The Svear are classified as a Germanic tribe. They lived around Lake Malaren near present-day Stockholm and Uppsala on the east coast of Sweden at least by the first century c. e. Their first mention in the historical record is by the Roman historian Tacitus of the first and second centuries c. e., who referred to them as the Suiones and described their ships with prows on each end.
In the fifth century the ruling dynasty of the Svear was founded. By about 600 the Svear had expanded their domain to include much of Sweden absorbing other tribal groups. The name Svear is derived from Svith, an old Norse name. In the Old English epic Beowulf the tribal name is written as Sweonas.
The Svear were, like other Germanics from the area, active raiders and traders. in the Baltic hinterland they encountered Slavs and Balts without enough wealth to provide an incentive for raiding. Thus contact with them took the form of trade, mostly in slaves for the Roman Empire, beginning in the first century c. e. By the fifth century gold coins from Byzantium, probably paid as subsidies to the Huns and Ostrogoths, who were menacing the Roman Empire, had filtered north to the Baltic region. Many of these found their way to Sweden, possibly as a result of raiding by the Svear on the weaker local tribes to wrest the gold away from them or possibly in return for furs.
The Svear and tribes they absorbed are considered ancestral to Swedish Vikings and the early Rus.
Swabians See Suebi.
Swedes See Swedes: nationality; Vikings.
World History
