Kvenland - Old English Orosius

Old English Orosius

A Norwegian adventurer and traveller named Ohthere visited England 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:

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 people (Finnas) inhabit these mountains ... Then along this land southwards, on the other side of the mountain (sic), is Sweden ... 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 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 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:

... the Swedes (Sweons) have to the south of them the arm of the sea called East (Osti), and to the east of them Sarmatia (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. 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. There is no "Finland" mentioned anywhere in the original or updated version of Orosius' history.