Swiss Swedish origin legend

In legend and in the early historiography of Switzerland there is an account of a migration of a population of Swedes and Frisians settling in the Swiss Alps, specifically in Schwyz and in Hasli (Schwedensage).

The first recorded reference to this legend is in Ericus Olai's Chronica regni Gothorum (c. 1470). Olai notes that the Swiss (Svitenses) claimed to be descended from "Swedes or Goths". Olai also notes the similarity in toponymy, Swycia, quasi Suecia. This is reflected in a contemporary gloss from Reichenau reading Suecia, alias Helvicia, inde Helvici, id est Suetones.

A near-contemporary record is that of Petermann Etterlin, who wrote in the 1470s (printed as Chronicle of the Swiss Confederation in 1507). Etterlin telling the legend refers to "the Swedes, who are now called the Switzer" (die Schwediger, so man yetz nempt Switzer) presents an eponymous founder, one Suit (Swit, Schwyt, Switer), leader of the migrating Swedes, who defeated his brother Scheyg in single combat in a dispute over leadership of the new settlement. He gives an account of their decision to settle on the site of Schwyz:

Etterlin's account is supposedly based on a "common Swiss chronicle" (Gesta Suitensium, gemeine Schwyzerchronik also reflected in the White Book of Sarnen, Heinrich von Gundelfingen (Das Herkommen der Schwyzer und Oberhasler) and later by Aegidius Tschudi (Die Geschichte der Ostfriesen, Swedier und andre, so mit jnen gereisset, vnd wie Switer dem Lande den Namen Swiz gegeben). Etterlin presents the three Waldstätten as representing three different stocks or races, the people of Schwyz as the most recent immigrants (from Sweden), the people of Uri representing the original "Goths and Huns", and the people of Unterwalden representing "the Romans".

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