612: finn Aug 11, 2016

A great deal of the nationalities that we know today are vastly different from the native form. This can be seen in the terms, such as 'German' that were adopted from Latin, but to be clear, English has made many of its own as well. For the Anglo-Saxons, no matter where in Scandinavia the Viking raiders came, they were typically referred to as Danes. We see this in the term Danegeld meaning 'Dane gold", which was money paid to Vikings such that they would leave. In addition, Finland in Finnish is 'Suomi'. 'Finnas' was an Old English word for the peoples in northeastern Scandinavia who speak Finno-Ugric languages, such as Estonian or Finnish.