Kvenland

Kvenland, known as Cwenland, Kænland or similar in sources, is an ancient name for an area in Fennoscandia. Kvenland is only known from an Old English account written in the 9th century, and from Icelandic sources written in the 12th and 13th centuries. Since the 17th century most historians have located Kvenland somewhere around or near the Bothnian Bay, in the present-day regions of Swedish Norrbotten and Finnish Ostrobothnia. The traditional East Finnish name of this area was Kainuu, and it has been suggested that the Scandinavian name of Kvenland and Kainuu share etymological roots. The exact location and territorial extension of ancient Kvenland remain unclear.