Einbi ( sv, Enby) is a village in

Lääne-Nigula Parish Lääne-Nigula Parish ( et, Lääne-Nigula vald) is a rural municipality of Estonia, in Lääne County. It has a population of 7,041 (as of 1 January 2019) and an area of . Lääne-Nigula Parish was established by merging Oru, Risti and Taebla ...

Lääne County Lääne County ( et, Lääne maakond or ''Läänemaa'', literally "Western land"; german: Wiek; la, Rotalia) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is located in western Estonia and borders the Baltic Sea to the north, Harju County to the north-ea ...

. It is the westernmost

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building *Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fina ...

in mainland

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

History

Einbi is believed to be the oldest village in

Noarootsi Noarootsi Parish ( et, Noarootsi vald, sv, Nuckö kommun) was a rural municipality in Lääne County, western Estonia between 1991 and 2017. It covered an area of and had a population of 910. The administrative centre of Noarootsi Parish was ...

. The earliest written mention of the village is from 1457 in the form of ''Enbue'', though local tradition places its origin in the

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

period. Archaeological evidence places the founding of the village in the 10th century AD, when it was settled by

Estonian Swedes The Estonian Swedes, or Estonia-Swedes ( sv, estlandssvenskar, colloquially ''aibofolke'', "island people"; et, eestirootslased), or "Coastal Swedes" ( et, rannarootslased) are a Swedish-speaking minority traditionally residing in the coastal ...

. The early Swedish settlers lived by fishing, hunting

seals Seals may refer to: * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means of a ...

, and raising cattle. Because the land surrounding Einbi is sandy and rocky, early settlers depended largely on the sea for their livelihood. In the 19th century, a coin was found in Einbi that was minted in the reign of Ethelred II (976-1016). Einbi had between 210 and 399 residents during the period 1839-1924. This made it one of the larger villages in Estonia. During the 1880s, Estonians began to move into Einbi. In the beginning of Estonian settlement in Einbi, relations between Estonians and Swedes were tense, though not hostile. This was partially due to the language barrier, as the Estonians did not speak

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

. As intermarriage between Estonians and Swedes increased over the first half of the 20th century, tensions dissipated. However, Swedes in Einbi still hold on to their Swedish identity. Before the administrative reform in 2017, the village was in

Noarootsi Parish Noarootsi Parish ( et, Noarootsi vald, sv, Nuckö kommun) was a rural municipality in Lääne County, western Estonia between 1991 and 2017. It covered an area of and had a population of 910. The administrative centre of Noarootsi Parish was ...

References

{{Lääne-Nigula Parish Villages in Lääne County