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Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Were the Finns vikings?

The short answer is no. The answer really is that simple but it would not be a good post with just one line, so I'll go more into it. Also, viking was not a culture, it was something you did. You went on vikings, which was not only raiding, but exploring as well.

Even though Finland is right next to Scandinavia, the Norse and the Finns had pretty different cultures. Their mythologies were also very much different, but had similarities. Then of course their languages aren't even related. While both influenced each other, they were still different people. The Finns had a lot of contact with the Norse, they traded with each other and the Finns knew good routes to Volga for example. Clothing style was very similar with all of the other Germanic cultures, even ancient England had similar clothing. The rich liked to show off their wealth with fancy colors, jewelry and swords. Where did the Finns get these riches? Trading, and yes, raiding as well. The Scandinavians were not the only people who raided, pretty much every culture from that time did raids. Scandinavians are just more commonly linked to raiding since the vikings are very famous, and traveled across the world. They probably also did the most raids than any other and were better at it. There are also more written sources both by christians and the Scandinavians about viking raids. The Finns liked to mostly stay in their homeland and farm, hunt, gather berries, fish and trade. Sometimes though, every man in the village was gathered with their shields and spears, and they went out on a raid. They did not travel as far as the Norse did, instead they went to a neighboring chiefdom and took their treasure. Sometimes they traveled as far as Novgorod. No boat was needed, only their legs. Taking riches and slaves was also an aftermath of a war between two chiefdoms. Wars happened because of some dispute or disagreement, like they still do. Raids against the Finns were also done by neighboring chiefdoms, Slavs and the Norse. 

A written story from the 1300's by the name of Nornagests þáttr, Story of Norna-Gest, states that the Kvens did a raid sometime during the 800's to Sweden. The Kvens are an ancient people of Finland, commonly linked to modern Kainuu. Another source states that Finns were used as mercenaries in Scandinavia. A sword from a grave in Eura, Finland has been found, that belonged to a bodyguard of Konstantinos VIII, emperor of Byzantine. This supports that some Finns joined Scandinavians in their journeys, and worked as mercenaries.

Finnish people did not do raids like the Scandinavians did, they did however raid and also very few Finns did join Scandinavians on their journeys. This is supported by archaeological finds, the written stories should be taken with a grain of salt since they were written hundreds of years after the depicted event.

Runestone Gs 13 in Gävle, Sweden. It tells about a viking that died in battle somewhere in Häme, Finland

Vainolaista vastaan, by Pekka Halonen 1896 depicting Finnish warriors