[Illustration: The more important tribal names in Southern Scandinavia, according to Jordanes]
Jordanes counts about twenty-seven names of tribes or peoples in Sweden and Norway; a number of them are easily recognised, while others must be much corrupted and are difficult to interpret.[134] He mentions first the peoples of Sweden, then those of Norway. "Suehans" is certainly the Svear.
They, "like the Thuringians, have excellent horses. It is also they who through their commercial intercourse with innumerable other peoples send for the use of the Romans sappherine skins ('sappherinas pelles'), which skins are celebrated for their blackness.[135] While they live poorly they have the richest clothes."
We see then that at this time the fur trade with the North was well developed, as the amber trade was at a much earlier date. Adam of Bremen tells us of the "proud horses" of the Svear as though they were an article of export together with furs. In the Ynglinga Saga it is related [cf. Sophus Bugge, 1907, p. 99] that Adils, King of the Svear at Upsalir,
"was very fond of good horses, he had the best horses of that time." He sent a stallion "to Hålogaland to Godgest the king; Godgest the king rode it, and could not hold it, so he fell off and got his death; this was in Ǫmd [Amd] in Hålogaland."
The original authority for the statement in Jordanes was probably King Rodulf, who perhaps came from the northern half of Norway, and it looks as though the Norwegians even at that time were acquainted with Swedish horses.
Jordanes further mentions five tribes who "dwell in a flat, fertile land [i.e., south Sweden], for which reason also they have to protect themselves against the attacks of other tribes ('gentium')." Among the tribes in Sweden are mentioned also the "Finnaithæ"--doubtless in Finn-heden or Finn-veden (that is, either Finn-heath or Finn-wood), whose name must be due to an aboriginal people called Finns--further, the "Gautigoth," generally taken for the West Göter, who were a specially "brave and warlike people," the "Ostrogothæ" [East Göter] and many more.
Then he crosses the Norwegian frontier and mentions
"The 'Raumarici'[of Romerike] and 'Ragnaricii' [of Ranrike or Bohuslen], the very mild [peaceful] 'Finns' ('Finni mitissimi'), who are milder than all the other inhabitants of Scandza;[136] further their equals the 'Vinoviloth'; the 'Suetidi' are known among this people ['hac gente' must doubtless mean the Scandinavians] as towering above the rest in bodily height, and yet the 'Danes,' who are descended from this very race [i.e., the Scandinavians ?] drove out the 'Heruli' from their own home, who claimed the greatest fame [i.e., of being the foremost] among the peoples ['nationes'] of Scandia for very great bodily size. Yet of the same height as these are also the 'Granii' [of Grenland, the coast-land of Bratsberg and Nedenes], the 'Augandzi' [people of Agder],[137] 'Eunix' [islanders, Holmryger in the islands ?], 'Ætelrugi' [Ryger on the mainland in Ryfylke], 'Arochi' [== 'arothi,' i.e., Harudes, Horder of Hordaland], 'Ranii' [in other MSS. 'Rannii' or 'Rami,' Sophus Bugge (1907) and A. Bugge see in this a corruption of '*Raumi,' that is, people of Romsdal], over whom not many years ago Roduulf was king, who, despising his own kingdom, hastened to the arms of Theodoric king of the Goths, and found what he had hankered after. These people fight with the savageness of beasts, more mighty than the Germans in body and soul."