Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - II. Land and People from the Heathen Period
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
mountains, and arrived in Norway at Wefsen in
Halogaland. This powerful Halogalander, who was an
active sea-chief, at this time drew great profits
from the productive herring and cod fisheries of
Lofoden and Vaage. Over how wide a tract the
Quens were once spread, is shown by the
circumstance that the whole North Sea was once
called the Quen sea, and all Finland, Quenland [1],
though the latter name has also a narrower
application. We find it mentioned as lying between
Helsingland and Finland [2], and it comprehended in
this sense the whole of Bottenland, or the inland
territory upon both coasts of the gulf of Bothnia,
till the Swedish settlers displaced the Quens, first
from West, and afterwards partly from East
Bothnia, the Fennic name of which (Kainu)
reminds us of its former possessors.
Another wild race, the Carelians, appear sometimes
at war, sometimes in league with the former,
addicted to war and piracy, supporting themselves
otherwise by their herds and the chase. They had
spread from the inner side of the gulf of Finland
(called from them the Carelian), over Eastern
Finland to the extremity of Finnmark [3]; roaming
also into Swedish Norrland, where, about 1350,
twenty Laplanders and Carelians of Kemi and
Simo were baptized in a great vat at Tornea
by a Swedish archbishop. South of the gulf of
Finland we come upon the Esthonians (Esterne).
This name, taken from their easterly situation
in reference to Scandinavia, was once applied to
the whole country between the Vistula and the
gulf of Finland [4], occupied at different times by
various tribes, Goths, Finns, Letts; it remained
at length with the Fennic race still so called,
which in ancient times extended through Courland
into Prussia [5]. The old sagas represent
intercourse between the Swedes and Esthonians as
very early established. Through the country of
the latter king Suegder marched when he repaired
to the East in quest of Odin; Yngwar ravaged
Estland, and was slain in battle with the natives;
his followers erected his barrow on the sea-shore,
‘that the waves of the Baltic might chant their
songs to please the king of the Swedes.’ When
they were delivered from the fear of Swedish
domination, the Esthonians, leagued with the
cognate tribes of the Kurians [6] and Carelians [7], harassed
the Swedish coasts with their piracies.
Such are the Fennic tribes, whose memories
have survived from the heathen ages of the north.
One still remains, a branch of the Esthonians, the
Tavesters or Tavastrians [8], mentioned by this name
in Swedish records of a later day. They are not,
however, to be regarded as younger in Finland than
the cognate populations; every thing seems rather to
show that they were the main stock. They inhabited
the southern and most fertile division of the
country [9], where agriculture was first introduced, and
whence it extended, by steps so slow as to be
easily traced, to northern and eastern Finland;
and opened an intercourse with Sweden, by way of
the Aland isles and Roslagen, earlier than any of
their brethren. To their territory the name of
Finland was applied; in distinction from the more
savage Finnmark, which may be proved to have
once reached farther south than is stated in any of
the sagas, to Upper Tavastland [10]. These
occupants of Southern Finland, apparently somewhat
advanced in culture beyond the Carelians and
Quens, are not mentioned under the heathendom by
any distinctive appellation; they were designated
by our forefathers under the general name of
Finns, and in their present dwelling-places they
are at least as old as the furthest period to which
the recollections of the north extend.
The name of Finns was from a very early time,
and is still, common to an important branch of the
population of the north; it included not only
several Fennic races, properly so called, but the
Lapps, who were styled Finns by the Norwegians
and Icelanders. Many have maintained that the
name originally appertained only to the Laplanders.
The Finns of Tacitus, it is said, were really Lapps,
as were the Finns of Scandinavia itself, mentioned
by Icelandic and Norwegian writers, and the name
was only extended by confusion to the rest of the
so-called Finnish tribes in Finland Proper. If such
occurred, it is at least in part imputable to the
nations themselves. Even at the present day, both
Finns and Lapps give themselves the same national
appellation, Suome, Same, a word signifying
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
