The land of the Terfinnas, which was uninhabited, is the whole Kola peninsula. Its name was "Ter" (or "Turja"), whence the designation Ter-Finns. The common supposition that the river Ottar came to was the Dvina cannot be reconciled with Ottar's narrative given above, which expressly states that he followed the coast round the peninsula all the way, "and there was always open sea to port."[168] He cannot, therefore, have left the land and sailed straight across the White Sea; moreover he could not be aware that there was land on the other side of this wide bay of the ocean.[169] The river which "went up into the land" was consequently on the Kola peninsula, and formed the boundary between the unsettled land of the Terfinnas and that of the Beormas with fixed habitation. The river may have been the Varzuga, although it is also possible that Ottar sailed farther west along the southern coast of the Kola peninsula, without this alteration of course appearing in Alfred's description. He may then have gone as far as the Kandalaks.
What kind of people Ottar's Beormas[170] may have been is uncertain. We only hear that they lived in the country on the other side of the river, that their country was well settled (i.e., was permanently inhabited by an agricultural population ?), that they were able to communicate with Ottar, and that they spoke almost the same language as the Finns. The description may suit the East Karelians, whom we find, at any rate somewhat later, established on the south and west side of the White Sea, as far north as the Kandalaks, perhaps also as far as the Varzuga. If this is correct, we must suppose that Ottar's Finns and Terfinns spoke a Finno-Ugrian language, very like Karelian. As Ottar knew the Finns well, his statement about the language deserves consideration.
This view, that the Beormas were Karelians, agrees with Egil Skallagrimsson's Saga, which doubtless was put into writing much later, but which mentions Ottar's contemporary, Thorolf Kveldulfsson, and his expeditions among the Finns or Lapps to collect the Finnish or Lappish tribute (about 873 and 874). We read there: "East of Namdal lies Jemtland, and then Helsingland, and then Kvænland, and then Finland, then Kirjalaland. But Finmark lies above all these countries." Kirjalaland is Karelia, which thus lies quite in the east upon the White Sea, and must be Ottar's Bjarmeland (Beormaland). On his Finnish expedition of 874 Thorolf came far to the east, and was then appealed to by the Kvæns for help against the Kirjals (Karelians), who were ravaging Kvænland. He proceeded northward against them and overcame them; returned to Kvænland, went thence up into Finmark, and came down from the mountains in Vefsen. This mention of the ravages of the Kirjals agrees with the impression of Ottar's Beormas, who were so warlike that he dared not pass by their country.