norse
appearance: c. 500
differentiation: by 1000
ascendancy: scandinavians[1]
the norse were of course the non-gothic north germans, particularly localized in norway and western sweden. this is the majority of the population in scandinavia but there seem to only be a few lost fragments of their original aristocracy that make it into the tree. most of this is even legendary and many of these people, if they even existed, really have unknown ancestries. however, the sagas exist and they link them all together so there is some evidence that they really are all indigenous....
as far as the question of being finnish goes, i'm going to sidestep it. the only evidence for this is an ancient legend that says that the early finnish kings had names such as 'frost', 'snow', 'wind', 'fire' and 'icicle'. maybe they really did, but one would think that they would have been recorded in finnish and not norse. so, as this idea is one that is purely mythical it is not really very convincing to argue (based on the myths) that these people are finns and not norse. yet, they could be. it just seems more reasonable to think that the original kings of norway were of the same ethnicity as the majority of the people that live in norway: norse. finland is a good trek away and i know of no indication that says that the finns conquered norway at any time in the last two thousand years nor that there were originally finns living in the south of norway.
however, if you read the 'finns' as being 'saami' then things begin to make more sense. in this case, the legends would say that the earliest inhabitants were the saami and that from here both the norwegians (sons of nor) and some other people (the sons of gor - perhaps their drunken personas?) invaded and colonized. the norse were the sons of nor.
descendancy: halfdaninglas [5]
[1]: the role of migration in the history of the eurasian steppe, andrew bell-fialkoff, 2000
[2]: heimskringla, snorri sturlson, c. 1200
[3]: the germanic invasions, lucien musset, 1965
[4]: Skáldskaparmal, LXIV
page last updated may 15, 2005