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The Fenni were an ancient people of
northeastern Europe, first described by
Cornelius Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...
in ''
Germania
Germania ( ; ), also called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a large historical region in north- ...
'' in AD 98.
Ancient accounts
The Fenni are first mentioned by
Cornelius Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...
in ''
Germania
Germania ( ; ), also called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a large historical region in north- ...
'' in 98 A.D. Their location is uncertain, due to the vagueness of Tacitus' account: ''"they (Venedi) overrun in their predatory excursions all the woody and mountainous tracts between the Peucini and the Fenni"''.
[Tacitus G.46] The Greco-Roman geographer
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
, who produced his ''
Geographia
The ''Geography'' ( grc-gre, Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις, ''Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis'', "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, com ...
'' in ca. 150 AD, mentions a people called the ''Phinnoi'' (Φιννοι), generally believed to be synonymous with the Fenni. He locates them in two different areas: a northern group in northern ''Scandia'' (
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
), then believed to be an island; and a southern group, apparently dwelling to the East of the upper
Vistula river
The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland.
The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...
(SE Poland). It remains unclear what was the relationship between the two groups.
The next ancient mention of the Fenni/Finni is in the ''
Getica
''De origine actibusque Getarum'' (''The Origin and Deeds of the Getae oths'), commonly abbreviated ''Getica'', written in Late Latin by Jordanes in or shortly after 551 AD, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of th ...
'' of 6th-century chronicler
Jordanes
Jordanes (), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat widely believed to be of Goths, Gothic descent who became a historian later in life. Late in life he wrote two works, one on Roman history (''Romana ...
. In his description of the island of ''Scandza'' (Scandinavia), he mentions three groups with names similar to Ptolemy's Phinnoi, the ''Screrefennae'', ''Finnaithae'' and ''mitissimi Finni'' ("softest Finns"). The Screrefennae are believed to mean the "skiing Finns" and are generally identified with Ptolemy's northern Phinnoi and today's Finns. The Finnaithae have been identified with the
Finnveden of southern Sweden. It is unclear who the ''mitissimi Finni'' were.
Ethno-linguistic affiliation
Tacitus was unsure whether to classify the Fenni as
Germanic or
Sarmatian
The Sarmatians (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic peoples of classical antiquity who dominated the Pontic steppe from about the 3rd century BC to the 4th cen ...
.
The vagueness of his account has left the identification of the Fenni open to a variety of theories. It has been suggested that the Romans may have used ''Fenni'' as a generic name, to denote the various non-Germanic (i.e.,
Balto-Slavic
The Balto-Slavic languages form a branch of the Indo-European family of languages, traditionally comprising the Baltic and Slavic languages. Baltic and Slavic languages share several linguistic traits not found in any other Indo-European bran ...
and
Finnic) tribes of north-eastern Europe.
[R. Bosi, ''The Lapps'' (1960) pp44-7] Against this argument is the fact that Tacitus distinguishes the Fenni from other probably non-Germanic peoples of the region, such as the
Aestii
The Aesti (also Aestii, Astui or Aests) were an ancient people first described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his treatise '' Germania'' (circa 98 AD). According to Tacitus, the land of ''Aesti'' was located somewhere east of the ''Suiones'' ( ...
and the
Veneti.
It has also been suggested that Tacitus' Fenni could be the ancestors of the modern
Finnish people
Finns or Finnish people ( fi, suomalaiset, ) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland.
Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these ...
.
Juha Pentikäinen
Juha Pentikäinen (born 1940) is a Finnish professor in the Department of Comparative Religion at the University of Helsinki. With a field-work oriented approach to the study of religious traditions he is especially interested in the oral history ...
writes that Tacitus may well have been describing the
Sami
Acronyms
* SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft
* Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company
* South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...
or the proto-Finns when referring to the Fenni, noting some archeologists have identified these people as indigenous to Fennoscandia.
[Juha Pentikäinen, ''Kalevala Mythology'', Indiana University Press, 1999, p226] The context of Fenni has also included the Finnic
Estonians
Estonians or Estonian people ( et, eestlased) are a Finnic ethnic group native to Estonia who speak the Estonian language.
The Estonian language is spoken as the first language by the vast majority of Estonians; it is closely related to other ...
throughout different interpretations. Nevertheless, according to some linguists, certain linguistic evidence may be interpreted supporting the idea of an archaic
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
dialect and unknown
Paleo-European languages
The Paleo-European languages, or Old European languages, are the mostly unknown languages that were spoken in Europe prior to the spread of the Indo-European and Uralic families caused by the Bronze Age invasion from the Eurasian steppe of pastor ...
existing in north-eastern Baltic Sea region before the spread of Finno-Ugric languages like Proto-Sami and Proto-Finnic in the early Bronze Age around 1800 BC. However, in Tacitus's time (1st century AD) Finno-Ugric languages (Proto-Sami and Proto-Finnic) were the main languages in northern Fennoscandia.
Another theory is that Tacitus' Fenni and Ptolemy's northern Phinnoi were the same people and constituted the original Sami people of northern
Fennoscandia
__NOTOC__
Fennoscandia (Finnish language, Finnish, Swedish language, Swedish and no, Fennoskandia, nocat=1; russian: Фенноскандия, Fennoskandiya) or the Fennoscandian Peninsula is the geographical peninsula in Europe, which includes ...
, making Tacitus' description the first historical record of them, and the mention of two different "Phinnoi" groups may suggest that there was already a division between Finns and Sami. But while this may seem a plausible identification for the Phinnoi of north Scandinavia, it is dubious for Tacitus' Fenni. Tacitus' Fenni (and Ptolemy's southern Phinnoi) were clearly based in continental Europe, not in the Scandinavian peninsula, and were thus outside the modern range of the Sami. Against this, there is some archaeological evidence that the Sami range may have been wider in antiquity.
Sami toponyms are found as far as Southern Finland and Karelia
The uncertainties have led some scholars to conclude that Tacitus' Fenni is a meaningless label, impossible to ascribe to any particular region or ethnic group. But Tacitus appears to relate the Fenni geographically to the
Peucini
The Bastarnae (Latin variants: ''Bastarni'', or ''Basternae''; grc, Βαστάρναι or Βαστέρναι) and Peucini ( grc, Πευκῖνοι) were two ancient peoples who between 200 BC and 300 AD inhabited areas north of the Roman fronti ...
and the
Venedi
The Vistula Veneti (also called Baltic Veneti) were an Indo-European people that inhabited the region of central Europe east of the Vistula River and the areas around the Bay of Gdańsk. The name first appeared in the 1st century AD in the writin ...
, albeit imprecisely, stating that the latter habitually raided the "forests and mountains" between the other two. He also gives a relatively detailed description of the Fenni's lifestyle.
Material culture
''Fenni'' seems to have been a form of the proto-Germanic word ''*fanþian-'', denoting "wanderers" or "hunting folk", although
Vladimir Orel
Vladimir Emmanuilovich Orël (russian: Владимир Эммануилович Орëл; 9 February 1952 – 5 August 2007) was a Russian linguist and etymologist.
Biography
At the Moscow State University he studied theoretical linguistics ( ...
viewed its etymology as unclear and listed a couple of alternative proposals (i.e. a derivation from Proto-Celtic *þenn- "hill").
Tacitus describes the Fenni as follows:
In wonderful savageness live the nation of the Fenni, and in beastly poverty, destitute of arms, of horses, and of homes; their food, the common herbs; their apparel, skins; their bed, the earth; their only hope in their arrows, which for want of iron they point with bones. Their common support they have from the chase, women as well as men; for with these the former wander up and down, and crave a portion of the prey. Nor other shelter have they even for their babes, against the violence of tempests and ravening beasts, than to cover them with the branches of trees twisted together; this a reception for the old men, and hither resort the young. Such a condition they judge more happy than the painful occupation of cultivating the ground, than the labour of rearing houses, than the agitations of hope and fear attending the defense of their own property or the seizing that of others. Secure against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of the Gods, they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them nothing remains even to be wished.
This description is of a lifestyle much more primitive than that of the medieval Sami, who were pastoralists living off herds of reindeer and inhabiting sophisticated tents of deer-hide. But the archaeological evidence suggests that the proto-Sami and Proto-Finns had a lifestyle more akin to Tacitus' description.
See also
*
Finnic
*
Sitones
The Sitones were a Germanic people living somewhere in Northern Europe in the first century CE. They are mentioned only by Cornelius Tacitus in 97 CE in Germania. Tacitus considered them similar to Suiones (ancestors of modern Swedes) apart from ...
*
Finningia Finningia is an old Latin name for Finland, along with ''Fennia'', ''Finnia'' and most often used ''Finlandia''. The name first appears in the work of Olaus Magnus from 1539, who placed ''Finningia olim regnum'' on the Scandinavian map to indicate ...
Citations
References
Ancient
*
Jordanes
Jordanes (), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat widely believed to be of Goths, Gothic descent who became a historian later in life. Late in life he wrote two works, one on Roman history (''Romana ...
''
Getica
''De origine actibusque Getarum'' (''The Origin and Deeds of the Getae oths'), commonly abbreviated ''Getica'', written in Late Latin by Jordanes in or shortly after 551 AD, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of th ...
'' (ca. 550 AD)
*
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
''
Geographia
The ''Geography'' ( grc-gre, Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις, ''Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis'', "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, com ...
'' (ca. 150 AD)
*
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his t ...
''
Germania
Germania ( ; ), also called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a large historical region in north- ...
'' (ca. 100 AD)
Modern
* Anderson, J.G.D. (1958) Textual note to Tacitus' ''Germania''
* Bosi, Roberto (1960): ''The Lapps''
* Hansen, L.I. & Olsen, B. (2004): ''Samenes Historie fram til 1750''
* Kinsten, Silje Bergum (2000)
"The Northern Sami People"(The Norway Post, 19 August 2000)
* Pirinen, Kauko ''The settlement of Finland begins'' in Eino Jutikkala (ed.) ''A History of Finland'' (trans. Paul Sjoblom)
* Tägil, Sven (1995)
''Ethnicity and nation building in the Nordic world''
*{{cite journal , first=Ian , last=Whitaker , title=Tacitus' ''Fenni'' and Ptolemy's ''Phinnoi'' , journal=The Classical Journal , volume=75 , issue=3 , year=1980 , pages=215–224 , jstor=3297154
Ancient peoples of Europe
Hunter-gatherers of Europe
Finnic peoples