The Ancient Finnish Warrior Fur Trader 500 AD

When a Roman Explorer was cruising the Baltic he met a Saxon Trader who told of a fierce people with blue eyes and golden hair living in the present area of Finland, and it was called Fenland or Kvenland then. I am certain that Trader bought furs from the Fenni.

Fen is an old Finnish word for bog just like tundra comes from the Finnish tunturi. These were called the Kveni but I am sure it was Fenni and they periodically warred against the Vikings, the Ruotsi and the Russ tribes to the east. These people were the fur traders of the Taiga Forests and I have recreated the clothing I assumed they would have worn. They were my ancestors. I have their blood in my veins.

They ranged from the White Sea and Archangel on the Arctic Coast to the Ukraine during the Viking period and even formed a goodly portion of the Viking period mercenary Vaarangian Guards for Byzantine nobility where their hallmark was the enormous two headed axe. Vaara is an old Finnish word meaning guard. In the west, they were bounded by the Ruotsi or Swedes.

The Finnish army, with warriors honed by millenia of guerilla war and back country travel and wilderness living is the only one in the world, along with a contingent of Poles, who has ever captured Moscow which they did in a winter war in the 16th Century, no doubt leading in part to the hostility Stalin used to justify the winter war of 1939. Since the Fins came originally from the Ural mountains many thousands of years ago, where Fin like people still live, the Fins have more claim to Russia than Russia ever had to Finland.

Boots were made from the hind leg of cow or from leather and birch bark and a long shirt with or without various embroidery was probably present. A fur hat was a must. The Fenni, the Fins, brought the iron age to Europe and so they were great makers of swords and axes. Early Finnish burials have the Warrrior buried with his sword at this side for the trip to the afterlife. In Pagan times, Fenni cremated their dead. Fins made iron from bogs where they smelted the oxide crusts under peat layers with charcoal made from burning wood under sod without air.

Axemen and swordsmen were known as Hakkapellita meaning choppers and throughout Europe there was a prayer known by everyone. "Dear God, from those Terrible Fins, deliver us." This identical prayer is still muttered throughout Europe at Hockey games. They would have been very adept at axemanship including throwing. A common surname in Finland to this day is Hakkala.

Bears and moose and enemies could be killed with a spear launched by atlatl, a tool my father showed me how to make, an arrow, axe or a sword or a knife and Fenni were highly skilled with these weapons. No threatening man or beast was safe from one of these warriors from as far as 75 meters. Finnish boys used to throw knives between each others legs to stick into the ground and walked backwards til one missed or stabbed knives into each others thighs to see who could take it deepest. A nick was filed on the knife for the deepest warrior. Many died in these contests.

One of the earliest petroglyphs in Finland shows a hunter throwing an axe and cutting off the head of an elk (moose). My Father survived the war against Russia by throwing a long railway spike into the heart of a Russian rifleman when he had run out of bullets, a skill he learned as a boy in the Finnish woods. I would not be here telling these tales today if it were not for the traditions and skills of the Fenni Warrior.

The crossbow is also mentioned in the epic Finnish Runes the Kalevala and men in long ships armed with them went to war. They would have learned of it from the fur trade with the east. They honed their skills as youths hunting Caipercailli grouse and brown bears and caribou and moose. I have made all the weapons myself as near to what they would have looked like as I can estimate and they all look very deadly. Later period Viking ships were build by Finnish carpenters from oak growing on Finnish Islands but long before the Norse and Dane Vikings Fins were making and using early model ships for trade. I am sure they invented these ships.

If you met this man and 35 of his friends 1100 years ago on a seashore or trail or Russian river on their way to Novgorod or Kiev at the gates of your village, your first words would be "Peace and welcome my friend, your Forest God Tapio has sent you here to increase our bounty, we have much fur to trade, hot fish soup and mead awaits and we have many beautiful unmarried daughters in the village and the sauna will be made ready at your pleasure," while quietly muttering 'The Prayer'. Local bullies would suddenly remember a fishnet on a remote lake that needed immediate attention or be goaded into a sword fight.

They would then bury the bully from sword fighting competitions to the enormous gratitude of the villagers or if in the remote chance he should win and was adventuresome, recruit him into the trading company, and then indulge in some rest and relaxation with the sauna and the ladies and the honey beer.

After fighting, trading, singing Kalevala Runes while holding hands in rocking chairs to the music of the kantele, feasting and drinking, giving thanks to the forest and water spirits and giving offerings to the sky spirits for good sailing weather, they would have danced with the maidens and early traditional dances still survive in Karelia. Here are a few examples:

They would have had to be respectful of the maidens who all carried a Puuko (knife) in their tunic or on their belts and with that knife, they could have the last say in matters of the heart.

After the Warriors left the village, the newly pregnant women would sing a sad song not unlike this one but with different words including the phrase 'Jorma mene Perkelle ya Helvetti, mutta tulen yoskus takas, kun talla on sinuun lapsi, ya minun sudalme tahtoa sinua/(Jorma go to hell and a worse place if such exists but please come back to visit since there is a child of yours here and my heart yearns for you)' with a kantele harp accompaniment.

The Fenni evolved into the Finnish soldiers who so bravely faced the Russian armies in the winter war and later and also faced the German Mountain troops towards the end of the continuation war. To honor them and my Father, I post this last video.

I love you Dad. Rest in Peace. Thanks for the gifts and thanks for life.

© 2008 Jorma Jyrkkanen (except loaned videos and flags).