Kven People

Kven people (Cwen, Kvæn, Quen, Qven, kveeni) - kainulainen, kainuulainen or kveeni in Finnish and Kven languages - are a Finnish tribe of people.

The Kvens have continuously inhabited Scandinavia, Fennoscandia and some of the surrounding areas since the end of the last ice age, c. 9000 BC, and possibly long before as well.

At some point, the neighbors of the Kvens - presumably first the Norse - began referring to them as Kvens and their land as Kvenland. The Kvens have historically referred to themselves as kainulainen and their land as Kainu(u), Kainuunmaa (Kainuu "land") and Pohjola ("North").

The ethnically and culturally separate people, the Samis, are indigenous largely to the same areas as the Kvens. The cultures, lifestyles and traditions of the two peoples have been very different since as far back as can be told, and in medieval accounts the two peoples are always discussed separately.

Over a long time, the size of Kvenland gradually shrunk. In the end of the Viking Age it still covered nearly all of the middle and northern parts of Scandinavia and the modern-day Finland, as well as all of the Kola Peninsula (located in the extreme northwestern part of today's Russia), based on medieval accounts.

Over the last two millennia, the Kven population and their culture have slowly assimilated and mixed with the rest of the Nordic populations, greatly contributing to and melting with what have become Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

However, still today the unique and distinct Finnic Kven culture is alive and strong, represented in Northern Scandinavia by the Kvens in Norway and the Tordedalians in Sweden.

In Finland - over centuries -, the Kven people and their culture have melted together with the cultures of other local Finnic tribes, such as the Tavastians, Savonians and Karellians, into what Finland is today.

In the end of the Finnish-Soviet Continuation War, a vast majority of the Kvens of the modern-day extreme Northwestern Russia were resettled to Finland.

Based on the Norse sagas and other medieval accounts, the ruling families of England, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Normandy, Norway, the Orkney Islands, Russia, Scotland and Sweden - among many others - descended from the kings of Kvenland and Finland.

Sample of fine tools and veapons discovered in Finland, dating to the Bronze Age (c. 1800-500 BC). Finland is also home for some of the most remarkable archaeological findings from the Iron Age (500 BC - 1300 AD), particularly from the Merovingian period (c. 450-750 AD - a.k.a. Vendel Era in Sweden) and around the year 1000 AD. Some of the finest findings are exclusive Merovigian time swords. The largest amount of them after the place of their origin in Germany have been found in Finland.







Boundaries of primeval Kvenland




Kvenland (Kainuunmaa) was the name of a very large country in Northern Europe, which still in the end of the 1st millennium AD covered most of Scandinavia, north from the lands inhabited by the Danes, Norse, Sveas and Geats who all at the time inhabited the southernmost parts of Scandinavia.

Kvenland was inhabited by the Finnic tribe of the Kvens and the Finno-Ugric Sami (a.k.a. 'Lapps'). The terms used for the Kvens, Finns and/or Sami in the earliest known contexts include, but are not limited to:

Fenni, Sitones (by Tacitus, c. 97);

Phinnoi (by Ptolemy, c. 150);

Finni, Finnaithae, Screrefennae, Vinoviloth, Adogit (by Jordanes, c. 550);

Finns, Scridefinns (in Widsith, c. 600);

Skridfinnar, Winnili (by Paul the Deacon, c. 790);

Finnas, Cwenas (by Ohthere, c. 890);

Kvens (in varying spellings), Rus, Varyags, Lappmarker, Hunni (possibly), etc.

In the originally 6th or 7th century Widsith - copied in the 10th century Exeter Book - the Samis are called "Scridefinns" and the Kvens and/or Finns are referred to as "Finns":

"Caesar ruled the Greeks, Caelic the Finns ... I was with the Greeks and Finns and also with Caesar ..."

The oldest remaining written reference to the Kvens is from c. 97 AD, when the Roman historian and senator Publius (Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus wrote about them in his account 'Germania', calling them Sitones. According to Tacitus, the Kvens were ruled by a woman ('Kvenland - Kainuunmaa', 1986, page 51, Emeritus Professor Kyösti Julku). Tacitus called the Samis Fenni.

At the time of Tacitus, Kvenland extended from the southern part of Scandinavia all the way to the Kola Peninsula in the extreme northwestern part of today's Russia.

The Swedish archaeologist Thomas Wallerström suggests that the Kvens ('kainulaiset') was a collective name for several Finnic groups participating in the west-east trading, not just southern Finns but the ancestors of Karelians and Vepsians as well. In this case, the land of the Kvens would have extended at least as far east as the Lake Onega in the modern-day Russia.

Among supporting factors for Wallerström's theory could be e.g. the same place names of known Viking Age trading centers in various parts of the historically Finnic-inhabited Scandinavia and Fennoscandia, including Kemi (now in Finland) on the Bay of Bothnia (part of the historical Kven Sea) and Kemi on the White Sea (now in Russia), and Sihtuuna on the Kemi River (now in Finland) and Sigtuna in Uppland (now in Sweden).

In 1986, the Emeritus Professor Kyösti Julku published in his book, 'Kvenland - Kainuunmaa', new evidence pointing to Kvenland still in the Middle Ages having covered a much larger territory than has been suggested.

No-one knowns how far back "Kvenland" already existed as a nation nor how large it was at various points, although the Finnic peoples are known to have inhabited large territories of the Norhtern Europe and the modern-day Russia up till the 1st millennium AD.

The modern-day area of Finland is known to have been continuously inhabited by Finnic peoples since at least the ending of the last ice age, c. 10'000-11'000 years ago.

According to linguistic experts, e.g. the Finnish language words 'tulla' (come) and 'mennä' (go) were in use as far away from today's Finland as the Ural Mountains c. 6000 BC, and the word 'lähteä' c. 4000 BC. A language related to Finnish was then also largely spoken in Central Europe, based on the findings by Professor Kalevi Wiik and others.

Still in the 9th century AD, Estonia ("Esthland") - an area dominated by Finnic tribes speaking Finnic language - reached to the southern edge of the Baltic Sea (see map below), which according to the Universal History of Orosius in c. 890 formed the northern border for the ancient Germany and was called the Kven Sea.

Several centuries before that, prior to the gradual Germanic and Slavic Expansion northbound, the shores of the entire Baltic Sea and the surrounding areas, north from Germany, were inhabited by Finnic peoples.

Finnveden In the modern-day Southern Sweden represented the southwestern edge of Kvenland until the mid- 1st millennium AD. The area provided the Kvens access to the Atlantic Ocean.

In 750 (c.), Norna-Gests þáttr mentions that the king of Denmark and Sweden, Sigurd Ring, fought against the invading Curonians and Kvens in the southernmost part of today's Sweden:

"Sigurd Ring (Sigurðr) was not there, since he had to defend his land, Sweden (Svíþjóð), since Curonians (Kúrir) and Kvens (Kvænir) were raiding there."

Finnish spell for keeping away the thunder, dating to c. 1200 - translation by J.S. Jelisejev:

"God's Arrow Ten is your name. The arrow belongs to God. The God of Judgment leads."







Kven sea - Kainuunmeri



Most experts place the epicenter of the medieval Kvenland to the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia, on both the present-day Finnish and Swedish sides of the sea. The strategic importance of the Baltic Sea to the Kvens is demonstrated e.g. by the fact that it was referred to as the "Kven Sea" (Kainuunmeri, Kvenhavet) in the Middle Ages and beyond.

However, towards the end of the Middle Ages the term "Kven Sea" appears to have usually referred to the northern arm of the Baltic Sea, today known as the Gulf of Bothnia.

Below are various spellings used for the "Kven Sea" from the 14th century on:

"Kajano more", in the Peace Treaty of Pähkinäsaari in 1323; "mare Cayane" and "Kainw Mare" in 1497; "mare Kayano" in 1510; "Cayane mare" and "mare Caino" in 1535, "Kaynys mehre" in 1561; etc.












Birth of the Rurik Dynasty




Rurik was a 9th century Varangian chieftain who gave birth to the Rurik Dynasty which ruled Russia until the 17th century.

Rurik's place of birth was allegedly the Roslagen seashore in the modern-day Province of Uppland, Sweden. When Rurik was born, the territory ruled by the Kvens - i.e. Kvenland - bordered Roslagen, and only quite recently had the Swedes (Old English: Sweonas; Latin: Suiones, Suehans or Sueones) integrated with the Kvens of the region.

In 1157 AD (c.), in his geographical chronicle 'Leiðarvísir borgarskipan', the Icelandic Abbot Níkulás Bergsson (Nikolaos) provides a description of the lands near Norway. According to this description and other historic evidence, Kvenland still then covered the territory from south-central Scandinavia all the way to the Varangian Bay in today's Northeastern Norway as well as the entire Kola Peninsula in today's northwestern Russia:

"Closest to Denmark is little Sweden (Svíþjóð), there is Öland (Eyland); then is Gotland (Gotland); then Hälsingland (Helsingaland); then Värmland (Vermaland); then two Kvenlands (Kvenlönd), and they extend to north of Bjarmia (Bjarmalandi)."

The 2007 Family Tree DNA Rurikid Dynasty DNA Project on Rurik's modern male line descendants confirms Rurik to be genetically related to the later Baltic Finnic peoples.

This finding is in full accordance with the assumption that Rurik was a Kven from the Coast of Roslagen. Like many Varangian and Viking leaders of his time, Rurik presumably was a direct descendant of the earliest known Kven kings, discussed on this website.






"Europe at the death of Charles the Great 814" - from The Public Schools Historical Atlas edited by C. Colbeck, published by Longmans, Green, and Co. in 1905. The map represents the time when Rurik was born on the Roslagen seashore, bordering Kvenland (Quenland) in the northeastern tip of the land (marked pink) inhabited by the "Swedes" and "Goths".



From the late 8th to mid-9th century AD, the Kven Varangians - a.k.a. Rus' - created Rus' Khaganate, an early polity southeast from the modern-day Finland, which came under the leadership of Rurik in 862 AD. Rurik's relative Oleg captured Kiev and founded the polity of Kievan Rus', which lasted from the late 9th to the mid 13th century.

The descendants of Rurik were the ruling Rurik dynasty of Rus'. They were the founders of the Tsardom of Russia. They ruled Russia until the 17th century.

The ancient names for the residents of Kiev include Kwänen, Konae, Chonae, Kwäne, Quene, Choani, Cunni, Chuni and Hunni (who chased away the Goths). The ancient names of Kiev include Kiaenuborg, Kianugard, Kaenunland, Kuenaland and Hunugard.







Kven identity flourishes in Norway




Like the Samis, the Kvens are indigenous people to Northern Europe, Norway including.

Nevertheless, a few migration waves from the 16th century on have brought more Kvens to Northern Norway. These settlers were Kvens from the historic Kvenland territories of the modern-day Northern Sweden and Northern Finland, with only a few exceptions.

Accordingly, like all medieval Kvens, they too and their offspring have continuously been referred to as Kvens in Norway up to date.

Many of the post- 19th century Finnic immigrants to Norway have originated from the very southernmost parts of Finland - not considered to be a part of the historical Kvenland -, and much due to this reason they are not referred to as Kvens in Norway, but Finns instead.

Due to less isolation and more mixing and assimilation, the descendants of the Kvens in the historic Kvenland territories of today's Sweden, Finland and Northwestern Russia are usually no longer referred to as Kvens either.

In Northern Sweden, the offspring of the Kvens today are normally referred to as Tornedalians.







Modern-day province of Kainuu




What today is the province of Kainuu in Finland, was merely a small part of the historic Kvenland - Kainuunmaa.

In the 1595 Teusina Treaty of Peace between Sweden and Russia, Kvenland ("Kaianske landet") for the first time was referred to in an official government document as a territory governed by Sweden, although in reality that claim can be seen as not entirely merited.

In 1607 AD, once King Karl IX of Sweden had strengthened his hold on the crown of Sweden, he appended to it the title 'King of the Caijaners', referring to the inhabitants of Kainuu/Kvenland, apparently using the title the first time on March 16, 1607.

However, Kainuu (Kvenland) "occupied a separate position from the rest of Finland for a long time to come" (Julku, 1986), and a large part of Kvenland never became a part of Sweden.

Contrary to popular belief, the dialects spoken by today's Kvens of Norway and Sweden and the modern-day people inhabiting the province of Kainuu, Finland, are not closely related.

The dialect spoken today in Kainuu, Finland, is one of the Savonian dialects that was formed from the 16th century on, when immigrants from Savonia started to settle northbound to the neighboring areas of Kvenland.

Starting in 1828, Finnish Doctor Elias Lönnrot began collecting epic Finnish folk poems, poetic songs and incantations from the Finnish Province of Kainuu and from the Finnic territory of Karelia on the eastern side of the Finnish-Russian border.

From 1832 to 1835, Lönnrot travelled more on these areas, writing down thousands of verses of ancient Finnish folk tradition. The roadmap of those collection trips can be seen above.

The poetic song tradition, sung in an unusual, archaic trochaic tetrameter, had been part of the oral tradition among speakers of Balto-Finnic languages for over two thousand years.

The first edition of Lönnrot's collections was published under the name of Kalevala in 1835. Lönnrot published a second, expanded version of the Kalevala in 1849. The Kalevala has been translated into 60 languages, and it is known as the national epic of Finland. The term Kalevala is also used for ancient Finnish jewelry.

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