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Bjarmaland (also spelled Bjarmland and Bjarmia) was a territory mentioned in from the Viking Age and in geographical accounts until the 16th century. The term is usually understood to have referred to the southern shores of the White Sea and the basin of the Northern Dvina () as well as, presumably, to some of the surrounding areas. Today, those territories comprise a part of the Arkhangelsk Oblast of Russia, as well as the Kola Peninsula (also known as the Russian North).
Later, several expeditions were undertaken from Norway to Bjarmaland. In 920, Eric Bloodaxe made a Viking expedition, as well as Harald II of Norway and Haakon Magnusson of Norway, in 1090.
The best known expedition was that of Tore Hund, who, together with some friends, arrived in Bjarmaland in 1026. They started to trade with the inhabitants and bought a great many pelts, whereupon they pretended to leave. Later, they made shore in secret, and plundered the burial site, where the Bjarmians had erected an idol of their god Jómali. This god had a bowl containing silver on his knees, and a valuable chain around his neck. Tore and his men managed to escape from the pursuing Bjarmians with their rich bounty.
The name Permians is already found in the oldest document of the Rus', the Nestor's Chronicle (1000–1100). The names of other Uralic tribes are also listed including some Samoyedic peoples as well as the Vepsians, Mari people, Mordvin, and Chudes.Angela Marcantonio: The Uralic Language Family: Facts, Myths and Statistics. Wiley, Hoboken/NJ 2002, p. 21 ff.
The place-name Bjarmaland was also used later both by the German historian Adam of Bremen (11th century) and the Icelander Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241) in Bósa saga ok Herrauðs, reporting about its rivers flowing out to Gandvik. It is not clear if they reference the same Bjarmaland as was mentioned in the Voyage of Ohthere, however. The name of the Bjarmian god Jómali is so close to the word for "god" in most Finnic languages that Bjarmians were likely a Finnic group. In fact, languages belonging to other language groups have never been suggested within serious research.
The Swedes cartographer Olaus Magnus located Bjarmaland in the Kola Peninsula in his Carta marina]] (1539), while Swedish humanist Johannes Schefferus (1621–1679) identified it with Lappmarken.
Accordingly, many historians assume the terms and to derive from the Uralic languages word Great Perm, which refers to "travelling merchants" and represents the Old Permic culture.Steinsland and Meulengracht 1998: 162. However, some linguists consider this theory to be speculative.Janne Saarikivi: Substrata Uralica. Studies in Finno-Ugric substrate in northern Russian dialects. Doctoral dissertation. Tartu 2006: 28 ( online text )
Recent research on the Uralic substrate in northern Russian dialects suggests that several other Uralic groups besides the Permians, lived in Bjarmaland, assumed to have included the Viena Karelians, Sami and Kvenland.Saarikivi 2006: 294–295. According to Helimski, the language spoken in the northern Archangel region, which he terms Lop', was closely related to but distinct from the Sami languages proper.
Bjarmian trade reached southeast to Bolghar, by the Volga River, where the Bjarmians also interacted with and , who had ventured southbound from the Baltic Sea area.
It seems that the Scandinavians made some use of the Dvina trade route, in addition to the Volga trade route and Dnieper trade route. In 1217, two Norwegian traders arrived in Bjarmaland to buy pelts; one of the traders continued further south to pass to Russia in order to arrive in the Holy Land, where he intended to take part in the Crusades. The second trader who remained was killed by the Bjarmians. This caused Norway officials to undertake a campaign of retribution into Bjarmaland which they pillaged in 1222.
The 13th century seems to have seen the decline of the Bjarmians, who became tributaries of the Novgorod Republic. While many Slavs fled the Mongol invasion northward, to Beloozero and Bjarmaland, the displaced Bjarmians sought refuge in Norway, where they were given land around the Malangen fjord by Haakon IV of Norway in 1240. More important for the decline was probably that, with the onset of the Crusades, the trade routes had found a more westerly orientation or shifted considerably to the south.
When the Novgorodians founded Velikiy Ustiug, in the beginning of the 13th century, the Bjarmians had a serious competitor for the trade. More and more Pomors arrived in the area during the 14th and 15th centuries, which led to the final assimilation of the Bjarmians by the Slavs.
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