Before we proceed to the Norwegians' great contributions to the exploration of the northern regions, we shall attempt to collect and survey what is known, and what may possibly be concluded, about the most northern people of Europe, the Finns, and the earliest settlement of Scandinavia.
[Sidenote: Earliest mention of the Finns]
The Finns are mentioned, as we have seen (p. 113), for the first time in literature by Tacitus, who calls them "Fenni," and describes them as exclusively a people of hunters. Procopius does the same, but calls them "Skridfinns," and removes their home to the northernmost Thule or Scandinavia. Cassiodorus (Jordanes) also mentions the "Skridfinns" as hunters in the same northern regions, but speaks moreover of "Finns" and "Finaiti," and another people resembling the Finns ("Vinoviloth" ?) farther south in Scandinavia. The Ravenna geographer also mentions the "Skridfinns" (after Jordanes). Then comes Paulus Warnefridi, who speaks of the ski-running of the Skridfinns, though indeed in a way which shows he did not understand it very well, and mentions a deer of whose skin they made themselves clothes, but does not say that this deer was domesticated. Next King Alfred mentions "Skridfinns," "Finns," and "Ter-Finns," and in the information he obtained from Ottar he speaks of the hunting, fishing and whaling of the "Finns," and of their keeping reindeer in the north of Norway. This description is in accordance with what we learn of the Lapps from later history, with this difference only, that on account of the killing-off of the game their hunting in recent times became of small importance. Lastly we have Adam of Bremen's description of the Finns, which contains nothing new of note. He mentions "Finnédi" or "Finvedi" between Sweden and Norway (near Vermeland) and "Skridfinns" in northern Scandinavia. Besides these he speaks of a small people who come down at intervals, once a year or every three years, from the mountains, and who are probably the Mountain Lapps with their reindeer. He mentions also a people skilled in magic on the shores of the northern ocean [Finmark], and skin-clad men in the forests of the north, who may be Fishing Lapps or Forest Lapps. In connection with this we may also refer to the mention of the Lapps in the "Historia Norvegiæ":