Talk:Kven/Original research
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[edit] First
The towns and communities around the Varanger Fjord in Northeastern Norway still today possess the most visible and strong Kven (Cwen, Kveeni) culture, traditions and population anywhere. In many ways, the Varanger Fjord area nearby today's border between Norway and Russia indeed is the center of today's Kvenland - a.k.a. Kvænland (in old Norse), Cwenland' or Quenland (Kainuunmaa or Kainuu in Finnish) -, i.e. the land traditionally inhabited by the Kven population (Kainulaiset in Finnish).
The following further distinguishing between the Finnic Kvens and the Finnic Samis must be made:
In the Scandinavian languages the term Kven (Kveeni in Finnish) has never been meant to refer to the Sami people (traditionally - up to recent times - known as Lapps in Finland) even though they too are members of the Finnic (a.k.a. Finno-Ugric or Fenno-Ugric) group of peoples, and eventhough they have - throughout the known history - inhabited the same Norhtern Scandinavian territories with the Kvens.
Furthermore, the people of a Finnish background outside today's borders of Northern Norway - within the Finnish, Swedish or Russian boundaries - in the modern day terminology are usually not referred to as Kvens, but instead simply Finns, regardless of how many generations they may have been living in their areas, and despite of the fact that their areas still during the Middle Ages were part of the territory commonly referred to as Kvenland (Kainuu or Kainuunmaa in Finnish).
[edit] History
In the return of the second millennium A.D. the Finnish Karelians - sometimes with the support of the Slavic groups, such as the Novgorodians - participated in the border and other disputes near and within Kvenland. In the Middle Ages and during the Viking Age Kvenland covered the vast majority of the Northern Scandinavian and Fennoscandian territories.
[edit] Second paragraph
98 A.D., the Roman historian Gaius Cornelius Tacitus wrote about the Fenni, the people of the north. This is the first reference to the Finns in the recorded written history (though some assume that Tacitus may have also referred to the Lapps, a.k.a. the Samis).
What may sound somewhat confusing, the Viking Age Norwegians often called the Samis either Skridfinns or Finns, to separate them from the Kvens, who in reality actually also were - of course - Finns, more so than the Samis, though they too are members of the Finno-Ugric (or Fenno-Ugric) family of peoples.
Thus, as of 2005 even the newly legalized Kven language - closely ensambling the Kainuu dialect of today's (as well as historic) Finland - in Norway therefore was officially named Kainu. Furthermore, all known researchers seem to also agree that the Bothnian and the historic Torne Valley recidents truly were an important and essential part of the historic Kvenland. Numerous ancient names of places, rivers and lakes - perhaps - stand as a best and most obvious - a monumental - proof ot this. Such names include Kainuunjoki (the "River of Kainuu", translated to English) - i.e. the "River Kvenland" - now better known as the River Kalix, in today's Northeastern Sweden. Other such names in the modern-day Sweden include Pajala, Kiiruna, Luossavaara, Haaparanta, etc.
In Finland - as well as elsewhere in Scandinavia - it indeed is a commonly accepted knowledge that the people around the Gulf of Bothnia were called Kainulaiset in Finnish, and their land in Finland was called Kainu and/or Kainuunmaa, and that - equally - those terms are commonly associated with the (presumably originally Norse) term Kven, based on a number of historic Norse and other Scandinavian sagas, as well as other historic texts and sources.
Historians estimate that the most active and strong period of the Kven society excisted ca. 800-1100 AD. Although findings are quite sparse, there is some archaeological support - e.g. from the grave findings in Ostrobothnia - of a class based hierarchy, presumably based mainly on fur trade, in which the leading class seems to have consisted of Finnish traders. These particular archeological findings date to the 6th century.
Recently, in the beginning of the 21st century - including in 2005 - promissing jewlery findings at the Lake Inari district in Northern Finland have been made. These findings are located in the heart of the historic Kvenland, and the items found date to the most active period of the Kven society in the end of the 10th century.
