Bosworth Toller's

Anglo-Saxon

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Finnas

  • noun [ masculine ]
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Grammar
Finnas, gen. a; pl. m.
the Finns generally, including Scride-finnas and Ter-finnas, are the inhabitants of the north and west coast from Halgoland [v. map in Ors. Bos.] to the White Sea, as defined by Ohthere in the following example
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  • Ne métte Ohthere nán gebún land, syððan he fram his ágnum háme [Hálgoland, q. v.] fór; ac him wæs ealne weg wéste land on ðæt steór-bord, bútan fisceran, and fugeleran, and huntan, and ðæt wǽron ealle Finnas

    Ohthere had not met with any inhabited land, since he came from his own home [Halgoland]; but the land was uninhabited all the way on his right, save by fishermen, fowlers and hunters, and they were all Finns,

    • Ors. 1, 1
      • ;
    • Bos. 20, 3-6.

  • Ða Finnas and ða Beormas sprǽcon neáh án geþeóde

    the Finns and the Biarmians spoke nearly the same language,

    • 1, 1: Bos. 20, 14: 19, 29.
Finwood, between Gothland and Smöland, in the south of Sweden
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  • Ða Beówulf sǽ óþbær, flód æfter faroþe, on Finna land

    then the sea bore Beowulf away, the flood along the shore, on the Fins' land,

    • Beo. Th. 1165
      • ;
    • B. 580.
  • Not Finland, but the Fins' land; for how could Beowulf, in his swimming-match with Breca, be borne by the sea to Finland? Thorpe thinks the following extract may, however, afford a solution of the difficulty, — 'Their [the Fins'] name is probably still to be found in the district of Finved [Finwood], between Gothland and Smöland. This inconsiderable and now despised race has, therefore, anciently been far more widely spread, and reached along the Kullen [the chain of mountains separating Norway from Sweden] down to the Sound, and eastward over the present Finland,'
    • Petersen, Danmarks Historie i Hedenold i. p. 36.

  • Ic wæs mid Finnum

    I was with the Fins,

    • Scóp. Th. 153
      • ;
    • Wld. 76.
Derived forms
Scride-finnas, Ter-
Entry information
Citation

Bosworth, Joseph. “Finnas.” In An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. https://bosworthtoller.com/10727.

Checked: 1
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  • Finnas, n.

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