Finnveden - Etymology

Etymology

The Scandinavian placenames Finnveden, Finnmark and the province of Finland (which gave name to Finland) are all thought to derive from Finn, an ancient Germanic word for the Finnic people inhabiting areas of Fenno-Scandia and Scandinavia. The connection between the names Finnveden, Finnmark and Finland is not entirely clear. However, it is known that in addition to the Uralic Sami people, the Finnic tribe of Kvens have historically inhabited areas of Scandinavia which today are part of Norway and Sweden. According to Emeritus Professor Kyösti Julku, in the area of Tromsa, Norway, alone there are 12 prehistoric Kven place names.

Whereas the Finnic tribes historically inhabiting the modern-day area of Finland and the surrounding areas (Kvens, Tavastians, Savonians, Karelians, etc.) are known to have represented a farming culture for several last millennia, the Sami people were still "hunter-gatherers" in 97 AD, when the Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus describes them in his account 'Germania', calling them "Fenni". Most historians see Tacitus' reference to the "Sitones" to mean the Finnic/Finnish Kvens:

"Upon the Suiones, border the people Sitones; and, agreeing with them in all other things, differ from them in one, that here the sovereignty is exercised by a woman. So notoriously do they degenerate not only from a state of liberty, but even below a state of bondage."

Among similar namings of the Kvens, in 1075 AD the German chronicler Adam of Bremen calls Kvenland 'Terra Feminarum', "Territory of Women", and on the 14th century, Icelandic manuscript refers to Kvenland as 'Kuenna Land' ("Woman Land").

However, in medieval texts thereafter the Sami are referred to as "skridfinns" (Skridfinnar, Screrefennae, Scridefinns, etc.) meaning "skiing Finns". The ancestors of the average modern-day Finns on the other hand are referred to either as "Finns" (with varying spellings) or they are simply discussed under the names of the various Finnic/Finnish tribes, such as Kvens, Karelians, etc. The earliest known written text making a clear separation between these two different peoples under these terms, the "Scridefinns" (Sami) and the "Finns" (ancestors of the average modern-day Finn) is Widsith, written in Old English, the earliest version of which is believed to have been from the 6th or 7th century AD.

Although the earliest people inhabiting Fenno-Scandia were hunter-gatherers, using stone tools, the first pottery appeared in the area of today's Finland already in 5200 BCE when the Comb Ceramic culture was introduced. The arrival of the Corded Ware culture in southern coastal Finland between 3000–2500 BCE may have coincided with the start of agriculture. Yet, even with the introduction of agriculture, hunting and fishing continued to be important parts of the subsistence economy.