Page "History of Finland" Paragraph 38

In the early Iron Age a word similar to Finns appeared for the first time in a written document when Tacitus mentions Fenni in his Germania.

However, it is unclear if these have anything to do with the present Finnish people.

The first Scandinavian documents mentioning a " land of the Finns " are two runestones: ( Söderby, Sweden, with the inscription finlont ( U 582 †), Gotland with the inscription finlandi ( G 319 M ) dating from the 11th century.