There is a FACEBOOK GROUP about history of KVENLAND here: https://www.facebook.com/Kvenland/posts/1412056828892528:0?__tn__=K-R
It is in english and with people from all over the world, with historians, linguistics, new archealogical findings included supporting old sagas. I strongly recommend it if you have some questions or interest to our Finnish/Kvenland history. It is not a "mythical place nor the kings and queens are not either mythical more or less then mythical rulers of Rome, Britain or anywhere else.
EUROPEAN ROYALS DESCENDED FROM RULERS OF FINLAND, KVENLAND AND GOT(H)LAND
Faravid (Finnish: Kaukomieli) was a "King of Kvenland", as stated in Egil's Saga, which spans over the years of c. 850–1000, in the Viking Age.
Orkneyinga saga describes the early 1st millennium AD ruler Fornjót as a "king", who "reigned over Gotland, which we now know as Finland and Kvenland".
Hversu Noregr byggðist tells that Snær was a great-grandson of Fornjót and – as in Orkneyinga saga – son of 'Frost son of Kári', and father of Thorri, and that Snær and Thorri were kings, and that Thorri "ruled over Gotland, Kvenland and Finland".
Both accounts state that a great sacrifice was made yearly at mid-winter, offered either by Thorri (in Orkneyinga saga) or by Kvens to Thorri (in Hversu Noregr byggðist).
Snær is mentioned also in Ynglinga saga, in relation to Finland. Thorri had two sons named Nór – the founder of Norway – and Gór and a daughter named Gói.
Based on medieval accounts, the ruling families of England, Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Normandy, Norway, Orkney Islands, Rome, Russia, Scotland, Sweden and Ukraine – among others – descended from the primeval kings of Finland, Kvenland and Got(h)land.
Medieval accounts discussing the lineages sprung from the primeval Finnic "king" Fornjót and his descendants, mainly Nór and Gór, leading to the rulers of the above-mentioned and other countries include – but are not limited to – the following:
• Beowulf (8th – early 11th century) • Íslendingabók (8th–10th century) • Poetic Edda (c. 800–1000) • Ynglingatal (late 9th century) • Primary Chronicle (c. 1095) • Historia Norvegiæ (late 12th century) • Gesta Danorum (started c. 1185, finished c. 1216) • Skáldskaparmál (c. 1220) • Ynglinga saga (c. 1225) • Orkneyinga saga (c. 1230) • Heimskringla (c. 1230) • Hyndluljóð (13th century) • Hversu Noregr byggðist (oldest surviving transcript dates to 1387) • and its appended Ættartolur (1387).
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• BIRTHS OF NORWAY AND SWEDENORIGINS OF EUROPEAN ROYALS IN FINLAND, KVENLAND AND GOT(H)LAND
Kvens are a Finnic people in Northern Europe. Various spellings in historical sources include – but are not limited to – Cwen, Kvæn, Quen and Qven. Finnic synonyms for Kven include kainulainen, kainuulainen, pohjolainen and kveeni. The land of the Kvens, Kvenland, gave birth to Norway, Sweden and the Yngling and Rurik Dynasties, from which founders and rulers of many countries descended: http://history.kvenland.org
Faravid (Finnish: Kaukomieli) was a "King of Kvenland", as stated in Egil's Saga, which spans over the years of c. 850–1000, in the Viking Age.
The ‘History of the Earls of Orkney’ (“Orkneyinga saga”) describes the early 1st millennium ruler Fornjót as a "king", who "reigned over Gotland, which we now know as Finland and Kvenland".
Hversu Noregr byggðist tells that Snær was a great-grandson of Fornjót and – as in Orkneyinga saga – son of 'Frost son of Kári', and father of Thorri, and that Snær and Thorri were kings, and that Thorri "ruled over Gothland, Kvenland and Finland".
Prince Rurik was the founder of the early polity that led to the births of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. According to the Primary Chronicle (c. 1095), Rurik was one of the Rus' (Varyags, in Old East Slavic), a Varangian tribe likened by the chronicler to Danes, Swedes, Angles, and Gotlanders.
Based on DNA findings and other evidence, Rurik was a Finnic Kven. He likely descended from the early 1st millennium Finnic rulers of Finland, Kvenland and Got(h)land, and their Scandinavian royal offspring.
Rurik's place of birth is claimed to have been the Roslagen seashore in the modern-day Province of Uppland in Sweden.
In the early 9th century, when Rurik was born, the territory ruled by Kvens, known as Kvenland, bordered Roslagen, and only quite recently had the Sveas (Old English: Sweonas; Latin: Suiones, Suehans and Sueones) integrated with the Kvens of the region.
• Rurik's home and ethnic groups in 840 in what now is Sweden – http://840.kvenland.org
Still during the late Viking Age and beyond, Kvenland extended to the northernmost arctic edges of Europe, based on medieval written sources and other evidence.
One such source is a list of countries in 'Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan', a geographical chronicle and a guidebook for pilgrims about routes from Northern Europe to Rome and Jerusalem, written by an Icelandic Abbot Níkulás Bergsson in the monastery of Þverá (Munkaþverá) in c. 1157.
Written circa three and a half centuries after the birth of Prince Rurik, Abbot Bergsson provides the following description of the lands near Norway:
"Closest to Denmark is little Sweden (Svíþjóð), there is Öland (Eyland); then is Gotland; then Hälsingland (Helsingaland); then Värmland (Vermaland); then two Kvenlands (Kvenlönd), and they extend to north of Bjarmia (Bjarmaland)."
Based on that description and other historical evidence, the southern border of Kvenland had by then shifted northbound considerably from Rurik's lifetime, but Kvenland still then covered the Fennoscandian territory north of Hälsingland and Värmland.
The names "Rus", "Ruotsi" and "Russia" share a common Finnic origin. Historically, and up to date, Finns inhabiting the eastern side of the Gulf of Bothnia have referred to the area on the western side of the gulf – modern-day Sweden – as "Ruotsi", and an inhabitant of the area as "ruotsalainen", from which the name Rus' derives from.
The vast majority of what today is Sweden was in the 9th century a part of Kvenland. Then already, the Finnic Kvens inhabiting the area were referred to by the Finns on the eastern side of the Gulf of Bothnia – in today's Finland – as ruotsalainen.
The Rus' were part of a larger Finnic group known as Varangians, who were seafaring Finnic warriors and traders. They spread their influence to large territories southeast from Fennoscandia.
The names "Varangian" and "Varyag" also share ancient Finno-Ugric origins, and are related to such Finnish language terms as "vara", "vaara", "varanto", etc.
Similarly, the Finnish terms "venäläinen" (meaning "Russian") and "vene" (meaning "boat") and the Estonian term "venelane" ("vene" in spoken language, meaning "Russian") share common Finnic roots.
Related to the names "Varangian" and "Varyag" is also the Finnish language name "Varanginvuono" (Sami: Várjavuonna; Norwegian: Varangerfjord; English: Varanger Fjord, meaning literally "Varangian" Fjord/Bay). It is the name of a fjord on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, in the modern-day area of Northern Norway.
In his study 'Kvenland - Kainuunmaa' (1986, p. 113–118), Kyösti Julku discusses the maps of Abraham Ortelius from 1570, Gerhard Mercator from 1595 and Adrian Veen from 1613. In these maps, the name "Caienska Semla" is marked next to Varangerfjord.
The Ortelius and Mercator maps are pictured in Julku's study. "Caienska Semla" can be seen written west from Vardø (Finnish: Vuoreija, Vuorea) and Varangerfjord.
According to Julku – and others –, the Finnish language meaning of the Latin term "Caienska Semla" is "Kainuun maa", which means "Land of Kainuu". Today, historians widely agree that the Finnic names Kainu, Kainuu and Kainuunmaa and the non-Finnic name Kvenland are synonyms.
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FINNISH TRADING CENTERS NEVANLINNA AND LAATOKANLINNA WERE RIVER-GATES FROM FENNOSCANDIA TO EASTERN EUROPE
In 1611, at the start of Sweden's (Sweden-Finland) superpower era as the Swedish Empire (1611-1721), the Nyenschantz fortress (Swedish: Nyenskans) was built in the Finnish port and trading center of Nevanlinna, at the mouth of the Neva River, on the easternmost coast of the Gulf of Finland.
• Neva is Finnish for bog (a type of wetland). "Nyen" was properly Swedish for the Neva River.
The small Finnish town of Nevanlinna ("Neva Castle") standing next to the fortress was at the time referred to as both Nyen and Nyenskans in Swedish. It gained official town rights in 1642, when it became the administrative center of Swedish Ingria.
Officially, the fortress was always known as Nyenskans, even though the above-mentioned concepts were in flux in common parlance. The term "skans" is Swedish for "bastion".
A the time – and up to date –, the region of and around Nevanlinna was referred to as Ingria (Finnish: Inkeri; Swedish: Ingermanland). The area was inhabited by the Finnic Ingrian people/tribe. In the town of Nevanlinna, there was also a Swedish-speaking minority population, and even smaller German-speaking population.
• Ingria in 1698
– http://1698.kvenland.org
Over time, Russian rulers had become anxious for Russia to gain a seaport on the coast of the Baltic Sea, through which Russia could begin trading overseas with maritime nations.
During the Great Northern War (1700–1721), while the army of Sweden-Finland was focused on warring against Germans and Poles, forces of the Russian Tsar Peter the Great captured the Finnish seaport of Nevanlinna on May 12, 1703. The same year, the Russian town of Saint Petersburg was founded on it's place.
This marked the first time for Russia or any of its predecessor states to have a seaport on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Before this, Staraya Ladoga (Finnish: Laatokanlinna) had been the only "Russian" port where seagoing vessels arriving from the Baltic Sea could have anchored.
The only seaport Russia had had until then was in Arkhangelsk, which was located much further north, and not by the Baltic Sea but on the coast of the White Sea instead. Arkhangelsk provided Russians access to the Arctic Ocean, but the port was closed to shipping for months during wintertime.
Over 6000 primeval rock-carvings have been found in Alta (Alattio), in what today is the province of Finnmark, part of Norway. In medieval texts, prior to becoming part of Norway, the area was then too referred to as Finnmark.
The oldest of the rock-carvings in Alta date to c. 5,200 BC, and the most recent to c. 500 BC. In Jiepmaluokta, circa four kilometers from the town of Alta, there are many thousand individual carvings. The area has been turned into an open-air museum.
The Jiepmutka site and sites in nearby Storsteinen, Kåfjord, Amtmannsnes and Transfarelv were placed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites on December 3, 1985. Combined, these sites form Norway's only prehistoric World Heritage Site.
The wide variety of imagery featured in the rock-carvings shows there having been a culture of hunter-gatherers who were able to control herds of reindeer, were able to use moose for domestic practices, were adept at boat-building and fishing, and practiced shamanistic rituals involving worship of bear and other venerated animals.
Finnmark represents the northernmost continental part of Europe and – today – Norway. Up to the late Middle Ages, Finnmark was the northernmost region of the Finnic realm known as Kvenland (Finnish: Kainu, Kainuu, Kainuunmaa, Pohjola), discussed in medieval texts.
KING'S GRAVE IN SOUTHWESTERN FINLAND
Kuninkaanhauta (King's Grave) is a Bronze Age tumulus in the village of Panelia in Aura, southwestern Finland, believed to date back to c. 1100–500 BC (Edgren 1993: p. 119–120).
It is the largest burial cairn (Finnish: hiidenkiuas) in Finland. It is 36×30 meters wide and about four meters high. According to the legends, it is the burial place of a local king or chief.
The grave has never been opened. It was built on the shore of the ancient Bay of Panelia. Since the Bronze Age, the coastline has moved nearly 20 kilometers west, due to the post-glacial rebound.
Kuninkaanhauta is located about nine kilometers northeast of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Sammallahdenmäki, which includes more than 30 Bronze Age burial cairns. The Bronze Age in Fennoscandia was in c. 1700–500 BC.
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KINGS OF FINLAND AND KVENLAND
A few Icelandic sagas tell about kings that ruled over Kvenland amd Finland. In Egils saga. Faravid is directly said to be the "King of Kvenland".
In Orkneyinga saga, Fornjót is said to be "a king". It is stated that he "reigned over Gotland, which we now know as Finland and Kvenland".
Professor Emeritus Kyösti Julku notes that no geographical errors have been found in the descriptions of the Orkneyinga saga. He asks why therefore the people described in the account should be considered not to have existed.
Hversu Noregr byggðist has very similar usage for the title. This time, the great-grandson of Fornjót, Snær, and his son Thorri are told to be kings.
Kvenland now appears in relation to Thorri, of whom it is said that "he ruled over Gothland, Kvenland (Kænlandi), and Finland". Fornjót's great-grandson Snær is also mentioned in Ynglingasaga, in relation to Finland.
Much more interesting findings, newest archealogy, DNA results on that FB page, check it out.
Fornjot "the Ancient Giant", King of Kvenland
King Thorri Snærsson, of Kvenland
Frosti Karasson, Mythical King of Kvenland
King Kari ''Wind'' Fornjotsson, of Kvenland
Rurik of Novgorod, Grand Duke
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