Kvener

Firstly, the Quens are a tribe mentioned in early Nordic litterature and is associated with a western Finnish people. But it should perhaps rather be associated with an alliance of fishermen, hunters and warriors among Finno-Ugric (Uralic) people. Norse sagas, e.g. Orkneyinga saga, states that they ruled in Quenland (presumably Northern Scandinavia including counties such as Helsingia in Sweden and Ostrobothnia in Finland) and their existence is by historians estimated to be ca. 800-1100 AD. Althought findings are sparsesome, judging from grave findings in Ostrobothnia, there are some archaeology support of a class based hierarchy, presumably based on fur trade, where a leading class can have consist of Swedish traders or an upper class of domestic origin, but they are dated to 6th century.

The term Cwen is first used in in Account of the Viking Othere voyage to Northen Scandianvia (or Arctic Ocean) ca. 9th century, where he locate "Cwenaland" above "Sweoland". He use it to distinguish reindeer herders (called Fenni) from non-herders (called Cwen). The old viewpoint, that Cwen is equal to (Finnish) Kainulaiset (Ostrobothnians) and Kainuu (Ostrobothnia), has not found etymological acceptance by some researchers. The spelling Quen is used in latin texts from the 17th century. It has been assumed by historians earlier in time that regions in Southern Lappland and below were not inhabitet by South Sami groups, and hence Quens were the aboriginals of those regions. However, this statement is not supported by modern research. The term Cwen is presumably etymological equivalent of (old Norse) 'cwen', (English) 'queen', female, cf. (South Saami) 'kwæpkas, kuopash', witches (actually female konnagas, female shamans).

Secondly, the term Kven (or Quen) is also on a Finnish minority people, that's it who speak a Finnish dialect, who is settled down in the northern Norway during 16th century. (See also: Tornedalians)