Finnar, tyskar och andra folkgrupper i Stockholms senmedeltida stadsböcker i ljuset av ursprungsangivelser

Abstract

This article confronts two different methods of identifying individuals with reference to geography in late medieval Stockholm, Sweden: prepositional phrases with a place name as prepositional complement, such as ‘Erik in Nyboda’ and appositions denoting origin, such as ‘Peter Scanian’. A partly complementary pattern emerges: Prepositional phrases are common for areas close to Stockholm, while the corresponding appositions are non existent or rare. For more distant areas, the appositions are common while prepositional phrases are rare.

Two groups in particular do not follow this pattern: Finns and Germans. For place names in Finland, there are a relatively high number of prepositional phrases, at the same time as finne is a common apposition. For Germans, both appositions denoting origin and prepositional phrases with German place names as complements are rare. A common trait, however, is that both Finnish and German origin can be expressed also for women and for anonymous persons, which in other cases is very rare. These patterns are explained by Germans constituting both an in-group in the city and a foreign group from a Swedish perspective, while Finns both were compatriots and considered as a group more foreign than inhabitants from other parts of the realm of Sweden.