Suiones
The Svear/Suiones were a Germanic tribe who lived in Svealand. They are the ancestors of the modern Swedes together with the Geats and Gutes tribes. The name most like comes from the proto-Germanic word Swihoniz meaning one's own.
There is almost no information about this tribe before the viking age but they have been mentioned by Roman and Anglo-Saxon writers. Tacitus wrote in 98AD that the Suiones (Latinized name) were a powerful tribe who had a powerful fleet. Every ship had a bow on both sides. They were impressed by wealth and did not carry their weapons themselves. The weapons were guarded by slaves.
Pliny the Elder wrote that the Suiones live in Scandinavia but the size of Scandinavia is unknown. The Suiones had 500 villages and they viewed their lands as a world on its own.
Jordanes mentioned in the 6th century that Scandinavia was inhabited by two tribes, the Suehans and the Suetidi. They were known for their fine horses and black fox pelts which they traded on Roman markets. The name Suetidi is linked to Suiones.
Information about this tribe goes dark after the Roman era. Nothing is known about them from written sources until the Anglo-Saxons started to write about them. The poem Widsith from the 7th century states:
"Wald (ruled) the Woings, Wod the Thuringians Saeferth the Sycgs, Ongentheow the Swedes Sceafthere the Umbers, Sceafa the Lombards"
Ongentheow which is mentioned in this poem was a Swedish king from the Scylfings dynasty. He also appears in the poem Beowulf from around 8-11th century:
"Such is the feud, the foeman's rage, death-hate of men so I deem it sure that the Swedish folk will seek us home for this fall of their friends, the fighting Scylfings"
The third Anglo-Saxon source is Alfred the Great's translation of Orosius' histories:
"Then Sweden is along the land to the south, on the other side of the moors, as far as the land to the north and Finland along the land to the north."
After these sources have been written, The Geats and Gutes tribe have been absorbed into the Svear creating one big Svearland which eventually evolved into Sweden. More information about them is of course known from the viking age but vikings are not a subject of this group. There are hundreds of other groups on facebook about the vikings.
Source map: legionord
Other image is from the total war games.
