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The home pages for the Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.nordic

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>> I thought that Nordic was a sub-race of the white race
>> and that the word Nordic ment the same as Germanic or
>> Teutonic. I also thought that the Finns would not be
>> considered Nordics, because they are actually Slavics,
>> who weren't even Vikings. Am I wrong?


> Yes!

In a general, unscientific sense the term Nordic is sometimes used to describe the fair-skinned, fair-haired, gray-to-blue eyed, long-limbed, relatively narrow faced individuals that constitute a substantial portion of the population of Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, western Finland, as well as the northernmost parts of Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and the former East-Prussia.

In all of these places we find, of course, many examples of individuals representing other sub-races of the so-called white race, many people that are obviously transitional to some degree or another between different "basic" types, as well as a small number of people representing other races. In the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, and Finland we finds people representing, once again to various degrees, the Arctic racial type, an ancient subgroup of the "white race" with genetic (as well as some physiological links) to the "White" / "Mongoloid" peoples of northern Eurasia, while in eastern Finland we find more examples of the shorter-limbed, rounder faced, fair-haired, gray-eyed East-Baltic type which is also well represented in Estonia, Latvia, and Northern Russia.

Iceland once had a sizeable Celtic population, but they have been assimlated into the population during the past thousand years.

The northern and central parts of Norway, Sweden, and Finland have had substantial traditional Sámi (= Lappish) populations, but many of them have been assimilated into the local population. On the other hand, a certain number of Norwegians and Swedes have also become assimilated into the Sámis.

Norway, Sweden, and Denmark have been objects of immigration from northern Germany and the Low Countries since the Middles Ages (at least), so the racial types which have historically predominated in those countries have also contributed a substantial amount to the gene pool.

The Finns, who speak a language which is Baltic-Finnic (and Finno-Ugric), and thus not Slavic (which, like English and the Scandinavian langauges, is Indo-European), have developed from peoples who entered the country from the south (what is now Estonia and northern Latvia) and the south east (over the Karelian isthmus), partially as a consequence of the northward expansion of the Slavs during the early Middle Ages. On the other hand, many of the Slavic-speaking Russians living in the immediate vicinity of Finland trace roots to Baltic-Finnic speaking Karelians, Vepsians, Votians, Ingrians, etc. who, no more than a few generations ago, gave up their traditional languages and identities and were assimilated into the Russian nation.

All of the Nordic countries have substantial groups of immigrants from all over the world, so the gene pool is presently being enriched by people of the most diverse backgrounds. This was excellently symbolized when Lola Odusoga, the Miss Finland of 1996 and of Finnish-Nigerian background, placed third in the Miss Universe beauty pageant.

As you can see, the development of ethnic groups and races all follow quite different dynamics, and using a term designating, let us say, a language grouping to describe an ethnicity is a recipe for confusion.

With respect to the Finns being Vikings, let us note the following:

• The Finnish archipelago, as well as long stretches of the western and southern Finnish shoreline, have traditionally been inhabited by Swedish speakers. The fact that many of these areas now have a Finnish-speaking majority is the result of developments which have taken place during the past three or four generations - even Helsinki was a Swedish-speaking city until the beginning of this century, and some of its suburbs still have Swedish speaking majorities.
• Remember, too, that towards the end of the Viking era the Swedish state was consolidating itself on the territory of what is now Finland, and that the territories of these now independent countries formed a political whole, with Finnish being widely spoken in the northern part of what is now Sweden, and Swedish widely spoken in what is now Finland, from the time of the Crusades up until 1809, when Finland, a political entity separate from Sweden for the first time, was given to Russia.
• Given that the Vikings were deeply involved in trade along the rivers of Russia - they were able to reach Constantinople by following the tributaries of the Volga, which they reached by sailing through the Gulf of Finand to the mouth of the Neva - it is obvious that the ancestors of some of the people who are now Finnish-speaking Finns were also Vikings, even if they would have been regarded as Swedes during the Viking era.

Regards,


Eugene Holman

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