Skáni

and Skáney, f.; the gen. Skáneyjar occurs as early as in a poet of the 10th century, the syllable -ey answering to the Latinised -avia:—Scania, a local name, the Scandia or Scandinavia of Pliny and succeeding geographers, mod. Dan. Skaane; from the Saga time downwards the name of a county formerly belonging to Denmark, but since 1658 to Sweden; it is said to mean border-land, and may be akin to skán. Skáni forms the southernmost point of the great northern peninsula, and was accordingly the first district in the peninsula known to the Romans, whence in Latin writers it became the general name for the whole of the north; but not so in Icel. vernacular writers, who use it only in its proper sense of the county Skáni, Fms., Fb. passim.