Fenni
The Fenni were an ancient people of
Ancient accounts
The Fenni are first mentioned by
The next ancient mention of the Fenni/Finni is in the Getica of 6th-century chronicler Jordanes. In his description of the island of Scandza (Scandinavia), he mentions three groups with names similar to Ptolemy's Phinnoi, the Screrefennae, Finnaithae and mitissimi Finni ("softest Finns").[4] The Screrefennae is believed to mean the "skiing Finns" and are generally identified with Ptolemy's northern Phinnoi and today's Finns.[5] The Finnaithae have been identified with the Finnveden of southern Sweden. It is unclear who the mitissimi Finni was.
Ethno-linguistic affiliation
Tacitus was unsure whether to classify the Fenni as
It has also been suggested that Tacitus' Fenni could be the ancestors of the modern
Another theory is that Tacitus' Fenni and Ptolemy's northern Phinnoi were the same people and constituted the original Sámi people of northern Fennoscandia, making Tacitus' description the first historical record of them, and the mention of two different "Phinnoi" groups may suggest that there was already a division between Finns and Sámi.[14][15][16] But while this may seem a plausible identification for the Phinnoi of northern Scandinavia, it is dubious for Tacitus' Fenni.[17] Tacitus' Fenni (and Ptolemy's southern Phinnoi) were clearly based in continental Europe, not in the Scandinavian peninsula, and were thus outside the modern range of the Sámi.[citation needed] Against this, there is some archaeological evidence that the Sámi range may have been wider in antiquity.[6][18] Sámi toponyms are found as far as Southern Finland and Karelia[19]
The uncertainties have led some scholars to conclude that Tacitus' Fenni is a meaningless label, impossible to ascribe to any particular region or ethnic group.
Material culture
Fenni seems to have been a form of the proto-Germanic word *fanþian-, denoting "wanderers" or "hunting folk",[20] although Vladimir Orel viewed its etymology as unclear and listed a couple of alternative proposals (i.e. a derivation from Proto-Celtic *þenn- "hill").[21] Tacitus describes the Fenni as follows:[1]
In wonderful savageness live the nation of the Fenni, and in beastly poverty, destitute of arms, of horses, and of homes; their food, the common herbs; their apparel, skins; their bed, the earth; their only hope in their arrows, which for want of iron they point with bones. Their common support they have from the chase, women as well as men; for with these the former wander up and down, and crave a portion of the prey. Nor other shelter have they even for their babes, against the violence of tempests and ravening beasts, than to cover them with the branches of trees twisted together; this a reception for the old men, and hither resort the young. Such a condition they judge happier than the painful occupation of cultivating the ground, than the labour of rearing houses than the agitations of hope and fear attending the defense of their own property or the seizing that of others. Secure against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of the Gods, they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them nothing remains even to be wished.
This description is of a lifestyle much more primitive than that of the medieval Sámi, who were pastoralists living off herds of reindeer and inhabiting sophisticated tents of deer hide. But the archaeological evidence suggests that the proto-Sámi and Proto-Finns had a lifestyle more akin to Tacitus' description.[10]
See also
Citations
- ^ a b c d Tacitus G.46
- ^ Mattingly (1970)
- ^ Ptolemy II.11 and III.5
- ^ Jordanes G.III
- ^ Olaus Magnus (1658) [1555]. "The Description of Scricfinnia". Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus. Rome. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
- ^ a b R. Bosi, The Lapps (1960) pp44-7
- ^ Tacitus G.45-6
- ^ Anderson (1958) 217
- ^ Pirinen 9
- ^ a b Juha Pentikäinen, Kalevala Mythology, Indiana University Press, 1999, p226
- ISBN 9780761409519.
- ^ Mikko Heikkilä: Bidrag till Fennoskandiens språkliga Förhistoria i tid och rum. University of Helsinki. 2014. tps://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/135714/bidragti.pdf - Abstract in English pp. 7-8
- ^ Ante Aikio 2006: On Germanic-Saami contacts and Saami prehistory
- ^ Tägil (1995) 118
- ^ Kinsten (2000)
- ^ Doug Simms, The University of Texas, The Early Period of Sámi History, from the Beginnings to the 16th Century
- ^ a b Whitaker 1980.
- ^ Hansen & Olsen (2004)
- ^ Ante Aikio 2007: The study of Saami substrate toponyms in Finland. Onomastica Uralica. http://mnytud.arts.klte.hu/onomural/kotetek/ou4/08aikio.pdf
- ^ Svensk Etymologisk Ordbok (online)
- ^ Vladimir E. Orel (2003). A Handbook of Germanic Etymology.
References
Ancient
Modern
- Anderson, J.G.D. (1958) Textual note to Tacitus' Germania
- Bosi, Roberto (1960): The Lapps
- Hansen, L.I. & Olsen, B. (2004): Samenes Historie fram til 1750
- Kinsten, Silje Bergum (2000): "The Northern Sami People" (The Norway Post, 19 August 2000)
- Pirinen, Kauko The settlement of Finland begins in Eino Jutikkala (ed.) A History of Finland (trans. Paul Sjoblom)
- Tägil, Sven (1995): Ethnicity and nation building in the Nordic world, ISBN 1-85065-239-2
- Whitaker, Ian (1980). "Tacitus' Fenni and Ptolemy's Phinnoi". The Classical Journal. 75 (3): 215–224. JSTOR 3297154.