The Finnish Vikings: Full History

Finnish Reindeer Skins Patreon Insta Sources Tacitus, Germania US/CA: UK/EU: Ptolemy, Geographia US/CA: UK/EU: Jordanes, Getica US/CA: UK/EU: Ynglinga saga, halfdan the blacks saga, harald fairhairs saga, olav tryggvassons saga, saga of olav the saint US/CA: UK/EU: Norna-Gests þáttr Gesta Danorum US/CA: UK/EU: Suomen kronikka Runestone Gs 13 Runestone U 582 00:00- Intro 01:20- Origins 06:45- Early Tribes 10:45- Viking Age 11:45- Raids 15:25- Magic 18:30- Marriage 25:50- Friends Finnr or Fiðr (pl. Finnar) refers to a Sámi man, the corresponding feminine form being Finna or Finnkona they do not appear to have any clear notion of the difference between it and Finnmark in northern Norway, or of how the Finns were distinct from the Sámi. The sagas also tell us that the same area was occupied by tribes such as the Bjarmar, Kvænir and Kirjálar. it is uncertain when the terms Finmark (Old Norse Finnmǫrk [‘Finn-Forest’]) and Finland (Old Norse Finnland [‘Finn-Land’]) became established. By the beginning of the Viking Age (750/800), Finnmǫrk seems, in the west, to have clearly referred to Sámi language areas of Norway. In eastern areas, the term for Sámi seems to have been Lappir ([‘Lapp’ cf. Ru. Lop’]), in which case people in Sweden may have simply used Finnar for people living in Finnland. his complements the riddle of to whom the term Finnar originally referred by whether or how they were distinguished from ‘Lapps’. In the Bronze Age Finland, permanent all-year-round cultivation and animal husbandry spread, but the cold climate phase slowed the change. Cultures in Finland shared common features in pottery and also axes had similarities but local features existed. The Seima-Turbino phenomenon brought the first bronze artefacts to the region and possibly also the Finno-Ugric languages. In the Iron Age population grew especially in Häme and Savo regions. Finland proper was the most densely populated area. Cultural contacts with the Baltics and Scandinavia became more frequent. Commercial contacts in the Baltic Sea region grew and extended during the eighth and ninth centuries. The Fenni are first mentioned by Cornelius Tacitus in Germania in 98 A.D. Their location is uncertain, due to the vagueness of Tacitus’ account:“they overrun in their predatory excursions all the woody and mountainous tracts between the Peucini and the Fenni“. The 12th and 13th centuries were a violent time in the northern Baltic Sea. The Livonian Crusade was ongoing and the Finnish tribes such as the Tavastians and Karelians were in frequent conflicts with Novgorod and with each other. Also, during the 12th and 13th centuries several crusades from the Catholic realms of the Baltic Sea area were made against the Finnish tribes. Danes waged at least three crusades to Finland, in 1187 or slightly earlier, in 1191 and in 1202, and Swedes, possibly the so-called second crusade to Finland, in 1249 against Tavastians and the third crusade to Finland in 1293 against the Karelians.