FINNISH IMPACT ON THE TRIBAL ORIGIN OF THE OLD ENGLISH PEOPLE
It is well known that the population of the modern Finland is a result of a progress that took thousands of years. Different tribes from Europe were gradually merged into one nation. Many Western Germanic tribes arrived to Finland's shores and were gradually assimilated with the earlier arrivals. That resulted a Germanic impact on the Finnish language and place names (note! Remember Finnish impact on Germanic languages. More detailed inf. elsewhere in this web site). Modern genealogy has shown that the closest "gene relatives" of Finns live, quite surprisingly to many, in Western Europe. Generally one can say e.g. that an ordinary Englishman shares more so called "genetical markers" with a Finn than e.g. a Finn has in common with his Russian neighbor living only a few kilometers away from the Finnish border.

Have this man some
finnish ancestors??

Relief from Eastern Sweden.

Saxon warfare

Wendell-type helmet
from Sweden.

Saxon warfare

Saxon helmet

Sutton Hoo helmet

Saxon warfare

It was not a one way street. Remembering that the Baltic Finns inhabited much larger area than todays Finland is, it is easy to comprehend that they were not simple bystanders when the major move towards the British Isles was taking place. The following quotations are from a book written by Thomas William Shore; the book is called "Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race". It was first published in 1906.
"Finland, the most northern of the Baltic countries, inhabited by people allied to, or perhaps even descended in part from, the old Gothic and Scandinavian stock, has been through the range of history, and still is , more advanced in the arts of civilization than its Slavic neighbors, and its geographical position in ancient time brought it into commercial intercourse with Scandinavia and Denmark.
There are reasons for believing that the Finnic race occupied part of the Northern peninsula at an early period in the history of Scandinavia. At a remote time, which tradition places at the beginning of the Iron age in that country, but which may have been much earlier, the country was overrun by people of a different race from its aboriginal inhabitants-i.e., by tribes of similar racial characters to those of the early Gothic or Teutonic stock. These newcomers are supposed to have driven the aborigines, who are believed to have been of Ugrian descent, northwards, where a remnant still exist, and are known as Lapps. These were, however, in ancient time also called Fins, and the name Finnmark as the boundary of their country has come down to our time. The Fins of the Baltic, the inhabitants of the present Finland, are, however, now a different race from the so called Northern Finns or the Lapps, and although they have affinity in language, they were known as distinct in the time of King Alfred.(Note! Tacitus mentions Finns in Germania, but the way he descripes them fits the Lapps. As seen above some confusion about the names has also occurred later).
The Finns of Finland are for the most part blonde, and longer-headed race than Slavs. They are apparently, from all the evidence available concerning them, an offshoot from the same trunk as the Teutons, or at least of the Aryan stock.
The Fins, who called themselves Quains, are the same people as the Cwaens, which was their native name mentioned by King Alfred. In his "Orosius" Alfred mentions both Fins and Scride (Ski) Fins or Lapps, and describes the locality of each race. In the Anglo-Saxon times some of the Cwaens or Fins occupied part of the Scandinavian peninsula as far south as Helsingland, on the east of Sweden, opposite to Finland, where the name Helsingfors probably denotes some ancient connection with Helsingland. As the Lapps were called Skidfinnen by the Norse, and are still called Fins by them, some confusion has risen in the use of this name. As applied to natives of Finland it is a native name. We may, however, look for traces of them in England under the name Cwen or Quen, as well as, Fin, as we may
of the Wends under their Northern name of Vinthr. If any Fins took part in the colonization of England, it must necessarily have been as members of a body of settlers under another name, probably with Swedes or Danes. As the true Fins have a connection with Teutons in race, some of them may have been included in the Anglian or Danish hosts. It is in some of those parts of England which were occupied by Danes that traces of Fins, Lechs and other Eastmen from Baltic are found, where they may well have settled as Danish allies.
In considering the probability that there were some Fins among other Northern settlers, we must remember their ancient names, Cwens or Quens. There are some old English place-names which have been apparently deriven from this source, such as Quenintone and Quenintune, in separate hundreds in Gloucestershire. Both are mentioned in Domesday Book. Cwuenstane, also, is mentioned among the boundaries of Selsea, in Sussex, in a charter dated A.D. 975. Quinstone or Quenton, in Northamptonshire, occurs twice in Domesday Book, and other places of same name are recorded in Wiltshire and Warwickshire. Quenfell in Westmoreland, Queningburg in Leicestershire, and Quenhull in Worcestershire, are met with in later records. Ingulf in his chronicle mentions a place called Finset, and similar names, such as Finborough and Finningham, occur in the eastern counties. Still earlier references to Finset and Finbeorh occur in the Saxon charters, the former in Northamptonshire, the latter in Wiltshire.
The name Cwenena-broc brings us to curious difficulty-viz., to determine whether Cwenena is the genetive plural of Cwen, a Fin, or Cwen, a woman. It has been explained as the women's brook, but the name Cwentan , now Quinton, mentioned in a Saxon charter, is in the same locality. There is a well known story of Adam of Bremen being present at a conversation during which one of the old Scandinavian kings spoke of Quenland, or Quena-land, the country of Quens or Quains. As the stargers knowledge of old Danish was very imperfect, he supposed the king had said Quinna-land, the country of woman and amazons. Hence arose the absurd story of the terra feminarum, or amazons country, which spread through the whole of Europe, "through mistaking the name for that of a woman". The name Cwenena-broc must mean either the brook of the Quens or Fins, as allies of Scandinavia and their descendants, or that of a community of women. Which is more probable? It is a boundary name, apparently a boundary of Cwentan, and we must either recognize a settlement of Fins or a settlement of women. During the period when the dialects of many tribal people were being assimilated into one form of speech it is not difficult to suppose that Cwenena may have been written for Cwena, the usual form of genitive plural of Cwen, a Fin.
Reference has already been made to the fair aspect of the people of east Gluocestershire at the present time. The circumstantial evidence of the place-names points to the settlement of tribal people of various blonde races in this district. Among such races are the Fins, concerning whose aspect the proverbial expression " as blonde as a Fin". The Fins that settled in England must have come as allies of the Danes, and it is interesting to note that by the Roman road east Gloucestershire was in direct communication with Lincolnshire.
Some remarkable customs which the old English had in common with Fins and Esthonians were those connected with midsummer. It is scarcely possible for us to realize the full extent to which customs connected with the summer solstice prevailed among our tribal forefathers. Their vitality caused them to survive in England for more than thousand years. The midsummer fires were lighted in many parts of our country, as they were in numerous districts in Northern Europe. The customs connected with the solstice must have been most strongly adhered to, if they had not indeed originated, in Northern lands. In the North of Britain, as in Finland, Esthonia and the greater part of Sweden and Norway, the evening gloam of midsummer passes into the morning dawn and there is no real night.
It is from the Fins and Esthonians that we derive one of the most interesting of midsummer legends: "Wanna Issi had two servants, Koit and Ammarik, and he gave them a torch which Koit should light every morning and Ammarik should extinguish every evening. In order to reward their faithful services, he told they might be man and wife, but they asked Wanna Issi that he would allow them to remain for ever bride and bridegroom. Wanna Issi assented, and henceforth Koit handed the torch every evening to Ammarik, and Ammarik took it and extinguished it. Only during four weeks in the summer they remain together at midnight. Koit hands his dying torch to Ammarik, but Ammarik does not let it die; she lights it again with her breath. Then their hands are stretched out, and their lips meet, and the blush on the face of Ammarik colors the midnight sky. The interest of the legend is increased by the meaning of the names. Wanna Issi in Esthonian means the Old Father, Koit means the dawn, and Ammarik means the gloaming, in the language of the common people.
Having in view the traces of Fins, which have been stated, the question may be asked, Is it not probable that there were settlements here and there of Fins among our old English forefathers? They were an ancient maritime race, as they are at present. They were closely connected with Sweden, and were at one time partly located in it. Their country did not cease to be Swedish until about century ago. The ancient nations of the Baltic were all in maritime communication. Their increasing populations must have made new settlements or emigration as much necessity in the ancient time as in modern. The fitting out of expeditions against the British coasts by the Angles and Goths of the earlier period, and the Danes of the later, must have been known all the long the Baltic coasts. Would it not have been surprising if, amidst such maritime activity and pressure of population urging them on, some Fins, Helsings and other Swedes, had not joined on these expeditions?"
Source: ORIGIN OF THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE, THOMAS WILLIAM SHORE FIRST EDITION 1906, REISSUED IN 1971 BY KENNIKAT PRESS

Anglo-Saxons,

Rurik the Varangian---The Finnish theory
Accounts of the contributions of the Slavs, the Germanic peoples and the Finns to the early history of Russia have all in turn set off on sidetracks, but with a little exaggeration one might still ask whether perhaps the Finns have not been historiographically somewhat squeezed out from between interpretations imposed by two imperialist cultures.
The Varangian problem, which is closely related to the process by which the Russian state came into being, may be defined as a question of the nature and extent of the relations between Scandinavia and Russia in the early Middle Ages.
The problem began to assume an academic character within the Academy of Sciences upon its foundations by Peter the Great, when the German members of this body succeeded in demonstrating that the founders of the Russian state were of Germanic stock. Paradoxically they were right. In the light of modern genetics Finns are considered to belong to a same racial stock with the speakers of the Germanic languages. More detailed information about the matter is available elsewhere in this web site. But the members of the Academy had no access to modern genetics, so surely they were referring to a speakers of a Germanic language.
The originator of the Finnish theory is held to have been V.N. Tatishchev, the "Father of Russian history", whose manuscript on the history of Russia mentions as his chief source the "Chronicle of Joachim". Quoting the chronicle which he had discovered, Tatishcev recounts that the Novgorod area had been ruled over by the family of a Slavic chieftain Gostomysl for several generations, and that Gostomysl`s daughters son Rurik had been invited to succeed him on the strength of an omen seen in a dream and became the founder of the Russian dynasty. Tatishchev referred to these particular Russo-Varangians who had come from overseas as Finns and regarded them as originating from beyond the sea. He speculated that Rurik himself could have been related to Uzo, t he 14th king of Finland.
A further stimulus for Tatishchev`s Finnish theory, alongside the Chronicle of Joachim, was the "Chronicon Finlandiae" published by Christian Nettelblad in 1728. Relying mainly on Saxo and material from the sagas, he listed fifteen kings of Finland, of which the 14th, named Kuso (Tatishchev`s "Uzo") subjugated Bjarmia, which subsequently came to be known as Karelia. Tatishchev could also have obtained evidence for the Finnish theory from certain Swedish prisoners from the Great Northern War that he had known in Russia and from historians that he met when visiting Sweden in 1724-1726.
The most influential proponent of the Finnish theory was Catherine 2nd, who attempted in her writings on the history of Russia to combine the Slavs, the Rus, conceived of as the primeval inhabitants of Northern Russia, and the Varangians, whom she placed in the region between Ingria and Finland. Catherine also wrote a play about Rurik, in which the dying Gostomysl instructs his followers to elect his daughters son, grandson of a Finnish prince, as their ruler. It was also during the reign of Catherine 2nd that three editions were published of a short review of Russian history by Timofei Malgin, another advocate of the Finnish theory, and work of similar persuasions by I.P. Yelagin, literary advisor to the Empress.
The Finnish theory had never gained acceptance in Western Europe. Scherbatov still included elements of it in his extensive history of Russia, but inspite of the prestige conferred upon it in "higher circles" the Finnish theory had virtually died out in Russia, too, by the end of the century. Thus the national historian Karanzin integrated Normanism into his overall patriotic impression of Russian history. At the time of revolutionary fervour the idea of ruler being invited to take the throne coincided well with the need to emphasize the peaceful nature of Russian society. The Germanic peoples did not constitute a threat, nor id Sweden compete with Russia.
The Finnish theory based on the Chronicle of Joachim, once again served as a major source in the work of V.I. Paranin, published in 1990, which emphasized the role of the Baltic Finns in the early history of Russia. Further support for the contribution of the Finns to the early history of Russia was received when the collecting of folk traditions begun. In the late 18th century particular emphasis was placed on the importance of folk ballads for historical research purposes. There is a documentary evidence preserved in Paltamo from as early as the 1670`s that the old Finns used to sing about a king of Finland, who with a giant named "Calawa" and his sons subjected the whole of Russia beneath his rule. This reference has been linked with the Finnish theory in a number of connections. (References of Calawa,Kaleva,Caelic can be also found in many other sources. For e.g. extract from Widsith: "Aetla Weold Hunum, Eormanrik Gotum Becca Baningum, Burgentum Giffca. Caesere Weold Grecum ond Caelic Finnum.")
Research into the Varangian problem was particularly intensive around the mid-19th century, a period which also saw much active delving into the Kalevala legends in Finland. Since the Kalevala was to a great extent regarded as being concerned with the past history of the Finnish people, it was understandable that their contribution to the early history of their new mother country should also arouse much interest.
One person to seize upon this theme was J.A. Lindström, who assumed at first that the Russo-Varangians were in fact Finns, for the sagas spoke of kings of Finland and the Finns own legends recounted ancient deeds of heroism. Admittedly he was later obliged to replace the notion of Russo-Varangians originating from Finland with Goths.
When examining the history of the Baltic Finns in his doctoral thesis of 1894, A.H. Snellman (Virkkunen from 1906 onwards) regarded the Finns as having made considerable contribution to the early history of Russia. The new Varangian ruler had "settled first in Finnish territories", the Finns played the most important role in the new nation, there was nothing to fear from the Slavs. It now seemed possible that the might of Russia could become Finnish. The center of gravity, however, moved further south.
The nationalist interpretations placed on Finnish history by Yrjö Koskinen in the late 1860`s emphasized the role of the Finns in the Varangian question as well, and it was again claimed that the most proficient element in the Varangian administration could well be assumed to have been Finnish. Correspondingly, it was only intermixing with the Finns that gave resilience to the Slavs.
One of the best known representatives of the nationalist trend in historiography in Finnish history, J. Jaakkola, explained that the Finns had operated largely in collaboration with the Varangians, and it was the Chuds and the Slavs that invited Rurik to be their ruler. Eventually the Varangians and the Chuds from the north were overwhelmed in the southern sea of Slavs and the Finns had thus been banished from their central position in world history.
More recently authors such as P.-L. Lehtosalo-Hilander and C.F. Meinander have looked on newer finds as lending support to the notion of an active role played by the Finns during Viking times, and the historian M. Klinge has written of the Finns as the "Vikings of the Baltic", portraying Väinämöinen as king of a maritime state.
Source: Kyösti Julku (edit.): "Suomen varhaishistoria" The material from the Conference in Tornio, Finland 1991.

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