Favonae is a Latinization of Greek Phauonai , the name of a Germanic people in Ptolemy s Geography 2.10 located in eastern Scandinavia . They are not found elsewhere in classical sources. Moreover, Ptolemy s view of the north is so distorted that the location of his east Scandinavia remains uncertain. However, the Greek language Greek spelling, Phau , gives a possible clue to its meaning. It looks like Old English feaw , few , which, following the analogy of Harudes , would have come from faw . The http www.bartleby.com 61 roots IE377.html American Heritage Dictionary lists the Indo European languages Indo European root as pau few, little , becoming fau in Germanic languages Germanic fawaz by Grimm s Law . There is a name of the same meaning in modern Sweden Sm land , which would have been at a location known to Ptolemy in southeastern Scandinavia. It means small land , which name refers to its broken and uncultivatable terrain i.e., the province includes only small land for settlement purposes. As the name is based on the terrain, it would have been most likely kept over the centuries. The terrain encouraged emigration from Kalmar to Minnesota , where the land was much bigger. As the name of the Favonae is based on the terrain, they might well have been known by some other, ethnic name, not reported by Ptolemy. There is a notable suggestion by Kendrick, published in 1930 see under Dauciones , that the Favonae were not in Sweden but were on the coast of Finland opposite. This hypothesis is based entirely on the argument that the Levonii of Ptolemy are the Swedes proper and therefore the east of them must be Finland. However, Kendrick also argues that the Chaideinoi could not have been in Hedemark because the latter was too remote for Ptolemy. If Hedemark is to be considered remote, then Finland must be even more so moreover, Ptolemy does mention the Finns and does not identify them with the Favonae. Kendrick does not supply us with any names from Finland. See also Portal ... more details
The Firaesi Latinization or Phiraisoi original Greek are a Germanic peoples people listed in Ptolemy s Geography Ptolemy Geography 2.10 . Ptolemy s view of the region is not very precise, but he places them on the east side of what he believed to be an island, Scandia. The presence of the Goutai, or Goths , in the center, identifies Scandia fairly certainly as the southern portion of the Scandinavia n peninsula. As to whether the east of it was the east coast of Sweden or the coast of Finland opposite, the latter is perhaps too remote for detailed knowledge by Ptolemy or his sources. There is in fact a possible Germanic languages Germanic derivation of Phiraisoi. They are in the same region as the Favonae , who may have been residents of Sm land . Old Norse and Old Icelandic firar, Old English firas, are fairly close to Firaesi and mean men, human beings or Volk in German. As it happens, Uppland was traditionally divived in Folkland , four provinces, which lost their jurisdictional importance in 1296. Koebler s Old Norse Etymological Database in the http www.indoeuropean.nl Indo European Etymological Database online at Leiden University gives a Proto Indo European language Proto Indo European root of perkwus, becoming Germanic ferhwioz by Grimm s Law . The root meaning is oak , but the oak was regarded as a symbol of hardness, toughness and strength see also Harudes . With regard to people it means life force or especially power , in the sense of the collective power of the folk. It would be a descriptive epithet of the teuta , tribe, people . This connotation is probably not devoid of a military sense, as the root went into Hittite language Hittite , a very early branch of Indo European, as army . Uppland then would have been a densely populated and at the time fairly conservative remnant of Indo European culture. If the Indo European penetration of Europe can be regarded as a very slow invasion, its Schwerpunkt, or heavy point , came to rest in Uppland. The Firaes ... more details
Encyclopedia
top
