Kvenland

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An unofficial flag Kvenlands was in 2013 at the Town Hall in northern Sweden on the occasion of a regional "Day of Kvens" Kiruna hoisted
Kiruna, the Finnmarken, Kainuu and the entire area inhabited by Sami (dark blue) and Finns (light blue)

The popular name Kvenen (Kvener, Kväner) or the land of the Kvenen (Kvenland , but also Kvänland, Qvaenland, Quænland, Kvernland, Kvennaland, Quinneland, Quernland, Quenlandt, Quendland, Quindlannd) was often synonymous with Finns or Finland in medieval traditions used.

However, the terms Kvenen and Kvenland were used for certain Finnish tribes and regions as well as for all Finnish and Sami tribes or the entire area of Fennoscandinavia inhabited by them - but occasionally also to distinguish them from " actual Finland ".

Kvenland , handed down in Anglo-Saxon (Old English) and North Germanic (Old Norwegian) legends, is said to have been somewhere between the Gulf of Bothnia and Bjarmaland (which is also only vaguely localized) .

In the 16th century, Olaus Magnus located his Carta Marina Berkara Qvenar south of Finnmarken in northern Norway . Later theories identified the central eastern Finnish region of Kainuu with Kvenland . Kainuu's neighboring province of Savo is one of those Finnish regions of origin from which the so-called “ forest fins ” emigrated to Norway between the 16th and 20th centuries . Today the name Kvenen is only applied to a small subgroup (perhaps from Kainuu) of Finnish emigrants who settled as an ethnic minority in northern Norway ( Troms og Finnmark province ) - which comes close to Olaus Magnus' localization. Their dialect has evolved into the Kven language .

Web links

Commons : Kvenland  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Oluf Rygh: Norske Gaardnavne , Oplysninger samlade til brug ved Matrikelens Revision, 14. Søndre Trondhjems amt, Oslo 1878-1892, p. 4.
  2. Kvenland . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 15 : Kromat – Ledvätska . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1911, Sp. 436 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).