Fenni
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- For information on the city and the district located in Bangladesh, see Feni District
In historic writings the term Fenni is widely known to have referred to Finnic (a.k.a Fenno-Ugric) people - which particular group of Finnic people precicely, is still a subject of debate in certain cases.
For instance, the Fenni were people described by Tacitus in his book Germania.
Fennia - on the other hand - is a modern Latinized term for Finland.
The Fenni should not be confused with the so called Fenians of our times.
In Old Icelandic, the noun fenni means "hard snow", while the verb, fenna, means "to cover with snow."
An interpretation of the term, suggested in 1896 by Hultam, is "wanderer" — for the way the people lived, i.e. without permanent dwelling places. Similar descriptive terms were used in titles for Finnic fishermen (Livonians). However, it quite widely believed that the term "Fenni" has also been used to refer to other Finnic people/peoples.
Whether or not this tribe can be identified as the Sami peoples is disputed. Many researchers believe that during the midle ages some historians far away from Scandinavia confused the Samis with their Fenno-Ugric family members, the Finns, who - througout the known history - have inhabited, to a large extend, the same areas with the Samis.
For centuries the area these Finnic tribes - the Samis and the Finns - shared, was known as Cwenland. Whereas in the middle ages the term Cwen referred to the Finns inhabiting the entire northern part of Scandinavia, in modern terminology the term Cwen refers to people of Finnish background only in Northern Norway.
The term Finn today is often used in Norwegian to refer to people with a Finnic background:
[1].
In Jordanes' Getica the Fennis were described as hunters, being people "who do not seek grain for food but live on the flesh of wild beasts as well as birds' eggs".
Bibliography
Tacitus G46,1970 Penguin Books Translated by Harold Mattingly in 1948.