Bjarmaland

Bjarmaland (also spelled Bjarmland and Bjarmia; in Latin texts: Biarmia/Byarmia; Old English: Beormaland) was a territory mentioned in Norse sagas up to the Viking Age and beyond in geographical accounts until the 16th century. The term is usually seen to have referred to the southern shores of the White Sea and the basin of the Northern Dvina River (Vienanjoki in Finnish) and, presumably, some of the surrounding areas. Today, those territories comprise a part of the Arkhangelsk region of Russia.

Bjarmians cannot be connected directly to any existing group of people living today, but it is likely that they were a separate group of Finnic speakers in White Sea area.Toponyms and loan words in dialects in northern Russia indicate that Finnic speaking populations used to live in the area. Also Russian chronicles mention groups of people in the area associated with Finno-Ugrian languages.

Accordingly, many historians assume the terms beorm and bjarm to derive from the Uralic word perm, which refers to "travelling merchants" and represents the Old Permic culture. However, some linguists consider this theory to be speculative.

The recent research on the Uralic substrate in northern Russian dialects suggests that several other Uralic groups besides the Permians, lived in Bjarmaland, assumed to have included the Viena Karelians, Sami and Kvens. According to Helimski, the language spoken in the northern Archangel region ca. 1000 AD, which he terms Lop', was closely related to but distinct from the Sami languages proper. That would fit Ottar's account perfectly.

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