Tavastian

The Tavastians, or Häme Finns, were one of the three great Finnish tribes of the Middle Ages. They held the inland province of Tavastia in southern Finland, centred on Lake Vanajavesi and the hillforts around Hämeenlinna, including Rapola, the largest found in Finland.

Russian chronicles first mention them in 1042, when Novgorod attacked them; wars with Novgorod and the Karelians continued for two centuries. Christianity first appeared in the eleventh century, but a papal letter of 1237 records their return to paganism, and the Second Swedish Crusade of 1249, led by Birger Jarl, was directed against them.

Brought under the Swedish crown and the Catholic Church, they disappeared from Russian sources after the Treaty of Nöteborg in 1323 and merged into the Finnish population of the Swedish realm, their speech living on as the Tavastian dialects.