Abstract
<p><em>Horned Finns</em>. The ‘cornuti Finni’ mentioned in the <em>Historia Norwegiae</em> have not found their explanation, because the Latin word <em>cornu</em>, from which the adjective is derived, has been understood in the strict sense of ‘horn on the head’. The Latin word, however, also means ‘hoof’ of horses or ‘cloven hoof’ of cows and goats, even of the mythologic Faunus and Pan. In December 1913 Kai Donner saw in Dudinka Avam-Samojeds, who because of their cylindrically shaped reindeer winter boots, the front of which was hoof-shaped, were called ‘hoofed men’ (in Finnish ‘kaviolliset miehet’). In the extracts of Aristeas of Proconnesus, who as early as about 625 B.C travelled in North-Eastern Asia, the <em>Aigipodes</em>, men with goats feet, are mentioned as inhabitants of Northern Siberia. In the first century A.D., Pomponius Mela knows <em>Hippopodes</em>, men with horse’s feet, in the Northmost Sarmatia. The three names, <em>cornuti Finni</em>,<em> Aigipodes</em> and <em>Hippopodes</em> find their explanation in the reindeer boots, necessary in the arctic climate. Recent photographs of the Ngasani and Nenets Samojed show that this kind of boots are still used. The fact that some arctic peoples have since ancient times got their nickname from their boots, which made them look like hoofed animals, makes it necessary to reconsider the origin of the names Lapp and Finn, the etymology of which is unclear. As the Swedish <em>lapp</em>, earlier form of modern <em>labb</em>, is of Indogermanic origin and has in several languages the meaning of the foot of a quadruped animal, it seems that the name Lapp, considered as abusive by the Sami, belongs to the arctic names given to people who because of their boots looked like men with goat’s or horse’s feet and were called, as Donner heard it, ‘hoofed men’. It remains an open question whether the ethnonym <em>Fenni</em> / <em>Finni</em> may be of similar origin.</p>
Highlights
I Historia Norwegiae ab auctore ignoto c. 1170–1220 composita inter primos fontes litterarios numeratur, in quibus gentes Scandinaviae septentrionalis describuntur
Whether the nickname Cornuti is used traditionally, or whether it derives from their special caps, from their having used tools made of horn, their having been adorned with figures or jewellery, or their having been drawn by reindeer with horns when they were hunting, remains a matter of coniecture. (Ekrem et Mortensen in HN, ad loc.)
Nomina supra tractata, cornuti, Lapp, Fenni / Finni, ad eundem campum semanticum pertinere videntur et explicationem habere in calceamentis hominum arcticorum, sicut testantur Aigipodes, Hippopodes et praesertim Samoiedi, quos Kai Donner anno 1913 vidit et viros cornipedes propter calceos appellari audivit
Summary
I Historia Norwegiae ab auctore ignoto c. 1170–1220 composita inter primos fontes litterarios numeratur, in quibus gentes Scandinaviae septentrionalis describuntur. Kiriali (plerumque Careli), Kwaeni, Biarmones in litteris Latinis anterioribus non nominantur sed Finni (Fenni), iam in Germania Taciti (98 p.Chr.n.) descripti, apud auctores antiquos et mediaevales admodum saepe occurrunt (Pekkanen 1989; 1999, 94–95).
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