Svear

The Svear were an ancient people of Scandinavia, dwelling on the eastern coast of Sweden in the area of Uppsala and Stockholm, in the area around the shores of Lake Mälaren, the ancestral home of the original Swedes. They gave their name to the nation of Sweden, which in the Swedish language is Sverige, from Svea riket, the kingdom of the Svear. In literature, the Svear are named in the Old English epic Beowulf as Sweonas, and by the Roman author Tacitus under the name Sueones in his Germania.

See also: Svealand, Lands of Sweden