Bay
, in the present-day regions of Swedish Norrbotten
and Finnish Ostrobothnia
. The traditional East Finnish name of this area was Kainuu
, and it has been suggested that the Scandinavian name of Kvenland and Kainuu share etymological roots. The exact location and territorial extension of ancient Kvenland remain unclear.
around 890 CE. King Alfred of Wessex
had his stories written down, and included them in his Old English
version of a world history written by the Romano-Hispanic
author Orosius. Ohthere's story contains the only contemporary reference to Kvenland that has survived:
As is emphasised in the text itself, Ohthere's account was an oral statement, made to King Alfred, and the section dealing with Kvenland takes up only two sentences. Ohthere's information on Kvens may have been second-hand, since, unlike in his other stories, Ohthere does not emphasise his personal involvement in any way.
Ohthere's method of locating Kvenland is difficult to follow, since it means that Kvenland can be understood to have been located around the northern part of either Norway, Sweden, or Finland. Other, somewhat later sources call the land adjacent to the northern part of Norway "Finnmark". However, though Ohthere does not give any name for the area where his "Finnas", or Sami people, lived, he gives a lengthy description of their lives in and around northern Norway without mentioning Kvens.
Ohthere's mention of "meres", and of the Kvens' boats, is of great interest. The meres are said to be "amongst the mountains", the words used in the text being "geond þa moras". Though otherwise Ohthere only mentions mountains as lying essentially between the land of the Northmen and Sweden, it may be that, if his personal knowledge was indeed limited, in this instance something more like "in the wilderness" should be understood. Judging by Ohthere's limited description of broader Fennoscandian geography, it may be that he was referring to the huge lake district in today's central and eastern Finland and north western Russia, which would have been far into the wilderness from Ohthere's point of view. On the other hand, it may be that he intended to refer to the lake districts in northern or southern Norway. In the 9th century, the small lakes in the north were isolated and within the Sami region, but these were notably left unmentioned in Ohthere's discussion of the Sami. Moreover, there is a reference in the Orkneyinga saga
to the southern Norwegian lake district, including Lake Mjøsa
, an area which was inhabited at that time: the Orkneyinga saga tells how these inhabitants were attacked by men from Kvenland.
Mention of the "very light ships" (boats) carried overland has a well-documented ethnographic parallel in the numerous portages of the historical river and lake routes in Fennoscandia and Northern Russia.
According to the philologist Irmeli Valtonen, the Ohthere "text does not give us a clear picture where the Cwenas are to be located though it seems a reasonable conclusion that they lived or stayed somewhere in northern Sweden or northern Finland".
The name "Kven" briefly appears later in King Alfred's Orosius. The Kven Sea
is mentioned as the northern border for ancient Germany
. Also Kvenland is mentioned again thus:
It is widely assumed that Viking compass had a 45 degree rotation of cardinal points
. If the list is corrected with that in mind, the Norwegians are said to be to the north west of Sweden, and the Sami people to the north. Both of these points are correct after the rotation. Kvenland is then situated to the north east of Sweden, and might be placed somewhere around the western half of present-day Finland or Swedish Norrbotten. Information of Kvenland being situated "over the wastes" northwards from the Viking period "Sweden" (corresponding roughly south-central part of the present-day Sweden) matches the idea of Kvenland being extended to Norrbotten.
Also to be noted is that there is no "Finland
" mentioned anywhere in the original or updated version of Orosius' history.
and Orkneyinga saga
. Orkeyinga is written around 1200 CE by an unknown Iceland
ic author. Hversu is only known to have survived in one single copy in Icelandic Flateyjarbók
from 1387 CE, but may have been written earlier. Orkneyinga makes a bold claim that Norwegian rulers were descendants of the king Fornjót
that "reigned over Gotland
, which we now know as Finland
and Kvenland". Hversu is more modest and only states that a descendant of Fornjót "ruled over Gothland, Kvenland (Kænlandi), and Finland". Distance in time and place had clearly generated confusion in Baltic
geography among Icelandic writers or the texts have deteriorated when they have been manually copied over and over again.
Fornjót ("Ancient Giant") and his closest followers are purely mythological figures that are mentioned in other sagas as well, however without any reference to Kvenland. This might indicate that the writer copied them to the saga from other contexts. Noteworthy is also that Fornjót's great-grandson Old Snow
is briefly mentioned in Ynglingasaga in relation to Finland only.
In spite of the frame being legendary, Orkneyinga contains a realistic description of Nór
traveling from Kvenland to Norway. Based on saga's internal chronologies, this would have happened around the 6th or 7th century CE, but the dating is very insecure. Location of Kvenland/Finland/Gotland is given rather exactly:
Nordic geography is again only partially valid, since Gulf of Bothnia is not connected to the White Sea
.
The saga does not say that Kvenland was on the coast, but just east of the Gulf.
This is how Nór started his journey to Norway:
Having travelled for a while, Nór was still "beyond Finnmark". After a brief fight with Sami people (Lapps), Nór continued:
Starting somewhere on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, Nór had either went all the way up and around the Gulf, or skied across—it was winter, and the Gulf might have been frozen. Nór ended up attacking the area around Trondheim
in central Norway and later the lake district in the south, conquering the country and uniting it under his rule. There is no mention of Kvenland after that any more. Again only a handful of words had been reserved for Kvenland mainly telling where it was or had been.
Nór's journey from Kvenland to Norway is missing from Hversu. In fact, Hversu does not even mention that Nór came from Kvenland at all, only stating that "Norr had great battles west of the Keel". The journey may have been lifted from some other context and added to Orkneyinga in a later phase by an unknown author that wanted to make the saga more adventurous. However, the conflict itself between Kvens and Norwegians remains a fact as verified by Ohthere even though it might not have ended in the conquest of Norway.
" is an epic Icelandic saga possibly by Snorri Sturluson
(1179-1241 CE), who may have written it between the years 1220 and 1240 CE. The saga covers a long period of time, starting in Norway in 850 CE and ending around year 1000 CE. It contains a short description of Egil's uncle Thorolf Kveldulfsson co-operating with a Kvenland king Faravid
against invading Karelians.
Rather accurate geographical details about Kvenland's location are given in chapter XIV:
Saga's Finmark extended much wider than it does today
, covering all of northern Fennoscandia all the way south to Hälsingland and Karelia. Kvenland is given here to exist along Finmark as well, most probably on the same borderline than other listed areas, which may indicate that Kvenland is situated in a rather southern location at least in this text.
Worth noting is that the saga is the only source that seems to clearly separate Finland and Kvenland, listing them as neighboring areas. However, Finland is not listed in all of saga's surviving versions indicating that it might be a later addition by someone who did not recognize Kvenland any more.
Saga says that "eastwards from Namdalen is Jämtland", but actually the direction is southeast. Also Hälsingland is southeast, not east, of Jämtland. Since it is widely assumed that Viking compass had a 45 degree rotation of cardinal points, saga's "east" seems to correspond to the contemporary southeast.
In chapter XVII Thorolf goes to Kvenland again:
Had Thorolf gone up to the mountains around his homeland Namdalen and then straight "eastwards", i.e. southeast, he would have first arrived to Jämtland and then to Hälsingland. These are the same lands that were listed earlier in the saga. If the passage about goin "southwest" is taken literally and directly, continuing from Hälsingland across the Gulf of Bothnia Thorolf would have arrived to the southwestern tip of present-day Finland, center of Finland's Viking period population (see map).
Again, as with Ohthere, it must be noted that Sami people and Kvens are not discussed at the same time. The saga tells how Norwegians taxed the Sami people, but there is no indication in the saga that Kvens would have competed with the Norwegians of the Sami control or lived near or among them.
A lot of debate has taken place whether the saga provides truthful information of Iron Age Kvenland by mentioning that the Kvens had a real-sounding king and a law to divide the loot. The saga places the confrontation of Norwegians and Karelians on the 9th century. It is often maintained that Karelians actually extended their activities to Finmark only from the 12th century onwards, but there is no certainty on this issue. In any case, the saga-writer seems to have invented or confused key geographical details, like claiming Karelia to be right under mountains.
ic texts from the same era. One of the texts may be written in Norway
.
saga has a brief mention about the king of both Denmark
and Sweden
, Sigurd Ring
(ruling in the mid-8th century), fighting against invading Curonians
and Kvens:
The short mention about Kvens has little other relevancy except that it is the only known reference to Kvens in a Swedish context, however the saga itself is written in Iceland. The text lets the reader understand that Curonians and Kvens were co-operating, even though their simultaneous attack may be understood as a coincidence. Curonians
were a Baltic
people living in present-day Latvia
. It has been also suggested that the Kúrir do not refer to Curonians at all but to the Finnish inhabitants around the River Kyrönjoki
. This would explain relatedness of Kvænir and Kúrir.
Saga does not mention Finland or Finns.
, which was basically a guidebook for pilgrims
about the routes from Northern Europe to Rome
and Jerusalem, written by an Icelandic Abbot
Níkulás Bergsson in the monastery of Aþverá (Munkaþverá) in the late 1150s CE. The publication contains two descriptions of lands around Norway that the Abbot seems to have acquired for his book from independent sources.
The first description of the two is more correct. It lists Finland, but not Kvenland. The second one seems badly convoluted. It mentions Kvenland, but not Finland. Kvenland seems to be in the vicinity of Helsingland and Värmland, but then on the other hand north of Bjarmia; and yet north of Bjarmia is said to be uninhabited lands. Greenland is described as if it were connected to the continent.
Whether the two tribes co-operated or just accidentally fought against Norwegians at the same time, is left open. However, the short mention seems to confirm that Karelians were not alone taking over the control of northern lands from Norwegians at the end of the 13th century. This is also the third reference to Kvens and Norwegians fighting against each other.
mentioned in Tacitus'
Germania
from 98 CE already have a connection
to Kvens. Similarly it has been suggested that the Vinoviloth
mentioned by Jordanes
in De origine actibusque Getarum in the 6th century CE could have been Kvens. A more potential reference to Kvenland is Terra Feminarum
("Woman Land") mentioned by Adam of Bremen
in his Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church) written in 1075 CE, a possible mistranslation
of the name Kvenland.
Another reference to a north-bound land of women is from an Icelandic manuscript from the 14th century that describes a kuenna land ("Woman Land") "north of India
" and "near ... Albania
" that would only have women with both reproduction organs. As the name appears in a geographical list of countries and Finland
is nowhere to be found, it may also be a misunderstanding from an era that no longer recognized Kvenland any more. The text is however so convoluted, that relation to Kvenland is very speculative.
in the history, Kvenland has generated many theories about its origin. However, the location of Kvenland around or near the Bothnian Bay has been an unchanging feature of most interpretations since the 17th century, when the Swedish historians Johannes Messenius
and Olaus Rudbeckius first noted the concept of Kvenland in Old Norse sources. In 1650, Professor Michael Wexionius from Turku
became the first one to associate Kvenland with the Finnish concept Kainuu. Ohthere's passage mentioning the Cwenas was noted during 18th century, by the Finnish historian Henrik Gabriel Porthan
among others. Porthan believed that the ancient Kvens were Swedish, but many others came to view them as an ancient Finnish tribe. Nowadays Kainuu is a name of an inland province in north-eastern Finland, but the name was often used of the more western coastal area even in the 19th century. According to this view, names "Kven" and "Kainu(u)" may share common roots
, in early Umesaami dictionaries Kainolads and Kainahalja described Norwegian and Swedish men and women respectively (Lexicon Lapponicum 1768).
People of Kvenland were (and usually still are) seen as the Finnish kainulaiset
tribe, known to the Norwegians as the Kvens, who supposedly were trading, raiding and taking tributes over much of the northern Fennoscandia. A problem in identification of the Kvens was the fact that the area interpreted as Kvenland was seemingly devoid of any archaeological signs of sedentary Finnish settlement during the life-time of Ohthere. Thus several historians have suggested that Kvens or kainulaiset actually lived in South Finland, although they regularly travelled in northern Fennoscandia as long-range wilderness utilisators, raiders, traders and tribute exactors, perhaps settling permanently there in some cases. This has not affected the localisation of Kvenland, however. As these Finnish groups were supposed to transgress the region known as Kvenland during their journeys towards north, the Norwegians, who were only dimly aware of their southern homeland, supposedly came to call them as the Kvens.
and coastal Satakunta. A small local area called as "Kalanti
" (Kaland in Swedish) would have been a remnant of the earlier name Kvenland. Because of the trading and tribute-taking expeditions as well as settlement expansion of the kainulaiset, the territorial concept of Kainuu was gradually moved towards north. This idea was not generally accepted, and many other historians maintained that Kvenland was a northern region in the first place.
Another mid-20th century historian, Professor Jalmari Jaakkola, considered the Kvens or kainulaiset as long-range hunters and tribute-takers coming from Upper Satakunta
, from the inland region surrounding present-day city of Tampere
. This theory was supported by Professor Armas Luukko.
In 1979, Professor Pentti Virrankoski, Turku University, presented a hypothesis according to which Kainuu was originally the sedentary Iron Age settlement in Southern Ostrobothnia
. After the settlement was supposedly destroyed by tribal warfare during the early 9th century, the kainulaiset became dispersed along the western coasts of Finland, leaving only place-names and some archaeological finds as their permanent traces.
In 1980, Oulu University professor Jouko Vahtola presented that there is no evidence of the name "Kainuu" being of Western Finnish origin and considered it to have Eastern Finnish roots. However, he suggested a common Germanic etymology for the names Kainuu and Kvenland. Like most of his predecessors, Vahtola viewed Kainuu/Kvenland as the name of the coastal Ostrobothnia, meaning roughly "low-lying land". Based on the archaeological knowledge of the north, Vahtola did not believe that there ever was a separate Iron Age tribe called Kvens. He considered the Kvens to be mainly Tavastians
hunting and trading in the northern Pohjanmaa
, thus partially reproducing the view of Jaakkola and Luukko (Upper Satakunta being a part of traditional Tavastia). This theory is nowadays widely adopted in Finland, Sweden and Norway, and it is cited in many studies and popular works. Supporters of this theory sometimes want to see Birkarlar as Kvens' successors in the north, but this is not a necessary conclusion.
Recently (1995) the Finnish linguist Jorma Koivulehto has given support for the theory of common etymological roots of the names Kainuu and Kvenland. He suggests a new etymology meaning roughly "marine gap-land", the "marine gap" being the northern sea-route on the Bothnian Gulf.
The increasing archaeological fieldwork in Northern Finland has cast some doubts on the idea of Kvenland having almost no sedentary settlements. Encouraged by the new finds, late Professor Kyösti Julku (Oulu University) presented a theory of the Kvens being early permanent Finnish inhabitants of Northern Finland and Norrbotten.
Some Swedish historians have suggested that the ancient Kvens were actually a Scandinavian and not a Finnish group, but these views have little support nowadays. The Swedish archaeologist Thomas Wallerström suggests that the Kvens/kainulaiset was a collective name for several Finnic
groups participating in the west-east fur-trade, not just Southern Finns but ancestors of Karelians
and Vepsians as well. In this case, the land of the Kvens would have extended from the Bothnian Gulf in the west to the Lake Onega
in the east.
, who has placed Kvenland/Kainuu not only in southern Finland, but around the Baltic Sea as a kind of Finnish-Swedish "maritime confederation". Klinge presented a hypothesis of Kvenland as a naval power on the Baltic sea. This theory has not gained support among the mainstream history. Folklorist, Professor of Literature Väinö Kaukonen calls it "fantastic fabulation" and a "dream-wish".
Kvenland has also been associated with the legendary Pohjola
, an other-worldly country in Finnish mythology ruled by a fierce witch, Louhi
. There is no evidence that they have anything to do with each other.
ic sagas or old Norwegian
sources that would mention "Finland" in a Norwegian context.
As a name for a country, Kvenland seems to have gone out of ordinary usage around the beginning of the second millennium, unrecognized by scholars by the 14th century. Finland
as an independent geographical region, however not yet a state, ceased to exist in the 13th century along with the Swedish conquest
that incorporated it to Sweden as provinces. Names "Kvenland" or "Kven" never appear in Swedish sources. However, Norwegians kept using the word "kven" at least for those Finns who started moving to northern Fennoscandia around the time of the Swedish conquest. Norwegians, unlike their neighbors, already used the word "finn" for the Sami people
who were the indigenous people on the same area.
Today, the name Kven is used in Norway as the name of the descendants of Finnish speaking people that immigrated to present-day Northern Norway from the 16th century up to World War II.
Fennoscandia
Fennoscandia and Fenno-Scandinavia are geographic and geological terms used to describe the Scandinavian Peninsula, the Kola Peninsula, Karelia and Finland...
. Kvenland is only known from an Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
account written in the 9th century, and from Icelandic sources written in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Since the 17th century most historians have located Kvenland somewhere around or near the Bothnian Bay
Bothnian Bay
The Bothnian Bay or Bay of Bothnia is the most northern part of the Gulf of Bothnia, the northern part of the Baltic Sea. Its northernmost point is situated in Töre...
, in the present-day regions of Swedish Norrbotten
Norrbotten
Norrbotten is a Swedish province in northernmost Sweden. It borders south to Västerbotten, west to Swedish Lapland, and east to Finland.- Administration :...
and Finnish Ostrobothnia
Ostrobothnia (historical province)
Ostrobothnia, and , is a historical province of Finland to the west and north in Finland. It borders on Karelia, Savonia, Tavastia and Satakunda in the south, and on Västerbotten in Sweden, and Laponia in the north...
. The traditional East Finnish name of this area was Kainuu
Kainuu
Kainuu is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Northern Ostrobothnia, North Karelia and Northern Savonia. In the east it also borders Russia. Kainuu is known in the ancient Norse sagas as Kvenland....
, and it has been suggested that the Scandinavian name of Kvenland and Kainuu share etymological roots. The exact location and territorial extension of ancient Kvenland remain unclear.
Old English Orosius
A Norwegian adventurer and traveller named Ohthere visited EnglandHistory of Anglo-Saxon England
Anglo-Saxon England refers to the period of the history of that part of Britain, that became known as England, lasting from the end of Roman occupation and establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror...
around 890 CE. King Alfred of Wessex
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...
had his stories written down, and included them in his Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
version of a world history written by the Romano-Hispanic
Hispania Tarraconensis
Hispania Tarraconensis was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania. It encompassed much of the Mediterranean coast of Spain along with the central plateau. Southern Spain, the region now called Andalusia, was the province of Hispania Baetica...
author Orosius. Ohthere's story contains the only contemporary reference to Kvenland that has survived:
[Ohthere] said that the Norwegians' (Norðmanna) land was very long and very narrow ... and to the east are wild mountains, parallel to the cultivated land. Sami peopleSami peopleThe Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
(Finnas) inhabit these mountains... Then along this land southwards, on the other side of the mountain (sic), is SwedenSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
... and along that land northwards, Kvenland (Cwenaland). The Kvens (Cwenas) sometimes make depredations on the Northmen over the mountain, and sometimes the Northmen on them; there are very large [freshwater] meres amongst the mountains, and the Kvens carry their ships over land into the meres, and thence make depredations on the Northmen; they have very little ships, and very light.
As is emphasised in the text itself, Ohthere's account was an oral statement, made to King Alfred, and the section dealing with Kvenland takes up only two sentences. Ohthere's information on Kvens may have been second-hand, since, unlike in his other stories, Ohthere does not emphasise his personal involvement in any way.
Ohthere's method of locating Kvenland is difficult to follow, since it means that Kvenland can be understood to have been located around the northern part of either Norway, Sweden, or Finland. Other, somewhat later sources call the land adjacent to the northern part of Norway "Finnmark". However, though Ohthere does not give any name for the area where his "Finnas", or Sami people, lived, he gives a lengthy description of their lives in and around northern Norway without mentioning Kvens.
Ohthere's mention of "meres", and of the Kvens' boats, is of great interest. The meres are said to be "amongst the mountains", the words used in the text being "geond þa moras". Though otherwise Ohthere only mentions mountains as lying essentially between the land of the Northmen and Sweden, it may be that, if his personal knowledge was indeed limited, in this instance something more like "in the wilderness" should be understood. Judging by Ohthere's limited description of broader Fennoscandian geography, it may be that he was referring to the huge lake district in today's central and eastern Finland and north western Russia, which would have been far into the wilderness from Ohthere's point of view. On the other hand, it may be that he intended to refer to the lake districts in northern or southern Norway. In the 9th century, the small lakes in the north were isolated and within the Sami region, but these were notably left unmentioned in Ohthere's discussion of the Sami. Moreover, there is a reference 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...
to the southern Norwegian lake district, including Lake Mjøsa
Mjøsa
Mjøsa is Norway's largest lake, as well as one of the deepest lakes in Norway and in Europe as a whole, after Hornindalsvatnet. It is located in the southern part of Norway, about 100 km north of Oslo...
, an area which was inhabited at that time: the Orkneyinga saga tells how these inhabitants were attacked by men from Kvenland.
Mention of the "very light ships" (boats) carried overland has a well-documented ethnographic parallel in the numerous portages of the historical river and lake routes in Fennoscandia and Northern Russia.
According to the philologist Irmeli Valtonen, the Ohthere "text does not give us a clear picture where the Cwenas are to be located though it seems a reasonable conclusion that they lived or stayed somewhere in northern Sweden or northern Finland".
The name "Kven" briefly appears later in King Alfred's Orosius. The Kven Sea
Kven Sea
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...
is mentioned as the northern border for ancient Germany
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...
. Also Kvenland is mentioned again thus:
... the Swedes (Sweons) have to the south of them the arm of the sea called East (Osti), and to the east of them SarmatiaSarmatiansThe Iron Age Sarmatians were an Iranian people in Classical Antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD....
(Sermende), and to the north, over the wastes, is Kvenland (Cwenland), to the northwest are the Sami people (Scridefinnas), and the Norwegians (Norðmenn) are to the west.
It is widely assumed that Viking compass had a 45 degree rotation of cardinal points
Cardinal direction
The four cardinal directions or cardinal points are the directions of north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials: N, E, S, W. East and west are at right angles to north and south, with east being in the direction of rotation and west being directly opposite. Intermediate...
. If the list is corrected with that in mind, the Norwegians are said to be to the north west of Sweden, and the Sami people to the north. Both of these points are correct after the rotation. Kvenland is then situated to the north east of Sweden, and might be placed somewhere around the western half of present-day Finland or Swedish Norrbotten. Information of Kvenland being situated "over the wastes" northwards from the Viking period "Sweden" (corresponding roughly south-central part of the present-day Sweden) matches the idea of Kvenland being extended to Norrbotten.
Also to be noted is that there is no "Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
" mentioned anywhere in the original or updated version of Orosius' history.
Hversu Noregr byggdist and Orkneyinga saga
The more legendary of the two sagas mentioning Kvenland exists in two very different versions. They are known as Hversu Noregr byggdistHversu Noregr byggdist
Hversu Noregr byggðist is an account of the origin of various legendary Norwegian lineages, which survives only in the Flatey Book. It traces the descendants of the primeval Finnish ruler Fornjót down to Nór, who is here the eponym and first great king of Norway, and then gives details of the...
and 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...
. Orkeyinga is written around 1200 CE by an unknown Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic author. Hversu is only known to have survived in one single copy in Icelandic Flateyjarbók
Flateyjarbók
The Flatey Book, is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name Codex Flateyensis.- Description :...
from 1387 CE, but may have been written earlier. Orkneyinga makes a bold claim that Norwegian rulers were descendants of the king Fornjót
Fornjót
Fornjót was an ancient giant in Norse mythology and a king of Finland. His children are Ægir , Logi and Kári ....
that "reigned over Gotland
Gotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
, which we now know as Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
and Kvenland". Hversu is more modest and only states that a descendant of Fornjót "ruled over Gothland, Kvenland (Kænlandi), and Finland". Distance in time and place had clearly generated confusion in Baltic
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...
geography among Icelandic writers or the texts have deteriorated when they have been manually copied over and over again.
Fornjót ("Ancient Giant") and his closest followers are purely mythological figures that are mentioned in other sagas as well, however without any reference to Kvenland. This might indicate that the writer copied them to the saga from other contexts. Noteworthy is also that Fornjót's great-grandson Old Snow
Snær
Snær Snærr, East Norse Sniō, Latin Nix, Nivis) 'snow', in Norse mythology seemingly a personification of snow, appearing in extant text as an euhemerized legendary Scandinavian king.-Icelandic tradition:...
is briefly mentioned in Ynglingasaga in relation to Finland only.
In spite of the frame being legendary, Orkneyinga contains a realistic description of Nór
Nór
Nór or Nori is firstly a mercantile title and secondly a Norse man's name. It is stated in Norse sources that Nór was the founder of Norway, from whom the land supposedly got its name...
traveling from Kvenland to Norway. Based on saga's internal chronologies, this would have happened around the 6th or 7th century CE, but the dating is very insecure. Location of Kvenland/Finland/Gotland is given rather exactly:
-- to the east of the gulf that lies across from the White Sea (Gandvík); we call that the Gulf of BothniaGulf of BothniaThe 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:...
(Helsingjabotn).
Nordic geography is again only partially valid, since Gulf of Bothnia is not connected to 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...
.
The saga does not say that Kvenland was on the coast, but just east of the Gulf.
But Nor, his brother, waited until snow lay on the moors so he could travel on snow-shoes. He went out from Kvenland and skirted the Gulf, and came to that place inhabited by the men called Sami (Lapps); that is beyond Finnmark.
Having travelled for a while, Nór was still "beyond Finnmark". After a brief fight with Sami people (Lapps), Nór continued:
But Nor went thence westward to the Kjolen Mountains and for a long time they knew nothing of men, but shot beasts and birds to feed to themselves, until they came to a place where the rivers flowed west of the mountains. -- Then he went up along the valleys that run south of the fjord. That fjord is now called Trondheim.
Starting somewhere on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, Nór had either went all the way up and around the Gulf, or skied across—it was winter, and the Gulf might have been frozen. Nór ended up attacking the area around Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
in central Norway and later the lake district in the south, conquering the country and uniting it under his rule. There is no mention of Kvenland after that any more. Again only a handful of words had been reserved for Kvenland mainly telling where it was or had been.
Nór's journey from Kvenland to Norway is missing from Hversu. In fact, Hversu does not even mention that Nór came from Kvenland at all, only stating that "Norr had great battles west of the Keel". The journey may have been lifted from some other context and added to Orkneyinga in a later phase by an unknown author that wanted to make the saga more adventurous. However, the conflict itself between Kvens and Norwegians remains a fact as verified by Ohthere even though it might not have ended in the conquest of Norway.
Egil's saga
"Egils sagaEgils saga
Egils saga is an epic Icelandic saga. The oldest transcript dates back to 1240 AD. The saga is centered on the life of Egill Skallagrímsson, an Icelandic farmer, viking and skald...
" is an epic Icelandic saga possibly by Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
(1179-1241 CE), who may have written it between the years 1220 and 1240 CE. The saga covers a long period of time, starting in Norway in 850 CE and ending around year 1000 CE. It contains a short description of Egil's uncle Thorolf Kveldulfsson co-operating with a Kvenland king Faravid
Faravid
Faravid was a legendary King of Kvenland who is mentioned in the Icelandic Egils saga from the early 13th century. According to the saga, Faravid made an alliance with Norwegians to fight against Karelian invaders. The saga mentions him in a 9th century context, but this is too early to be credible...
against invading Karelians.
Rather accurate geographical details about Kvenland's location are given in chapter XIV:
Finmark is a wide tract; it is bounded westwards by the sea, wherefrom large firths run in; by sea also northwards and round to the east; but southwards lies Norway; and Finmark stretches along nearly all the inland region to the south, as also does HålogalandHålogalandHålogaland was the northernmost of the Norwegian provinces in the mediaeval Norse sagas. In the early Viking Age, before Harald Fairhair, Hålogaland was a petty kingdom extending between Namdalen in Nord-Trøndelag and Lyngen in Troms.-Etymology:...
outside. But eastwards from NamdalenNamdalenNamdalen is a traditional district in the central part of Norway, consisting of the municipalities Namsos, Grong, Overhalla, Røyrvik, Fosnes, Nærøy, Høylandet, Namdalseid, Flatanger, Lierne, Leka, Namsskogan, and Vikna, all in Nord-Trøndelag county. The district has two towns: Kolvereid and Namsos...
(Naumdale) is JämtlandJämtlandJämtland or Jamtland is a historical province or landskap in the center of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders to Härjedalen and Medelpad in the south, Ångermanland in the east, Lapland in the north and Trøndelag and Norway in the west...
(Jamtaland), then HälsinglandHälsingland' is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. It borders to Gästrikland, Dalarna, Härjedalen, Medelpad and to the Gulf of Bothnia...
(Helsingjaland) and Kvenland, then Finland, then KareliaKareliaKarelia , the land of the Karelian peoples, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden...
(Kirialaland); along all these lands to the north lies Finmark, and there are wide inhabited fell-districts, some in dales, some by lakes. The lakes of Finmark are wonderfully large, and by the lakes there are extensive forests. But high fells lie behind from end to end of the Mark, and this ridge is called Keels.
Saga's Finmark extended much wider than it does today
Finmark
Finmark may refer to:* Finmark, Ontario, a community in the Thunder Bay District of Ontario* the Sápmi * a misspelling of Finnmark, a county in Norway....
, covering all of northern Fennoscandia all the way south to Hälsingland and Karelia. Kvenland is given here to exist along Finmark as well, most probably on the same borderline than other listed areas, which may indicate that Kvenland is situated in a rather southern location at least in this text.
Worth noting is that the saga is the only source that seems to clearly separate Finland and Kvenland, listing them as neighboring areas. However, Finland is not listed in all of saga's surviving versions indicating that it might be a later addition by someone who did not recognize Kvenland any more.
Saga says that "eastwards from Namdalen is Jämtland", but actually the direction is southeast. Also Hälsingland is southeast, not east, of Jämtland. Since it is widely assumed that Viking compass had a 45 degree rotation of cardinal points, saga's "east" seems to correspond to the contemporary southeast.
In chapter XVII Thorolf goes to Kvenland again:
That same winter Thorolf went up on the fell with a hundred men; he passed on at once eastwards to Kvenland and met king Faravid.
Had Thorolf gone up to the mountains around his homeland Namdalen and then straight "eastwards", i.e. southeast, he would have first arrived to Jämtland and then to Hälsingland. These are the same lands that were listed earlier in the saga. If the passage about goin "southwest" is taken literally and directly, continuing from Hälsingland across the Gulf of Bothnia Thorolf would have arrived to the southwestern tip of present-day Finland, center of Finland's Viking period population (see map).
Again, as with Ohthere, it must be noted that Sami people and Kvens are not discussed at the same time. The saga tells how Norwegians taxed the Sami people, but there is no indication in the saga that Kvens would have competed with the Norwegians of the Sami control or lived near or among them.
A lot of debate has taken place whether the saga provides truthful information of Iron Age Kvenland by mentioning that the Kvens had a real-sounding king and a law to divide the loot. The saga places the confrontation of Norwegians and Karelians on the 9th century. It is often maintained that Karelians actually extended their activities to Finmark only from the 12th century onwards, but there is no certainty on this issue. In any case, the saga-writer seems to have invented or confused key geographical details, like claiming Karelia to be right under mountains.
Other sources
Besides the three main sources, Kvenland or Kvens are very briefly mentioned in four IcelandIceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic texts from the same era. One of the texts may be written in Norway
Norway
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...
.
Norna-Gests þáttr saga
Norna-Gests þáttrNorna-Gests þáttr
Norna-Gests þáttr or the Story of Norna-Gest is a legendary saga about the Norse hero Norna-Gest.-Summary:Norna-Gest was the son of a Danish man named Thord of Thinghusbit, who once dwelt on the estate of Grøning in Denmark. When he was born, three Norns arrived and had foretold the child's...
saga has a brief mention about the king of both Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Sigurd Ring
Sigurd Ring
Sigurd Hring was a Swedish and Danish king mentioned in many old Scandinavian legends. According to Bósa saga ok Herrauds, there was once a saga on Sigurd Hring, but this saga is now lost...
(ruling in the mid-8th century), fighting against invading Curonians
Curonians
The Curonians or Kurs were a Baltic tribe living on the shores of the Baltic sea in what are now the western parts of Latvia and Lithuania from the 5th to the 16th centuries, when they merged with other Baltic tribes. They gave their name to the region of Courland , and they spoke the Old...
and Kvens:
Sigurd Ring (Sigurðr) was not there, since he had to defend his land, Sweden (Svíþjóð), since Curonians (Kúrir) and Kvens (Kvænir) were raiding there.
The short mention about Kvens has little other relevancy except that it is the only known reference to Kvens in a Swedish context, however the saga itself is written in Iceland. The text lets the reader understand that Curonians and Kvens were co-operating, even though their simultaneous attack may be understood as a coincidence. Curonians
Curonians
The Curonians or Kurs were a Baltic tribe living on the shores of the Baltic sea in what are now the western parts of Latvia and Lithuania from the 5th to the 16th centuries, when they merged with other Baltic tribes. They gave their name to the region of Courland , and they spoke the Old...
were a Baltic
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...
people living in present-day Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
. It has been also suggested that the Kúrir do not refer to Curonians at all but to the Finnish inhabitants around the River Kyrönjoki
Kyrönjoki
Kyrönjoki is a river of Finland. It is located in Southern Ostrobothnia region and flows into the Gulf of Bothnia.-See also:*List of rivers of Finland...
. This would explain relatedness of Kvænir and Kúrir.
Saga does not mention Finland or Finns.
Historia Norwegiae
Historia Norwegiae is written sometime between 1160-75 CE in an unknown location, although eastern Norway is suspected. It contains a list of peoples in the north:But towards north many pagan tribes—alas!—stretch from the east behind Norway, namely KareliansKareliansThe Karelians are a Baltic-Finnic ethnic group living mostly in the Republic of Karelia and in other north-western parts of the Russian Federation. The historic homeland of Karelians includes also parts of present-day Eastern Finland and the formerly Finnish territory of Ladoga Karelia...
(Kiriali) and Kvens (Kwæni), corneous Sami people (cornuti Finni) and both peoples of Bjarmia (utrique Biarmones). But what tribes dwell behind them, have we no certainty.
Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan
Kvenland appears once in a list of countries found in Leiðarvísir og borgarskipanLeiðarvísir og borgarskipan
The geographical chronicle Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan was published in c. 1157 AD by Níkulás Bergsson , the abbot of the monastery of Aþverá in Thingeyrar , Northern Iceland....
, which was basically a guidebook for pilgrims
Pilgrims
Pilgrims , or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States...
about the routes from Northern Europe to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Jerusalem, written by an Icelandic Abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
Níkulás Bergsson in the monastery of Aþverá (Munkaþverá) in the late 1150s CE. The publication contains two descriptions of lands around Norway that the Abbot seems to have acquired for his book from independent sources.
GötalandGötalandGötaland , Gothia, Gothland, Gothenland, Gautland or Geatland is one of three lands of Sweden and comprises provinces...
(Gautland) is east of the River GötaGöta älvThe Göta is a river that drains lake Vänern into the Kattegat at the city of Gothenburg on the western coast of Sweden. It is located in Götaland, with the river itself being a site of early Geatish settlement. The length is 93 km. Often the combination of Göta älv and Klarälven is mentioned...
(Gautelfi), and closest to it is SwedenSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
(Svíþjóð), then closest is HälsinglandHälsingland' is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. It borders to Gästrikland, Dalarna, Härjedalen, Medelpad and to the Gulf of Bothnia...
(Helsingaland), then FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
(Finnland); then come the borders of RussiaRussiaRussia 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...
(Garðaríki), which we mentioned earlier. But on the other side of Götaland is DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
--
Closest to Denmark is little Sweden (Svíþjóð), there is ÖlandÖland' is the second largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area of 1,342 km² and is located in the Baltic Sea just off the coast of Småland. The island has 25,000 inhabitants, but during Swedish Midsummer it is visited by up to 500,000 people...
(Eyland); then is GotlandGotlandGotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
(Gotland); then HälsinglandHälsingland' is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. It borders to Gästrikland, Dalarna, Härjedalen, Medelpad and to the Gulf of Bothnia...
(Helsingaland); then VärmlandVärmland' is a historical province or landskap in the west of middle Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Dalsland, Dalarna, Västmanland and Närke. It is also bounded by Norway in the west. Latin name versions are Vermelandia and Wermelandia. Although the province's land originally was Götaland, the...
(Vermaland); then two Kvenlands (Kvenlönd), and they are north of Bjarmia (Bjarmalandi). From Bjarmia, uninhabited lands stretch in the north to the borders of GreenlandGreenlandGreenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
(Grænland) --
The first description of the two is more correct. It lists Finland, but not Kvenland. The second one seems badly convoluted. It mentions Kvenland, but not Finland. Kvenland seems to be in the vicinity of Helsingland and Värmland, but then on the other hand north of Bjarmia; and yet north of Bjarmia is said to be uninhabited lands. Greenland is described as if it were connected to the continent.
Icelandic Annals
Icelandic annals have a late mention of Kvens clearly active in the north. Around 1271 CE, the following is said to have happened:Then Karelians (Kereliar) and Kvens (Kvænir) pillaged widely in HålogalandHålogalandHålogaland was the northernmost of the Norwegian provinces in the mediaeval Norse sagas. In the early Viking Age, before Harald Fairhair, Hålogaland was a petty kingdom extending between Namdalen in Nord-Trøndelag and Lyngen in Troms.-Etymology:...
(Hálogalandi).
Whether the two tribes co-operated or just accidentally fought against Norwegians at the same time, is left open. However, the short mention seems to confirm that Karelians were not alone taking over the control of northern lands from Norwegians at the end of the 13th century. This is also the third reference to Kvens and Norwegians fighting against each other.
Possible other sources
It is sometimes speculated that SitonesSitones
Sitones were a Germanic people living somewhere in Northern Europe in the 1st century CE. They are only mentioned by Cornelius Tacitus in 97 CE in Germania. Tacitus considered them a Germanic people similar to Suiones :...
mentioned in Tacitus'
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
Germania
Germania
Germania was the Greek and Roman geographical term for the geographical regions inhabited by mainly by peoples considered to be Germani. It was most often used to refer especially to the east of the Rhine and north of the Danube...
from 98 CE already have a connection
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"...
to Kvens. Similarly it has been suggested that the Vinoviloth
Vinoviloth
Vinoviloth are one of the tribes in Scandinavia mentioned by Jordanes in De origine actibusque Getarum in the 6th century CE. It has sometimes been speculated that they would have been the same as Kvens or Winnili. Sometimes Vingulmark is also mentioned...
mentioned by Jordanes
Jordanes
Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....
in De origine actibusque Getarum in the 6th century CE could have been Kvens. A more potential reference to Kvenland is Terra Feminarum
Terra Feminarum
Terra feminarum is a name for a land in Fennoscandia that appears in Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum by Adam of Bremen 1075 AD...
("Woman Land") mentioned by Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum .-Background:Little is known of his life other than hints from his own chronicles...
in his Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church) written in 1075 CE, a possible mistranslation
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"...
of the name Kvenland.
Another reference to a north-bound land of women is from an Icelandic manuscript from the 14th century that describes a kuenna land ("Woman Land") "north of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
" and "near ... Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
" that would only have women with both reproduction organs. As the name appears in a geographical list of countries and Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
is nowhere to be found, it may also be a misunderstanding from an era that no longer recognized Kvenland any more. The text is however so convoluted, that relation to Kvenland is very speculative.
Kvenland and Kainuu
Like all countries lostMythical place
Places which appear in mythology, folklore or religious texts or tradition, but which are not probably genuine places, include:...
in the history, Kvenland has generated many theories about its origin. However, the location of Kvenland around or near the Bothnian Bay has been an unchanging feature of most interpretations since the 17th century, when the Swedish historians Johannes Messenius
Johannes Messenius
Johannes Messenius was a Swedish historian, dramatist and university professor. He was born in the village of Freberga, in Stenby parish in Östergötland, and died in Oulu, in modern-day Finland.-Childhood:...
and Olaus Rudbeckius first noted the concept of Kvenland in Old Norse sources. In 1650, Professor Michael Wexionius from Turku
Turku
Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...
became the first one to associate Kvenland with the Finnish concept Kainuu. Ohthere's passage mentioning the Cwenas was noted during 18th century, by the Finnish historian Henrik Gabriel Porthan
Henrik Gabriel Porthan
Henrik Gabriel Porthan was a scholar sometimes known as The Father of Finnish History. He was a student of Daniel Juslenius and a Fennophile. He brought Finnish history-writing, study of mythology and folk poetry, and other humanistic sciences to an international level...
among others. Porthan believed that the ancient Kvens were Swedish, but many others came to view them as an ancient Finnish tribe. Nowadays Kainuu is a name of an inland province in north-eastern Finland, but the name was often used of the more western coastal area even in the 19th century. According to this view, names "Kven" and "Kainu(u)" may share common roots
Origin of the name Kainuu
Origin of the name Kainuu has been a disputed subject among Finnish historians and linguistics. Kainuu is a region of Finland. The reason for the controversy is the speculated connection between areas known as Kainuu and Kvenland, both historical lands in Fennoscandia.-Theory one: Swampy land:As a...
, in early Umesaami dictionaries Kainolads and Kainahalja described Norwegian and Swedish men and women respectively (Lexicon Lapponicum 1768).
People of Kvenland were (and usually still are) seen as the Finnish kainulaiset
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"...
tribe, known to the Norwegians as the Kvens, who supposedly were trading, raiding and taking tributes over much of the northern Fennoscandia. A problem in identification of the Kvens was the fact that the area interpreted as Kvenland was seemingly devoid of any archaeological signs of sedentary Finnish settlement during the life-time of Ohthere. Thus several historians have suggested that Kvens or kainulaiset actually lived in South Finland, although they regularly travelled in northern Fennoscandia as long-range wilderness utilisators, raiders, traders and tribute exactors, perhaps settling permanently there in some cases. This has not affected the localisation of Kvenland, however. As these Finnish groups were supposed to transgress the region known as Kvenland during their journeys towards north, the Norwegians, who were only dimly aware of their southern homeland, supposedly came to call them as the Kvens.
Different theories on the origins of the Kvens
In 1958, a Finnish historian, politician and Helsinki University professor Kustaa Vilkuna suggested that Kainuu or Kvenland was originally located in southern Finland, situated on the Gulf of Bothnia and covering just northern Finland ProperFinland Proper
Finland Proper or Southwest Finland , is a region in south-western Finland. It borders the regions of Satakunta, Tavastia Proper, Ahvenanmaa and Uusimaa.- Municipalities :...
and coastal Satakunta. A small local area called as "Kalanti
Kalanti
Kalanti is a former municipality in Finland Proper region, Finland. Kalanti is first mentioned in historical sources 1332. It was merged with Uusikaupunki in 1993....
" (Kaland in Swedish) would have been a remnant of the earlier name Kvenland. Because of the trading and tribute-taking expeditions as well as settlement expansion of the kainulaiset, the territorial concept of Kainuu was gradually moved towards north. This idea was not generally accepted, and many other historians maintained that Kvenland was a northern region in the first place.
Another mid-20th century historian, Professor Jalmari Jaakkola, considered the Kvens or kainulaiset as long-range hunters and tribute-takers coming from Upper Satakunta
Pirkanmaa
Pirkanmaa , or the Tampere Region , is a region of Finland. It borders on the regions of Satakunta, Tavastia Proper, Päijänne Tavastia, Southern Ostrobothnia and Central Finland....
, from the inland region surrounding present-day city of Tampere
Tampere
Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in...
. This theory was supported by Professor Armas Luukko.
In 1979, Professor Pentti Virrankoski, Turku University, presented a hypothesis according to which Kainuu was originally the sedentary Iron Age settlement in Southern Ostrobothnia
Southern Ostrobothnia
Southern Ostrobothnia is one of the 20 regions of Finland.Seinäjoki is the regional centre and by far the largest city in the area.- Historical provinces :For History, Geography and Culture see: Ostrobothnia- Municipalities :...
. After the settlement was supposedly destroyed by tribal warfare during the early 9th century, the kainulaiset became dispersed along the western coasts of Finland, leaving only place-names and some archaeological finds as their permanent traces.
In 1980, Oulu University professor Jouko Vahtola presented that there is no evidence of the name "Kainuu" being of Western Finnish origin and considered it to have Eastern Finnish roots. However, he suggested a common Germanic etymology for the names Kainuu and Kvenland. Like most of his predecessors, Vahtola viewed Kainuu/Kvenland as the name of the coastal Ostrobothnia, meaning roughly "low-lying land". Based on the archaeological knowledge of the north, Vahtola did not believe that there ever was a separate Iron Age tribe called Kvens. He considered the Kvens to be mainly Tavastians
Tavastia (historical province)
Tavastia, Tavastland or Häme, Russian Emi or Yemi, is a historical province in the south of Finland. It borders Finland Proper, Satakunta, Ostrobothnia, Savonia and Uusimaa.- Administration :...
hunting and trading in the northern Pohjanmaa
Pohjanmaa
Pohjanmaa is the name of a geographical region in Finland which can refer to:-Former entities:...
, thus partially reproducing the view of Jaakkola and Luukko (Upper Satakunta being a part of traditional Tavastia). This theory is nowadays widely adopted in Finland, Sweden and Norway, and it is cited in many studies and popular works. Supporters of this theory sometimes want to see Birkarlar as Kvens' successors in the north, but this is not a necessary conclusion.
Recently (1995) the Finnish linguist Jorma Koivulehto has given support for the theory of common etymological roots of the names Kainuu and Kvenland. He suggests a new etymology meaning roughly "marine gap-land", the "marine gap" being the northern sea-route on the Bothnian Gulf.
The increasing archaeological fieldwork in Northern Finland has cast some doubts on the idea of Kvenland having almost no sedentary settlements. Encouraged by the new finds, late Professor Kyösti Julku (Oulu University) presented a theory of the Kvens being early permanent Finnish inhabitants of Northern Finland and Norrbotten.
Some Swedish historians have suggested that the ancient Kvens were actually a Scandinavian and not a Finnish group, but these views have little support nowadays. The Swedish archaeologist Thomas Wallerström suggests that the Kvens/kainulaiset was a collective name for several Finnic
Finnic peoples
The Finnic or Fennic peoples were historic ethnic groups who spoke various languages traditionally classified as Finno-Permic...
groups participating in the west-east fur-trade, not just Southern Finns but ancestors of Karelians
Karelians
The Karelians are a Baltic-Finnic ethnic group living mostly in the Republic of Karelia and in other north-western parts of the Russian Federation. The historic homeland of Karelians includes also parts of present-day Eastern Finland and the formerly Finnish territory of Ladoga Karelia...
and Vepsians as well. In this case, the land of the Kvens would have extended from the Bothnian Gulf in the west to the Lake Onega
Lake Onega
Lake Onega is a lake in the north-west European part of Russia, located on the territory of Republic of Karelia, Leningrad Oblast and Vologda Oblast. It belongs to the basin of Baltic Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and is the second largest lake in Europe after Lake Ladoga...
in the east.
Alternative views on Kvenland
A very original view has been provided by a Finnish historian and Helsinki University professor Matti KlingeMatti Klinge
Matti Klinge is a Finnish historian.He studied at the University of Helsinki and gained his Ph.D. in 1969. Later, he was Visiting Professor at the University of Paris 1970–1972, and held the Swedish Professorship of History at the University of Helsinki between 1975 and 2001. Klinge is one...
, who has placed Kvenland/Kainuu not only in southern Finland, but around the Baltic Sea as a kind of Finnish-Swedish "maritime confederation". Klinge presented a hypothesis of Kvenland as a naval power on the Baltic sea. This theory has not gained support among the mainstream history. Folklorist, Professor of Literature Väinö Kaukonen calls it "fantastic fabulation" and a "dream-wish".
Kvenland has also been associated with the legendary Pohjola
Pohjola
Pohjola or Pohja is a location in Finnish mythology, sometimes translated in English as Northland or Pohjoland. It is one of the two main polarities in the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, along with Kaleva or Väinölä. Its name is derived from the word pohjoinen meaning the compass point north...
, an other-worldly country in Finnish mythology ruled by a fierce witch, Louhi
Louhi
Louhi is a queen of the land known as Pohjola in Finnish mythology and the mythology of Lapland.-In mythology:Louhi is described as a powerful witch with the ability to change shape and weave mighty enchantments. She is also the main opponent of Väinämöinen and his group in the battle for the...
. There is no evidence that they have anything to do with each other.
Kvenland and Kvens later in historical time
Besides the above-mentioned texts, there is no reference to Kvenland in the medieval or earlier sources. There are also no other IcelandIceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic sagas or old Norwegian
Norway
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...
sources that would mention "Finland" in a Norwegian context.
As a name for a country, Kvenland seems to have gone out of ordinary usage around the beginning of the second millennium, unrecognized by scholars by the 14th century. Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
as an independent geographical region, however not yet a state, ceased to exist in the 13th century along with the Swedish conquest
Second Swedish Crusade
The Second Swedish Crusade was a Swedish military expedition to areas in present-day Finland by Birger jarl in the 13th century. As a result of the crusade, Finland became permanently part of Sweden for the next 550 years.-Year of the crusade:...
that incorporated it to Sweden as provinces. Names "Kvenland" or "Kven" never appear in Swedish sources. However, Norwegians kept using the word "kven" at least for those Finns who started moving to northern Fennoscandia around the time of the Swedish conquest. Norwegians, unlike their neighbors, already used the word "finn" for the Sami people
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
who were the indigenous people on the same area.
Today, the name Kven is used in Norway as the name of the descendants of Finnish speaking people that immigrated to present-day Northern Norway from the 16th century up to World War II.
Further reading
- Edgren, Torsten - Den förhistoriska tiden. Finlands historia 1. 1993.
- Hallencreutz, C.F. - Adam, Sverige och trosskiftet. 1984.
- Huurre, Matti - 9000 vuotta Suomen esihistoriaa. 1979, 1995.
- Jutikkala, Eino, with Kauko Pirinen - A History of Finland. 1979.
- Vahtola, Jouko - Suomen historia / Jääkaudesta Euroopan unioniin. 2003.
- Zetterberg, Seppo / Tiitta, Allan - Suomi kautta aikojen. 1997.