härät
Härät is the name given in some medievalist and folklore-inspired scholarship to a hypothesized confederation of semi-nomadic tribes that allegedly inhabited parts of the northern interior and upland river basins during the early to high medieval period. The sources are fragmentary, and what is known about Härät largely comes from later annals, toponymic records, and comparative studies of frontier societies. According to these accounts, the Härät operated as a loose federation with seasonal migrations and a network of trade routes connecting coastal polities with inland settlements.
Etymology and language associated with Härät are uncertain. The ethnonym appears in several spellings (Härät, Härat,
Society and economy are described in broad terms in the sources. The Härät are depicted as clan-based
Modern scholarship continues to debate the existence, extent, and characteristics of Härät, using toponymy, archaeology, and