ABSTRACT
The sources that refer to conquests and enforced conversion to Christianity in Finland and Karelia are both meagre and suspect. Our only evidence for the so-called ‘first crusade’ of King Erik Jedvardsson, which supposedly Christianized Finland, comes from his legend, of which the earliest extant version dates from around 1340. A number of Finnish regional names occur in late medieval Swedish sources, including the Finnish-language Suomi, Kalanti, Kainuu and Savo, but the regions they represented cannot be shown to correspond with pre-conquest social or political entities. In Finland and Karelia, conspicuous monuments such as large mounds, buildings of exceptionally large size or assemblages of these and considered as possible central places, are absent. The nature of the finds at most of the forts has made assessment of their period of use difficult. Artefacts such as coarse-ware pottery, spiral bracelets and pennanular brooches may have been in use for a considerable period.
