Editing Swedes (tribe) (section)

===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>