The Kuyavians are classified as a tribe of Western Slavs. They lived along the central Vistula River in present-day northern Poland by at least the 10th century C. E. Their neighbors to the southwest, the Mazovians, spoke a related dialect. As were all Western Slavs they were called Wends by early medieval Franks. Along with the POLANIANS, who gained hegemony over other area tribes in the 10th century, the Kuyavians are among the ancestors of the Poles.
Kvens currently living in northern Norway maintain their cultural identity (see Norwegians: nationality).
The earliest mention of Kvenland or Cwenland in northern Finland is from the ninth century c. E. It is also mentioned in the sagas of the Vikings. Neither its exact location nor the constituent subtribes are known. The name Kven is probably derived from the Old Norse word hvein for flat and humid lands and has been used variously over the centuries. Kvens and related names such as Kainulaiset were first used in reference to people who settled along the northern Gulf of Bothnia in northern Finland and Sweden as well as to those who migrated farther north into northern Norway, especially to the present-day counties of Finnmark and Troms in the 18th and 19 th centuries.
For a time Norwegians used Kvens with negative connotations in reference to all Finnic-speaking peoples who had settled in Norway The ancestral Finnics, now grouped as Kvens in northern Norway, have minority status as a distinct group apart from other Finnish immigrants, such as those who settled in Finnskogen in southeastern Norway in the 17th century.
The earliest Kven visitors to the Arctic Sea coast of Norway were probably seasonal fishermen; some settled there permanently. other visitors were traders, who sought to exchange flour, hemp, iron artifacts, and clothing for dried fish. Farming families migrated north and west in search of new lands. In later centuries many of those who settled in Norway did so to work as commercial fishermen or in the copper mines.
In recent decades the Kvens have increasingly celebrated their identity and culture. The organization Norske Kveners Forbund, founded in 1987, helped bring about the granting of minority status in 1996. Kven newspapers appear in both Finnish and Norwegian; most Kvens are bilingual.
World History
