The elusive Finn:ethnic identities, source criticism and the early history of Northern Sweden in seventeenth-century Swedish historiography
Abstract The earliest history of the Swedish Realm’s northern regions has long been contested in historiography. This article primarily analyses views in seventeenth-century Swedish historiography concerning the origins of Finns in this region, in terms of source usage and ethnic identities. Gothici...
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ftunivoulu:oai:oulu.fi:nbnfi-fe2022021719702 2023-07-30T04:05:52+02:00 The elusive Finn:ethnic identities, source criticism and the early history of Northern Sweden in seventeenth-century Swedish historiography Sarviaho, S. (Samu) 2021 application/pdf http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe2022021719702 eng eng Informa info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Scandinavian Journal of History on 10 Aug 2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2020.1788633. 17th century Finland Gothicism Sweden ethnic identities history writing info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion 2021 ftunivoulu 2023-07-08T19:58:51Z Abstract The earliest history of the Swedish Realm’s northern regions has long been contested in historiography. This article primarily analyses views in seventeenth-century Swedish historiography concerning the origins of Finns in this region, in terms of source usage and ethnic identities. Gothicist views, emphasizing Swedish greatness were based on biblical notions of a postdiluvial settlement, linking sources from classical antiquity to Sweden via etymological comparisons. Combined with a reliance on Icelandic sagas and the uncritical use of secondary sources, these notions gave rise, among others, to the idea of an ancient, partially Finnish, Amazon warrior realm in Ostrobothnia. Conceptions surrounding the origins of Birkarl tax collectors were mostly based on traditions collected in the early 1600s, and later that century, they became associated with a migration of Finns to the north thought to have taken place in the late 13th century. Finns were given a role in the region’s history even within Gothicist historiography too. The ethnicity of these early settlements does not seem to have been overly emphasized though — indeed the boundary between Finns and Swedes was seen more as something fluid — indicating that ethnosymbolist theories of nationalism overstate the importance of ethnic identity in early modern Sweden. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Sweden Jultika - University of Oulu repository |
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Jultika - University of Oulu repository |
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English |
topic |
17th century Finland Gothicism Sweden ethnic identities history writing |
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17th century Finland Gothicism Sweden ethnic identities history writing Sarviaho, S. (Samu) The elusive Finn:ethnic identities, source criticism and the early history of Northern Sweden in seventeenth-century Swedish historiography |
topic_facet |
17th century Finland Gothicism Sweden ethnic identities history writing |
description |
Abstract The earliest history of the Swedish Realm’s northern regions has long been contested in historiography. This article primarily analyses views in seventeenth-century Swedish historiography concerning the origins of Finns in this region, in terms of source usage and ethnic identities. Gothicist views, emphasizing Swedish greatness were based on biblical notions of a postdiluvial settlement, linking sources from classical antiquity to Sweden via etymological comparisons. Combined with a reliance on Icelandic sagas and the uncritical use of secondary sources, these notions gave rise, among others, to the idea of an ancient, partially Finnish, Amazon warrior realm in Ostrobothnia. Conceptions surrounding the origins of Birkarl tax collectors were mostly based on traditions collected in the early 1600s, and later that century, they became associated with a migration of Finns to the north thought to have taken place in the late 13th century. Finns were given a role in the region’s history even within Gothicist historiography too. The ethnicity of these early settlements does not seem to have been overly emphasized though — indeed the boundary between Finns and Swedes was seen more as something fluid — indicating that ethnosymbolist theories of nationalism overstate the importance of ethnic identity in early modern Sweden. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sarviaho, S. (Samu) |
author_facet |
Sarviaho, S. (Samu) |
author_sort |
Sarviaho, S. (Samu) |
title |
The elusive Finn:ethnic identities, source criticism and the early history of Northern Sweden in seventeenth-century Swedish historiography |
title_short |
The elusive Finn:ethnic identities, source criticism and the early history of Northern Sweden in seventeenth-century Swedish historiography |
title_full |
The elusive Finn:ethnic identities, source criticism and the early history of Northern Sweden in seventeenth-century Swedish historiography |
title_fullStr |
The elusive Finn:ethnic identities, source criticism and the early history of Northern Sweden in seventeenth-century Swedish historiography |
title_full_unstemmed |
The elusive Finn:ethnic identities, source criticism and the early history of Northern Sweden in seventeenth-century Swedish historiography |
title_sort |
elusive finn:ethnic identities, source criticism and the early history of northern sweden in seventeenth-century swedish historiography |
publisher |
Informa |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe2022021719702 |
genre |
Northern Sweden |
genre_facet |
Northern Sweden |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Scandinavian Journal of History on 10 Aug 2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2020.1788633. |
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1772818168090198016 |