ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Viking Age in Western Finland and this region’s connections with the outer world, especially with Eastern Scandinavia. Special focus is on the relation between the Mälaren valley in Sweden and Western Finland, including the Åland Islands. The authors argue that Western Finland was not an isolated part of Northern Europe, but a region with vivid networks reaching the Upper Volga area as well as Eastern Scandinavia long before the Viking Age. It is therefore likely that the Svear in the Mälaren valley gained knowledge about the trade routes in Russia through the Finns and their eastern contacts before embarking on their eastern journeys. The existence of Viking-Age networks including Svear and Finns are indicated by pottery as well as ornaments. For example, Finnish dress items were brought to the Mälaren region in the tenth century, and Scandinavian dress items have been found in Finland. Some of these items have been seen as indications of migration from or to Finland. However, the authors of this chapter argue that dress items are also likely to have been used as gifts when alliances between fur-providing Finns and trading Svear were established. Thus, when discussing the Viking expansion to the east, the role of Finland has to be investigated and included in order to fully understand the development in North-Eastern Europe.
