Roden (roðer, "rowing") is the old designation of the coastal areas of Svealand (the yellow areas in the map), that in wartime would man and equip the ships that sailed out in ledung. It was not only the eastern part of the province of Uppland that was called "Roden" (called

Sæland Roden (roðer, "rowing") is the old designation of the coastal areas of Svealand (the yellow areas in the map), that in wartime would man and equip the ships that sailed out in ledung. It was not only the eastern part of the province of Uppland ...

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the ...

) but also other provinces by the Swedish "East sea" (

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

), like the coastal areas of the province Östergötland. It was called roþi by Northmen in the 11 th century that wrote down the words on the

Uppland Runic Inscription 11 U 11 is the Rundata designation for a runestone that is located near the ruins of the old king's dwelling at Alsnö hus near Hovgården on the island of Adelsö in Sweden. Description This runestone has an intricate design with the runic text wi ...

. The scholarly consensus is that the Rus' people originated in what is currently coastal eastern Sweden around the eighth century and that their name has the same origin as Roslagen in Sweden (with the older name being ''Roden''). According to the prevalent theory, the name ''Rus'', like the Proto-Finnic name for Sweden (''*Ruotsi''), is derived from an Old Norse term for "the men who row" (''rods-'') as rowing was the main method of navigating the rivers of Eastern Europe, and that it could be linked to the Swedish coastal area of Roslagen (''Rus-law'') or ''Roden'', as it was known in earlier times.Stefan Brink, 'Who were the Vikings?', in
The Viking World
', ed. by Stefan Brink and Neil Price (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), pp. 4-10 (pp. 6-7). The name ''Rus'' would then have the same origin as the Finnish and

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also * ...

names for Sweden: ''Ruotsi'' and ''Rootsi''."Russ, adj. and n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/169069. Accessed 25 July 2018.

References

{{Reflist Uppland Geographic history of Sweden