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Sueones / Svìar -
Ancient tribe or collective reference?
Summary
This article will discuss the mentioning of the ancient Swedish people, denoted sueones, svìar, suehans etc. in ancient sources.
The question raised is whether the available sources are referring to a specific tribe or group of people resembling a cultural, geographical, religious or otherwise united group of people in the Sweden of the first millenium AD, or, if this reference may be used as a collective reference to several tribes inhabitating the Scandinavian peninsula, and more specifically the southern part and surrounding islands that make up the land of Sweden today.
The first hypothesis under investigation is that sueones is not a specific tribe according to the above made definition but, in fact, a collective reference to several tribes that inhabitated the peninsula in the first millenium, such as Götar, Finnvedingar, Väringar, Värmlänningar etc.
The second hypothesis under investigation is that the Sueones, as a group of Scandinavian tribes - or as a specific tribe, if this turns out to be the conclusion on the first hypothesis - was in fact inhabiting a greater part of ancient Sweden than just the modern provinces of the modern day geographical reference Svealand.
No conclusions are made as of today (2003-09-04).
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Content
Sueones / Svìar - Ancient tribe or collective reference?
- Summary
- Content
- Introduction
- Sueones / svìar in ancient sources
- Terminology refering to people in ancient Sweden
- Sueones / svìar as a people
- The flaw of translating sueones / svìar as svear
- The people called `Götar'
- Sueones / svìar as a territorium
- Conclusions
- References
- Litterature and background articles
- Background articles
- Litterature and terminology
- External links
- Article revision history
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Introduction
There are, historically, a common scholar definition of svear, that are said to resemble the leading ancient Swedish tribe. This term in use today, is often equated to the ancient sources corresponding term sueones (as given by Adam of Bremen1), svìar (mainly by Snorri Sturluson2) etc3. Also, by consequence this tribe is assumed to have been situated around the lake Mälaren, and specifically in the province of Uppland.
Today, the term `svear' is unfortunately very closely connected to the geographical zone of Sweden denoted Svealand, made up by the provinces Uppland, Södermanland, Västmanland, Närke, Värmland and Dalarna. This, in the opinion of the author, is not a very useful alignment since the ancient term sueones / svìar most definately also comprised other parts of Sweden, which in todays terminlogy are said to belong to the geographical zone Götaland. Furthermore, the occurences of the term `Svealand' is not clearly known before the middle ages to represent any distinct set of modern day provinces in Sweden.
Therefore, the swedish term svear will be replaced by the definition made by Svenberg et.al. in [Ref. 11], namely sveoner (according to Terminology, on page 107). This is given as a direct translation from the term used by Adam of Bremen, sueones. As written in this article series, the english term will be sueones.
Purpose
An objective view will be held towards the used sources, to discuss the interpretations made from the term to see which interpretation that will hold out to be the most logical.
Question
- Were sueones / svìar a specific tribe, or a collective reference of several distinct tribes of ancient Sweden?
- How does Sueonia relate to Suedia, Gothia and other ancient provinces?
- May the origin of the people named Sueones have had an origin with greater, or different, geographical localization than to the province of Uppland and the valley region of lake Mälaren?
- Where were the original homelands of the people called sueones / svìar located?
Hypothesis
- The original homelands of the Sueones were not limited to the region of lake Mälaren, whereas by original is meant the time when a tribe or people with a resembling name first occurs in ancient sources.
- Sueones refer to all ancient tribes living in the Swedish part of the Scandinavian peninsula and its co-located islands, south of the province of Hälsingland.
- Svìar refer to the ancient tribe living in the Mälardalen provinces, centered around Uppland, by Adam of Bremen denoted Suedia.
- Sueonia refers to all provinces of ancient Sweden, including that of Gothia and Suedia, where Gothia resembles the Götaland provinces of today, and Suedia equals the valley of lake Mälaren, i.e. Uppland.
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Sueones / svìar in ancient sources
Before beginning, we must declare the scope of the investigation regarding how to interpret the terms Sueones /svìar. First of all, we must make distinctions - or alignments - of the different accounts of a people in ancient Sweden.
Terminology refering to people in ancient Sweden
Besides the proposed terms Sueones and svìar, we must relate the terms used in ancient sources, and distinguish between references to a state or country, such as Svìavälde or Svithiod, Sueonia or Suedia - and that of references to people, be it either as a specific tribe or a collective reference.
Which source uses which term, and what do they mean?
Sueones / svìar as a people
The flaw of translating sueones / svìar as svear
In the very well worked through translation of Gesta Hammaburgensis... by Adam of Bremen, [Ref. 11], the authors Svenberg et.al. present some interesting, partly new, views on how to interpret the work of Adam4, both in extensive comments on the text and in four complementary articles.
This comprise a discussion by Tore Nyberg about the translation of Adams term sueones5. To avoid confusion of the term Sueones used by Adam, with the today common term svear, representing the geographical region Svealand, the authors Svenberg et.al. promotes the term Sveoner (also see terminology definitions in section Sueones on page 108).
Generally, since recollections of ancient sources clearly mentions the people (or tribe) called Sueones in areas of modern day Sweden that are not incorporated by the geographical/metrological term Svealand, Sueones cannot be translated as something confined to the provinces of Svealand.
The people called `Götar'
A discussion on the origin and interpretation of the term Sueones also must comprise a discussion on the interpretation of Götar. Ingemar Nordgren 1999, in his dissertation [Ref. 45], Goterkällan, finds the alignments between different references as götar, gutar, geater etc. and not least Goths to reflect not a people or tribe of people, but a specific religious cult. That is, those referred to as e.g. Götar in ancient Nordic sources first of all should be interpreted as the people following that religious cult.
Just as the different interpretations of Sueones and the like makes a confusing whole, there are not so much clear references to a land or tribe of Götar prior to the early middleages, when a coherent state can be identified in ancient Sweden. The interpretation by Nordgren very well fits the hypothesis of Sueones resembling the collective reference of people and tribes in ancient Sweden, out of which some were followers of the religious cult held within the name of Götar.
Sueones / svìar as a territorium
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Conclusions
[This article is yet only at a preliminar status; therefore the complete conslusions cannot be entered at this time.]
From the findings by this author, it seems plausible to consider sueones / svìar to resemble a collective reference, just as `Danes' or `Norwegians' are used for definition of the ancient tribes inhabitating these country areas. The areas which these tribes habitated may include all ancient Swedish territories south of, say the province of Hälsingland.
It may, however, still be a plausible explanation that the tribe of sueones was one out of many, and that they were the one that over the centuries became the most prominent amongst other tribes in ancient Sweden.
It is more so clear that there is a distinct possibility that the original homelands of these people were not limited to the region around lake Mälaren, i.e. the provinces of the modern day geographical term Svealand. Rather, the people called Sueones / svìar are more likely to have, originally, inhabited a greater part of ancient Sweden including some of the modern day provinces of Götaland. This is also indicated by the view of Nordgren 1998, picturing Götar to resemble not an etnicity of a people, but an etnicity of religious cult. The people refered to as Götar were, then, Sueones, just as every other group of people having differing religious beliefs. They all lived in the land Sueonia, ancient Sweden.
Hence, a reevaluation of the ruling paradigm of the Svealand theory might be considered.
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References
Litterature and background articles
Background articles
Litterature and terminology
- See Litterature references for a list of litterature references
(given in swedish).- See Terminology for a definitions list of used terminology.
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External links
Article revision history
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1See [Ref. 11], [Ref. 12], [Ref. 57] and the background article A commented summary of Adam of Bremen.
4As a reference of Adams Gesta, this article serie provides [Ref. 7], A commented summary of Adam of Bremen.
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