- Project Runeberg -  Norway and Sweden. Handbook for travellers /
xliii

(1889) [MARC] Author: Karl Baedeker
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ascertained that the inhabitants of the S. parts of the peninsula
were of Germanic origin, both during the earlier and later iron
periods. It has also been ascertained that the older Runic
alphabet of 24 letters, common to Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon,
Burgundian, and Gothic inscriptions, was afterwards modified by the
Scandinavians, who substituted for it the smaller character,
consisting of 16 letters only. It therefore seems to be a well
established fact that during the later iron period, if not earlier, the
Scandinavians had developed into a nationality distinct from the
ancient Goths or the Anglo-Saxons.

Transition to the Historical Period.

The earliest historical writers agree that Scandinavia was at
an early period inhabited partly by a Germanic race, and partly
by Finns or Lapps. The Germanic inhabitants, before whom the
weaker race seems gradually to have retreated, were first settled
in Skåne (Skåney) in the S. of Sweden , whence the country was
named Scandia, and the people Scandinavians. The name of
‘Swedes’ is mentioned for the first time by Tacitus (Suiones), the
‘Goths’ are spoken of by Ptolemy, and the Suethans and Suethidi
(i. e. Svear and Svfthjod) by Jordanis. Jordanis also mentions
the Ostrogothae and Finnaithae, or the inhabitants of Oster-Götland
and Finnveden in Sweden, the Dani or Danes , the Raumaricice
and Ragnaricii, or natives of Romerike and Raurike in Norway,
and lastly the Ethelrugi or Adalrygir, and the Ulmerugi or
Holm-rygir. As far back, therefore, as the beginning of our era, the
population in the S. of Sweden and Norway appears to have been
of the Gothic stock. To this also points the fact that the names
of Rugians, Burgundians, and Goths still occur frequently in
Scandinavia; the Rygir were a Norwegian tribe, the name
Borgund and Bornholm (Borgundarholm) recur more than once , and
the district of Götland and the island of Gotland or Gutland were
doubtless so called by Goths or Jutes. It is therefore more than
probable that the picturesque myth of the immigration of the Æsir
or ancient Scandinavians from Asia under the leadership of Odin
entirely lacks foundation in fact.

It is at least certain that the history of Scandinavia begins
with the later iron period. At that time the southernmost part of
Sweden seems to have belonged to the Danes. Farther N. was
settled the tribe of the Götar, to whom belonged the adjacent
island of Öland, while Gotland appears to have been occupied by an
independent tribe. Still farther N. were the Svear, who occupied
Upland, Vestermanland, Södermanland, and Nerike. The territories
of the Götar and the Svear were separated by dense forest, while
the latter were also separated from the Norwegian tribes by forests
and by Lake Yenern and the Götaelf. Beowulf, the famous
Anglo-Saxon epic poem, dating from about the year 700, mentions Den-

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