Editing Swedes (tribe) (section)

==History==
The history of this tribe is shrouded in the mists of time. Besides [[Norse mythology]] and Germanic legend, only a few sources describe them and there is very little information.

===Romans===
[[File:Roman Empire 125.svg|thumb|right|300px|The Roman empire under [[Hadrian]] (ruled 117–38), showing the location of the '''Suiones''' Germanic tribe, inhabiting central Sweden]]
[[File:Gaius Cornelius Tacitus.jpg|thumb|Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]]
There are two sources from the 1st century A.D that are quoted as referring to the Suiones. The first one is [[Pliny the Elder]] who said that the Romans had rounded the ''Cimbric peninsula'' ([[Jutland]]) where there was the ''Codanian Gulf'' ([[Kattegat]]?). In this gulf there were several large islands among which the most famous was ''Scatinavia'' ([[Scandinavia]]). He said that the size of the island was unknown but in a part of it dwelt a tribe named the ''[[Hilleviones|Hillevionum gente]]'' ([[Nominative case|Nominative]]: ''Hillevionum gens''), in 500 villages, and they considered their country to be a world of its own.

What strikes the commentators of this text is that this large tribe is unknown to posterity, unless it was a simple misspelling or misreading of ''Illa'' '''S'''''vionum gente''. This would make sense, since a large Scandinavian tribe named the ''Suiones'' was known to the Romans.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Encyclopedia of European Peoples|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kfv6HKXErqAC&pg=PA786|publisher = Infobase Publishing|date = 1 January 2006|isbn = 9781438129181|language = en|first1 = Carl|last1 = Waldman|first2 = Catherine|last2 = Mason|access-date = 16 January 2016|archive-date = 20 April 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230420104602/https://books.google.com/books?id=kfv6HKXErqAC&pg=PA786|url-status = live}}</ref>

Tacitus wrote in AD 98 in [[s:Germania#XLIV|Germania 44, 45]] that the Suiones were a powerful tribe (''distinguished not merely for their arms and men, but for their powerful fleets'') with ships that had a [[prow]] in both ends). He further mentions that the Suiones were much impressed by wealth, and the king's thus was absolute. Further, the Suiones did not normally bear arms, and that the weapons were guarded by a slave.

After Tacitus' mention of the Suiones, the sources are silent about them until the 6th century as Scandinavia still was in pre-historic times. Some historians have maintained that it is not possible to claim that a continuous Swedish [[ethnicity]] reaches back to the Suiones of Tacitus.<ref>Dick Harrison: ''Sveriges historia – Medeltiden'' (2002); Fredrik Svanberg: ''Decolonizing the Viking Age'' (2003).</ref> According to this view the referent of an ethnonym and the ethnic discourse have varied considerably during different phases of history.

===Jordanes===
[[File:Vendel era helmet (942).jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[Vendel Period]] helmet at the [[Swedish History Museum]]]]
In the 6th century [[Jordanes]] named two tribes he calls the '''Suehans''' and the '''Suetidi''' who lived in [[Scandza]]. They were famous for their fine horses. The Suehans were the suppliers of black fox skins for the Roman market. Then Jordanes names a tribe named '''Suetidi''' a name that is considered to refer to the Suiones as well and to be the Latin form of ''Sweþiuð''. The Suetidi are said to be the tallest of men together with the [[Danes (Germanic tribe)|Dani]] who were of the same stock.

===Anglo-Saxon sources===
There are three Anglo-Saxon sources that refer to the Swedes. The earliest one is probably the least known, since the mention is found in a long list of names of tribes and clans. It is the poem [[Widsith]] from the 6th or the 7th century:

{|
|
:Wald Woingum, Wod þyringum,
:Sæferð Sycgum, Sweom Ongendþeow,
:Sceafthere Ymbrum, Sceafa Longbeardum,
|
:Wald [ruled] the Woings, Wod the [[Thuringii|Thuringians]],
:Saeferth the Sycgs, Ongendtheow the Swedes,
:Sceafthere the Umbers, [[Sceafa]] the [[Lombards]],
|
|}
[[File:Vendel era helmet (950).jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[Vendel Period]] helmet at the [[Swedish History Museum]]]]
On line 32, [[Ongentheow]] is mentioned and he reappears in the later epic poem ''[[Beowulf]]'', which was composed sometime in the 8th–11th centuries. The poem describes [[Swedish-Geatish wars]], involving the Swedish kings [[Ongentheow]], [[Ohthere]], [[Onela]] and [[Eadgils]] who belonged to a royal dynasty called the ''[[Yngling|Scylfing]]s''. These kings might have been historical as kings with similar names appear in Scandinavian sources as well (see [[list of legendary kings of Sweden]]). There appears to be a prophecy by [[Wiglaf]] in the end of the epic of new wars with the Swedes:

{|
|
:Þæt ys sio fæhðo      and se feond-scipe,
:wæl-nið wera,      þæs þe ic wen hafo,
:þe us seceað to      Sweona leode,
:syððan hie gefricgeað      frean userne
:ealdor-leasne,      þone þe ær geheold
:wið hettendum      hord and rice,
:æfter hæleða hryre      hwate Scylfingas,
:folcred fremede      oððe furður gen
:eorl-scipe efnde.<ref>Lines 3000–3008.</ref>
|
:Such is the feud, the foeman's rage,
:death-hate of men:  so I deem it sure
:that the Swedish folk will seek us home
:for this fall of their friends, the fighting-[[Yngling|Scylfings]],
:when once they learn that our warrior leader
:lifeless lies, who land and hoard
:ever defended from all his foes,
:furthered his folk's weal, finished his course
:a hardy hero.<ref>Gummere's translation</ref>
|
|}

When more reliable historic sources appear the Geats are a subgroup of the Swedes.

The third Anglo-Saxon source is [[Alfred the Great]]'s translation of [[Orosius]]' ''Histories'', with appended tales of the voyages of [[Ohthere of Hålogaland]] and [[Wulfstan of Hedeby]], who in the 9th century described the ''Sweon'' and ''Sweoland''.

Ohthere's account is limited to the following statement about Swēoland:
:Ðonne is toēmnes ðǣm lande sūðeweardum, on ōðre healfe ðæs mōres, Swēoland, oð ðæt land norðeweard; and toēmnes ðǣm lande norðeweardum, Cwēna land.<ref name=uvic>{{Cite web|url=http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/iallt2003/oldenglish/OEparagraph-5.html|title=Ohthere's First Voyage (paragraph 5)|website=web.uvic.ca|access-date=12 November 2006|archive-date=29 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929223456/http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/iallt2003/oldenglish/OEparagraph-5.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

:Then Sweden is along the land to the south, on the other side of the moors, as far as the land to the north; and (then) Finland (is) along the land to the north.<ref name=uvic/>

Wulfstan only mentions a few regions as being subject to the Sweons (in translation):
:Then, after the [[Bornholm|land of the Burgundians]], we had on our left the lands that have been called from the earliest times [[Blekinge]]y, and [[Möre|Meore]], and [[Öland|Eowland]], and [[Gotland]], all which territory is subject to the Sweons; and Weonodland was all the way on our right, as far as Weissel-mouth.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4076|title=The Discovery of Muscovy|first=Richard|last=Hakluyt|date=1 May 2003|via=Project Gutenberg|access-date=28 August 2020|archive-date=27 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727070959/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4076|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Frankish sources===
The ''[[Annales Bertiniani]]'' relate that a group of [[Norsemen]], who called themselves ''[[Rus' people|Rhos]]'' visited [[Constantinople]] around the year 838. Fearful of returning home via the steppes, which would leave them vulnerable to attacks by the [[Hungarians]], the ''Rhos'' travelled through Germany. They were questioned by [[Louis the Pious]], Emperor of [[Francia]], somewhere near [[Mainz]]. They informed the emperor that their leader was known as ''chacanus'' (the [[Latin]] for "[[khagan]]") and that they lived in the north of Russia, but that they were '''Sueones'''.

===Adam of Bremen===
Dealing with Scandinavian affairs, Adam of Bremen relates in the 11th century ''Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum'' that the '''Sueones''' had many wives and were severe on crime. Hospitality was an important virtue and refusing a wanderer to stay over the night was considered shameful. The visitor was even taken to see the hosts' friends.

Their royal family is of an old dynasty (see [[House of Munsö]]), but the kings are dependent on the will of the people (the [[Thing (assembly)|Thing]]). What has been decided by the people is more important than the will of the king unless the king's opinion seems to be the most reasonable one, whereupon they usually obey. During peacetime, they feel to be the king's equals but during wars they obey him blindly or whoever among them that he considers to be the most skillful. If the fortunes of war are against them they pray to one of their many gods ([[Æsir]]) and if they win they are grateful to him.

===Norse sagas===
The [[saga]]s are our foremost source for knowledge, and especially [[Snorri Sturluson]], who is probably the one who has contributed the most (see for instance the [[Heimskringla]]). His descriptions sometimes concur with, sometimes contradict the previous sources.

For a continuation, see [[History of Sweden (800–1521)]].