The Story Behind the Name Roslagen

Few Swedish place names carry such a long and disputed history as Roslagen. The name encompasses an entire epoch: Viking-era coastal defence, a rowing fleet that ploughed the Baltic Sea, and — if the most intriguing theory holds true — the very origin of the words "Sweden" and "Russia". Here we unravel what is linguistically documented and what belongs to the more bold hypotheses.

The oars and the rowers

The older and original name is not Roslagen but Roden (Old Swedish roþin, roþer). The word is believed to derive from Old Swedish roðer, meaning "oar" or "rowing". Roden was the designation for the coastal areas of Svealand — the shorelines of Uppland — which held a special status compared to the inland folk regions.

What made Roden a distinct entity was not primarily agriculture or trade, but a military obligation. According to the Uppland Law (mentioned as early as 1296, where "Norra Roden" is cited) the difference between Roden and the inner regions was primarily of a military nature. Roden was the coastal defence region.

Ship districts and ledung — the coastal manning obligation

The core of the entire concept is the word ledung (Old Swedish leþunger). The ledung was the Viking and medieval fleet organisation in which coastal regions in peacetime stood ready and in war were obliged to provide ships, crew, weapons and provisions. It was a manning obligation tied to geography: if you lived by Roden, you rowed.

To distribute this burden, the coast was divided into ship districts — districts that each were responsible for equipping and rowing a ship. The ship district was thus the coastal equivalent of the inland hundred, but built around the naval warfare obligation. The division in Roden was repeated across a series of ship districts: Bro and Vätö, Frösåker, Väddö and Häverö, Värmdö, Åker, Danderyd and others.

From roþslagen to Roslagen

The name Roslagen itself is younger than Roden and emerged as a compound. The most common linguistic interpretation is that Roslagen goes back to something like roþs-lagh / roþslagen — where the first part relates to rowing/Roden and the second part -lagen comes from Old Swedish lag meaning "law, group, division, crew" (compare "arbetslag", "båtlag"). Roslagen thus becomes roughly "the division (the group) that concerned rowing crew manning" — thus the name of the very organisation that divided the coast into rowing crews for the ledung.

The name is documented in writing relatively late: the earliest known record is from 1493, spelled Rodzlagen. From the 1500s onwards, Roslagen and Roden began to be used synonymously in administrative documents, and gradually Roslagen supplanted the older Roden as the everyday name for the entire coastal region. It is worth noting: the organisation (rowing crews, ship districts, ledung) is older than the written name Roslagen.

Ruotsi, Rootsi — and the theory of "Sweden" and "the Russians"

Here comes the name's most fascinating — and most disputed — chapter. Finnish's name for Sweden is Ruotsi and Estonian's Rootsi. A widespread linguistic theory suggests that these words were borrowed precisely from Roden / the rowing region. The reasoning goes like this: the Swedish-speaking seafarers by the coast, who rowed and sailed eastward across the Baltic Sea, may have called themselves something like roþs-karlar or roþs-men — "rowing folk", "men from Roden". Finnish-speaking neighbours further east adopted that designation as a name for the Swedes and their land: Ruotsi.

The step from there to rus — the people (the "Russes", Varangians) who gave their name to Russia — is the second part of the theory. The idea is that the Slavs in the east in turn borrowed the Ruotsi/rowing designation and formed the word rus', which became the name for the Nordic traders and warriors along the Russian rivers and later for the realm they helped establish.

What is documented and what is hypothesis? Here precision is required:

• Documented/broadly accepted: That Roden comes from Old Swedish for "oar" is linguistically well-founded. That the early Rus chieftains' names are Nordic is supported by both written sources and archaeology. That rus and Finnish Ruotsi are linguistically connected is a widespread view among scholars.
• Theory/disputed: The exact chain of derivation Roden → roþs-karlar → Ruotsi → rus is a reconstruction, not a proven fact. To claim the entire chain were established would be an overstatement.

The reasonable, source-critical way to express it is: there is broad agreement that the name of the Rus people and Finnish Ruotsi have a common origin in the Old Norse rowing and ledung world by the Uppland coast — that is, in the same conceptual world that gave us Roslagen. The exact step-by-step derivation, however, is a scholarly reconstruction where the details are still debated.

A name that rowed ashore

That the name Roslagen encompasses both a law (a division), a fleet (the ledung) and perhaps the names of two countries (Sweden in Finnish, Russia) is unusual for a Swedish coastal name. What is certain is that Roslagen is the rowers' land — named after the obligation that once bound the coastal region's people to the sea and the oar. The rest is one of Nordic linguistic history's most fascinating, and most cautiously formulated, mysteries.

Sources

• Roden, Roslagen, Ruser, Skeppslag — Wikipedia
• Ruotsi — Wiktionary
• Ruser — SO-rummet
• Vikingar i österled — Populär Historia