Why Vikings Never Invaded Finland

Vikings spread terror across the Baltic Sea and beyond. But why they left Finland alone has been a mystery until now. There are several runestones describing grave military disasters experienced by Viking raiders in modern day Finland. What went so wrong for them? The answer is bloodcurdling.

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Music by Karneh

[jounikorhonen]

Finland, was a really bad terrain to conquer. The Huns stopped at the border, the Mongols, Vikings and Russia. There was nothing here but huge boulders, forests, swamps, marshes, bogs and lakes. This is before finns dried out fields and made roads. One couldn't do with horse-archers or formations, trying to out-flank the finns resulted in your troops waist-deep in a bog, in a hale of arrows and spears. Everyone was reduced to man-to-man close quarters fighting in terrain and weather finns were humiliar with and you weren't. And if you found a village it was emptied out and fled into the forests, not much to plunder either. You could gain a few squarrel-skins and an arrow in your back.

[DarkerRunesASMR]

Näinhän se meni silloin nuoruudessa. Mutta tätäkään jonnet ei muista.

[atticusv]

Soviet Union: “Damn these guys don’t mess around.”
Nordic Vikings: “First time?”

[herrakaarme]

Such handsome Finns in this video. Impeccable sense of fashion.

[ReasonAboveEverything]

When you consider the number of swords found in Finland dating back to viking age you can not help but draw the conclusion that this was extremely violent region. It would make sense that well armed tribes already alert to conflicts were hard to invade.

[juhaylitalo]

Lets not forget that the end of Viking era in Sweden was 1187, when the Swedish capital Sigtuna was burnt.
This is in said to be by pirates from the east in Swedish folklore.
At the same time the Finnish national epos Kalevala tells the story about how they crossed the sea and burnt the west.

I think it's strange that very few historians have research the correlation between these two stories.
Probably because the writing of Finnish history has been dominated by Swedes for so long that the most convenient conclusion of of the attack on Sigtuna 1187 was by "pirates" never mentioning the Finns.

[digitalspecter]

Interesting thing is that the forest has been the protector and the "church" of our people.. even to this day it's the place where we go to contemplate and relax. And for many invaders and foreigners our deep forests have been very scary places.. and so many other peoples have known us by some variation of "forest people".

[pekko]

Never knew us Finns back in the day scared the Vikings. Not many did.

[RockerFinland]

Wow, I found very interesting information: "The Oldest historical traces of conflicts in Finland are runestones GS 13 and U 582 which are dated to the early 11th century. Runestones are commemorating Vikings killed in Finland. Runestone G 319, which is dated to the early 13th century, also mentions Viking killed in Finland."

Vikings thought that the Finns can
command the nature because of different incidents like the case: "Olaf II of Norway is defeated by Finns "

"Olaf sailed to the southern coast of Finland sometime in 1008. The journey resulted in the Battle at Herdaler, where Olaf and his men were ambushed in the woods. Olaf lost many men but made it back to his boats. He ordered his ships to depart despite a riding storm. The Finns pursued them and made the same progress on land as Olaf and his men made on water."

"After this they sailed to Finland and plundered there, and went
up the country. All the people fled to the forest, and they had
emptied their houses of all household goods. The king went far
up the country, and through some woods, and came to some
dwellings in a valley called Herdaler, -- where, however, they
made but small booty, and saw no people; and as it was getting
late in the day, the king turned back to his ships. Now when
they came into the woods again people rushed upon them from all
quarters, and made a severe attack. The king told his men to
cover themselves with their shields, but before they got out of
the woods he lost many people, and many were wounded; but at
last, late in the evening, he got to the ships. The Finlanders
conjured up in the night, by their witchcraft, a dreadful storm
and bad weather on the sea; but the king ordered the anchors to
be weighed and sail hoisted, and beat off all night to the
outside of the land. The king's luck prevailed more than the
Finlanders' witchcraft; for he had the luck to beat round the
Balagard's side in the night. and so got out to sea. But the
Finnish army proceeded on land, making the same progress as the
king made with his ships. So says Sigvat: --

"The third fight was at Herdaler, where
The men of Finland met in war
The hero of the royal race,
With ringing sword-blades face to face.
Off Balagard's shore the waves
Ran hollow; but the sea-king saves
His hard-pressed ship, and gains the lee
Of the east coast through the wild sea."

[jonipalosaari]

Peace and precious personal space.
Sums the Finland perfectly.

[SV-yfet]

This story about Finns reminds me of Curonians, a Baltic tribe that lived on the western parts of nowadays Lithuania and Latvia. Not only the Curonians withstood the invasions of Vikings, but also raided them back. There's even an inscription "God, save us from the plague, the fire and the Kurshi (Curonians)" on a Danish church, dated to the 11th-12th centuries.

[Sienisota]

"Peace and precious personal space" - should be in a t-shirt somewhere. Perkele.

[whatdays]

This is my favourite stuff.
As a 3rd generation Finnish- and Norwegian-Canadian and "forest person" this is really hitting a lot of boxes for me.
Loving your videos, man!!

[Surtur]

I always thought of the finns at this time being like wood elves, but a forest troll depiction also works i guess lol

[ilokivi]

Tafeistaland referred to at 1:00 could well be Tavastia. The Swedes difficulties in navigating an unfamiliar landscape contrasted sharply with the Finns intimate knowledge of it and their superior mobility, both harnessed to defend their erämaa.

[mirthkos]

My theory is that Finland = Jotunheim.

[rumbleheaduno]

No matter how jävla you are - you never mess around with someone armed to the teeth with perkele...!

[thamor]

Rölli-Peikko hoitaa hommat tässä tarinassa.

[huudiapteekkari]

In 1387 AD,  Hversu Noregr byggðist ('How Norway was founded') is an account of the origin of various legendary Norwegian lineages. It too traces the descendants of the primeval Finnish ruler Fornjotr back through Nór and his siblings, Góí and Gór; Nór being here the eponym and first great king of Norway, and then gives details of the descendants of Nór and of his brother Gór in the following section known as the Ættartölur ('Genealogies', a.k.a. Fundinn Noregr, 'Founding of Norway'). The Hversu account is closely paralleled by the opening of the Orkneyinga saga.
The 'genealogies' also claim that many heroic families famed in Scandinavian tradition but not located in Norway were of a Finn-Kven stock, mostly sprung from Nór's great-grandson Halfdan the Old. Almost all the lineages sprung from Halfdan are then shown to reconvert in the person of Harald Fairhair, the first king of "all Norway". This information can be confirmed in other sources.

[vipgxpn]

Let me quote the Estonian archaeologist, Marika Mägi:
"Vikings are not an ethnicity. It refers to more like a profession or an activity where one would go on a crusade as a Viking. It is like the soldiers nowadays.
Vikings can be compared with the knights who, despite the location, shared the same values and code of ethics. There was no difference between the Italian and the German knights. Ethnicity did not play a role as much as the warrior’s social status.
The Viking influence reached the Baltic Finnic coastline in around the eighth century. The warriors adapted to the Scandinavian culture up to a point where it was almost impossible to distinguish them: the jewellery, weapons, ships, settlements, harbours…"