the character of missionary as well as in military service, lived
twelve years with the Danish king Swen Ulfson, has preserved
a relation of this kind. “ Narravit mihi,” he says, “ rex
Danorum sæpe recolendus, gentem quandam ex montanis in
plana descendere solitam, et incertum esse unde veniat”—
“ subito accedunt—omnem depopulantur regionem.” Enemies
of civilisation, thesebarbarous natives of mountains and forests,
who were clothed with the skins of wild beasts, and uttered
sounds more like the cries of wild animals than the speech,of
m e n -^ q u i ferarum pellibus utuntur pro vestibus, et loquentes
ad invicem frendere magis quam verba -pi^feBïîe^.tdiôiiîftui^^
dwelt in caves and the clefts of rocks, and issued tbemeeas-
nightly marauders to perpetrate deeds of blood.# By the
Icelanders they were termed Iotnen and Thursen^giants .and'
enchanters.!* That these designations do notifeelong tot the
mere creature of fancy, such as supérstition in.later;timig&.
associates: with them, appears from the fact that th e historical
sagas deduce the genealogy of many families*from an Io.tniah
ancestry. The early poems, according to Geij er, describe
real wars in the accounts of contests against barbarians of the
rocks and mountains. In the song of Thiodolf to the honour
of Thor, that god is termed “ the destroyer of mountain-wolves)
the overtumer of the altars of the F ornj otish idols,c the >conqueror
of Iotuns and F in n s.i. Here an historical name comes
forward in connection with the old term of lotun to explain its
meaning in still earlier use. So Snorro Sturleson in the Heims-
kringla uses Finns and Iotuns as synonymous.^ ; The people
thus termed are plainly the Skrith-finni, who were described
by Procopius as inhabiting Thule in ihe sixth century,-and by
Paul Warnefrid’s Bon in the eighth, under nearly the same
name, and of whom Adam of Bremen reports that they exceeded
wild beasts in the swiftness of their flight. || They dwelt, ae-
* Adam of Bremen. Geijer, op. cit.p. 341.
f Geijer, ubi supra. % Geijer, s. 3,43.
§ In Harald Harfager’s Saga in the Heimskrlngla the lotun Svase calls himself
a Finn. Finn is plainly used as synonymous with Iotni or Iotuns, rendered Iatten
in the Swedish version in Peringskiold’s edition of the Heimskringla, and in the
Latin version Gigantes.
|| Adam of Bremen terms them Skritefingi. Saxo calls them Scrlcfinni. He describes
them, " Quæ gens inusitatis assueta vehiculis montium inàccessa venationis
269
cording to Adam, towards the north, between Sweden and
Norway;, especially in Helsingland. He alsomentions them
in the Wermlands. In the eleventh century they wandered
in the.southërnffl’ontâers of Norway. In early periods they
were certainly in the south of Sweden, where in a part of
Smaland are still found the local names of Fin weden,the field
of "-Finns, Finnheifle, and Finnia.*
It must be o S rv e d , that under this name of Finns, two
very different races are often included) viz. the Lappes, still
termed Finnas by the Norwegians, and the true Finns, that is
the Finnlanders, who by the same people are called Quæns.
To-wfeidh: dfthesdïtworâees dotbeold accounts refer Î Perhaps
to both. Although, says Geijer, “ the Lappish and Finnish are
.two difldrent idioms, yet it .is proved by their relationship to
each other, which- is even? admitted by those who, without any
grounds, contend against the affinity o f the two nations,-that
both these idioms belong to the same family of languages.*’
The author-here iréfers, as I suppose, to Lehrberg,f who in his
learned researches into the history of the ancient inhabitants
of the Russian, empire, maintained that theLappes and Finns
were entirely different! races- ; the Lappes, always wild and nomadic,
being the true aborigines of Scandinavia ; and the Finns,
*a more cultivated an d se ttled people, allied to the Russian
Æ^ehudls, having come originally from the East. Lehrberg’s
chief argument in defence of this opinion turns on the physical
and moral diversities of the two nations.| But we shall
hereafter find proofs th a t the former are by no means constant ;
aidore sectatur.” '" Finni ultimi Septentrionis populi venationibus callent. Incerta
illis habitatio- est va^aque domus. Pandis trabibus vecti conferta nivibus juga per-
v. currant.” Tjjese Finni are plainly Lappes. (See Geijer, 344.) ,
» From Ottar’s statement it appears that the people termed by him Finnas, that
is the Lappes, must have inhabited a great part of Sweden in the time of Alfred.
He says " that the country of the Northmen was very long aud very narrow ; the
whole of it that is useful for agriculture and pasturage lies on the sea. I t is also
very mountainous in some parts. In the east, on the border of the inhabited land,
lie wild mountains, upon which dwell Finnas.”
f Lehrberg’s Untersuchungen zur Erliiuterung, &c., ubi supra.
X The same opinion had been maintained by a native of Finnland, zealous for
the honour of his country, and disdaining kindred with the Lappes. See F. M.
Frantzen, Dissertatio Academica de Bircarlis, Aboæ, 1786. The Acta Literaria of
Upsala contain a prolix disputation on this subject.