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The Kylfings (Old Norse Kylfingar; Finnic Kylfingid; Hungarian Kölpények; Old East Slavic Колбяги, Kolbiagi; Byzantine Greek Κουλπίγγοι,Koulpingoi; Arabic al-Kilabiyya) were a people of uncertain origin active in Northern Europe during the Viking Age, roughly from the late ninth century to the early twelfth century. They could be found in areas of Lapland, Russia, and the Byzantine Empire that were frequented byScandinavian traders, raiders and mercenaries. Scholars differ on whether the Kylfings were ethnically Finnic or Norse. Also disputed is their geographic origin, with Denmark, Sweden and the Eastern Baltic all put forward as candidates Whether the name Kylfing denotes a particular tribal, socio-political, or economic grouping is also a matter of much debate. They are mentioned in Old Norse runestone inscriptions, sagas (most notably in Egil’s Saga), and poetry (such as Thorbjorn Hornklofi’s poemHaraldskvæði), as well as Byzantine records and Rus’ law-codes, in which they (along with another Scandinavian group, the Varangians) were afforded significant economic and social privileges. According to the sagas, the Kylfings opposed the consolidation of Norway under Harald Fairhair and participated in the pivotal Battle of Hafrsfjord. After Harald’s victory in that battle, they are described in the sagas as having raided in Finnmark and elsewhere in northern Norway and having fought against Harald’s lieutenants such as Thorolf Kveldulfsson. Holm (1992) considers Egil’s saga to equate the Kylfings with the Finnic ethnicities, i.e. Kvens and Karelians. In the 14th century, when the Swedish kings began to direct their attention northwards and encourage Swedish colonization in Norrbotten, there were regulations that the Finnish Birkarls and the Saami peoples were not to be interrupted in their traditional activities. In addition, there are many medieval sources that present Lapland as being dominated by Finns. A large part of the Karelians were under Novgorod which was included in what Icelandic sources called Kylfingaland, and thus the Kylfings could have been Baltic Finnish tribes under Novgorod.
The Norslunda Runestone, bearing runic inscription U 419, which mentions the personal name Kylfingr
Finnic peoples
The eastern shore of the Gulf of Bothnia, proposed by proponents of a Finnic origin for the Kylfings as that group’s homeland
The Kylfings have also been identified with the Votic people. Carl Christian Rafn, Edgar V. Saks, B. Briem and Sigurður Nordal have proposed Kylfings to have been the Norse name for the Votes. The reason is that the ethnonym Vadja(laiset) can be associated with the wordvadja (modern Estonian vai’) which means “stake”, “wedge” or “staff”, which corresponds to Old Norse kolfr. Vadjalaiset would consequently be translated into Old East Norse as kolfingar, which in Old West Norse (Old Icelandic) would be umlauted as kylfingar.
Estonians have also been identified as Kylfings.
Barði Guðmundsson identified the Kylfings as an East Scandinavian, possibly Swedish, tribe that infiltrated northern Norway during the late ninth century. Guðmundsson connects the Kylfings with the Germanic Heruli who were active throughout northern Europe and in Italy during the fifth and sixth centuries. According to Guðmundsson, many of these Kylfings may ultimately have emigrated to Iceland during the ninth and tenth centuries.Other scholars have assigned a Danish origin to this tribe. Some scholars have considered the Kylfings of Egil’s Saga to be a “conquering Germanic people”, or the Swedish king’s tax collectors. Holm (1992) considers such suggestions to be anachronistic due to the fact that the Swedish kings lacked any interest in northern Fenno-Scandia during the ninth and tenth centuries, and not even the later law of Hälsingland mentions any Swedish settlement north of Bygdeå in southern Västerbotten. Pritsak identified the Kylfings as a “professional trading and mercenary organization” that organized expeditions northward, into the Saami lands, as distinct from other Varangian and viking groups whose expeditions focussed on lands to the west and east of Scandinavia. This interpretation is supported by such historians as Stender-Petersen. A number of runestones in Sweden contain the personal name Kylfingr, which may or may not be connected to the Kylfings as a group. A few historians have hypothesized that the Kylfings were a West Slavic people related to the Pomeranians. Under this interpretation, the Slavic termKolbiag may share common origins with such place-names as Kołobrzeg (formerly Kolberg), a town on the Pomeranian Baltic coast, and Kolpino, a settlement near modern St. Petersburg.
Runestone Sö 318, containing the personal name Kylfingr
Other suggestions
The Joik is not Norse, or even Germanic but a tradition within the Sami culture.
The Sami are the indeginous people of northern Norway,Sweden,Finland and parts of Russia and their country is referred to as Sapmi.
http://fornsed.tumblr.com/post/1713816812/sami-peoples-also-spelled-sami-or-saami-also
http://fornsed.tumblr.com/post/1713674459/the-samer-are-the-indiginous-people-of-northern
A joik, (also spelled yoik), luohti, vuolle, leu’dd, or juoiggus is a traditional Sami form of song.
Originally, joik referred to only one of several Sami singing styles, but in English the word is often used to refer to all types of traditional Sami singing. According to music researchers, joik is one of the longest living music traditions in Europe, and is the folk music of the Sami people. Its sound is comparable to the traditional chanting of some Native Americancultures.
The joik is a unique form of cultural expression for the Sami people in Sápmi. Each joik is meant to reflect a person or place. This does not mean that it is a song about the person or place, but that the joiker is attempting to transfer “the essence” of that person or place into song - one joiks their friend, not about their friend. It usually has short lyrics or no lyrics at all. This type of song can be deeply personal or spiritual in nature. Improvisation is not unusual. However, there are other forms of joik (in the expanded sense of the word) that have a more epic type of lyrics. Joik is traditionally chanted a cappella and often dedicated to a human being, an animal, or a landscape as a personal signature.
In northern Sami areas, most joiks are personal, that is, tied to a specific person. A joik is often made for a person at the time he is born.
It has traditionally been sung a cappella, sometimes accompanied by a drum, but not a Sami drum which is used for ceremonial purposes only. It is sometimes set to other instruments. The tonality of joik is mostly pentatonic, but joikers are at liberty to use any tones they please
It is true this map says “predominant”, but it still lumps large groups like Slavs together while it is almost detailed about Germanic groups.
It is historical hogwash though.
There are no Saxons or Franks today. And if you insist on using those migration period, terms i would not be “Scandinavian” but Gauti (or at least “Norse”).
Anyone in Sweden (exept to a part the Saami) sees themselves as ethnical Swedes regardless of tribe.
One time period or the other please.
Oh, and btw: Icelanders are not Scandinavian. If you are thinking of the viking settlers the term is “Norse”, if you are thinking of modern Icelanders the term is “Nordic”.
Besides, Icelanders probably has Q Celtic genes too (via Scotland and Ireland).
Many have complained about ending up in the wrong “group” (where i found this map) large parts of northern Italy is really Celto - Germanic as well as Romance for instance..
France and Benelux are Celto - Germano _ romance as well.
Sicily has Germanic genes (via the Normans and Vandals).
The Saami of Scandinavia are far more spread (FAR MORE), Spain and Portugal are put down as Celtic and “near eastern” (what fucking ethnicity is that???) and the Germanic influence of the Visigoths, Suebi and the Vandals are skipped over (you find a lot of Germanic loan words in modern Portuguise),
Scotland is put down as “Scots” (The Scoti are actually Gaels = Irish, so technically partly correct), In actuallity the Scottish people are a mix of Gaelic, Pictish, Anglo - Saxon and Norse (Scandinavian, mainly Norwiegian and Danish).
The Irish are put down as Irish Celts (???).
If you use the terms Scots for Scotland (Scoti = The Roman term for Gael) you should do so for the Irish too.
Either Scots OR Gaels OR Q Celtic.
In actuality the Irish people are a mix of Gaels, Scandinavian and Romance (via the very “French” Normans) genes.
Whole Scottish Clans are of mainly Scandinavian origin MacDonald, MacIver (Ivarson) MacAuley (Olofsson), Gordon, MacLaeod to mention a few.
Scots, Doric (Scotland), Ulster Scots and the extinct Norn (Shetland, Orkney) are actually Germanic languages.
Gaelic and Manx (Isle of Man) are Q Celtic languages originating in Ireland.
Balts (???) as Slavic? Ever heard of Estonians. Estonians are Finnic not Slavic.
ALL of northern Africa is put down as Berber??? . There are other large groups, Semitic and Copts for instance. Sarmatian being another.
Russians are put down as distinct from Slavs witch is not incorrect in a sense. Russia probably got it´s name from Germanic peoples (mainly from Sweden according to theory) and as a country has many etnicities like Saami and other Finnic groups.
True, the confusing and rather scetchy colour field indicate Uralo - Finnic in the north and and Slavo - Germanic in a little clique but it is so simplified that it´s almost comical to anyone with a bit of a historic interest.
Then we have the problem with the term “ethnic”. Are we talking “blood?”
If so you can take any area of Europe and probably find a mix of Germanic, Celtic, Slavic and Romance genes AND culture.
I can prove that there where Arabs in Scandinavia (at least Denmark), being a part of society and sharing the (“heathen”) religion during the iron age.
I can prove (we are talking DNA, Strontium, anthropology, and archeology in general here.) that people travelled all the way from the Alps to eastern England in Neolithic times (stone age).
A normal Englishman most probably have Brythonic (P Celtic), Romance (Romans and later Normans, even if they where mainly Germanic), Anglo - Saxon and Scandinavian genes.
If we go by culture or linguistics the same mix applies.
And then ALL of these groups are in turn mixed up the same way.
Germanic and Celtic groups interacted so much that they where sometimes undistinguishable to the Romans (and some tribes still are).
The terms Germani and Keltoi where of Roman and Greek origin anyway (speaking of lumping together).
Groups like the Ostrogoths interacted the same way with Slavic tribes.
And then we have other ways of ethnic identification, like religion.
If “Christian” was the ethnic group with witch a viking identified himself, and “Asatru” (in lack of a better term) the way another viking in the same area identified (witch was in a sense sometimes the case at the start of the high middle ages in Scandinavia), they would have “Norse” as an ethnicity in common but still see themselves as religously (and thus to a part culturally) different ethnicities.
Serious anthropology and ethnology can never make a simple map or diagram describing something as complex as mans sense of “group” or belonging through history and pre history since the dawn of mankind.
My father is African, still both he and i consider me Germanic, Scandinavian (and Gautish to be extreme. That is i am of the Gauti / Götar tribe).
He counts himself as Creole. However, part of the mix that makes him Creole is Portuguise and Spanish (thus probably including Sephardic Jews, Moorish blood….oh, and he has some Chinese).
Funny though, the Suebi where in nothern Portugal, the Vissigoths where all over Spain and Portugal and the Vandals passed too.
So he would (possably, actually probably) have several strains of Germanic genes (as well as Romance, Carthagian, Celtic) witch might even bring us back to Sweden (some theories says that the Vandals and Goths came from Sweden and most accept that the “Germanic” peoples as a distinguishable group originated in southern Sweden ,Scania, and Denmark anyway (proto Germanic, around 500 BC).
Sorry! I´m simply far to interested in European history / ethnology / anthropology / archeology to have it simplified into some romantic doodle.
…one must do to get an understanding of history, self evedent as it might seem, is to remember that the Norse, or whatever culture one studies where people like you and me, with smelly feet, freezing, sad, happy. getting diarrhea, having a beer, enjoying hobbies and falling in love.
There would be pious people and those with no interest of spiritual things, pragmatic, greedy, political and down to earth people.
Proffessionals, artisans, craftsmen and labourers.
Classes and qliques.
Popular people, bullies, withdrawn people, lazy people and industrious people.
Far too often i see descriptions of vikings (and sometimes other cultures) as if they where some glorious, past and noble “special” people.
A viking would have farted after dinner and cursed if he hit his toe against a stone like the rest of us….and he was probably afraid of the dark.
