Kylfings
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
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