Swedes (tribe)

The Swedes (Swedish: svear; Old Norse: svíar, Old English: Swēon) were a North Germanic tribe who inhabited Svealand ("land of the Swedes") in central Sweden. Along with Geats and Gutes, they were one of the progenitor groups of modern Swedes.

The Roman historian Tacitus was the first to write about the tribe in his Germania from AD 98, referring to them as the Suiones. Locally, they are possibly first mentioned by the Kylver Stone in the 4th century. Jordanes, in the 6th century, mentions Suehans and Suetidi. These names likely derive from the Proto-Indo-European root *s(w)e, meaning "one's own". Beowulf mentions the Swedes around 1000 A.D.

According to early sources such as the sagas, especially Heimskringla, the Swedes were a powerful tribe whose kings claimed descendence from the god Freyr. During the Viking Age they constituted the basis of the Varangian subset, the Norsemen that travelled eastwards (see Rus' people).