Egil's Saga
"Egils saga" 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:
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 Hålogaland outside. But eastwards from Namdalen (Naumdale) is Jämtland (Jamtaland), then Hälsingland (Helsingjaland) and Kvenland, then Finland, then Karelia (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, 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, 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.
Read more about this topic: Kvenland