Edgar Valter Saks (January 25, 1910

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...

– April 11, 1984,

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

) was an

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

n amateur

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and author. He was the Estonian exile government's minister of education in exile from 1971 until his death. His book ''The Estonian Vikings: a Treatise on Finno-Ugric Viking Activities'' describes the ancient history of Estonians and other

Finnic peoples The Finnic peoples, or simply Finns, are the nations who speak languages traditionally classified in the Finno-Permic languages, Finnic language family, and which are thought to have originated in the region of the Volga River. Currently, the l ...

living on the shores of the Baltic Sea. His etymological works provide information about hypothetical extensive prehistoric Estonian settlement in Northern Europe. In ''Esto-Europa'', Saks finds

Baltic-Finnic The Finnic or Baltic Finnic languages constitute a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea by the Baltic Finnic peoples. There are around 7 million speakers, who live mainly in Finland and Estonia. Traditionally, ...

influences in several regions of Europe. Constructing Estonian etymologies for many toponyms (incl.

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

and

Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...

), Saks reasoned there must have been extensive prehistoric Finnic influence not only in Europe, but also in neighbouring regions. His works, often based on outdated or incorrect sources, have been characterised as

pseudohistory Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly historical research. The related term cryptohistory is applied to pseud ...

. Linguist

Urmas Sutrop Urmas Sutrop (born 7 June 1956) is an Estonian linguistics, linguist. He graduated from high school in 1974 and in 1984 from the University of Tartu with a biology degree. His thesis was titled "Ardisia crispa A. DC. lehe baktersõlme siseste ta ...

has referred to him as "fantasiser and author of

pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...

history books".

Works in English

*''Aestii'' (Montreal-Heidelberg, 1960) *''Esto-Europa'' (Montreal-Lund, 1966) *''Commentaries on the Liber Census Daniae'' (Montreal-Ann Arbor, 1974) *''The Estonian Vikings'' (London-Montreal, 1981)

References

1910 births 1984 deaths Writers from Tartu Estonian expatriates in Canada Government ministers of Estonia Hugo Treffner Gymnasium alumni Historians of Estonia 20th-century Estonian historians Estonian World War II refugees {{Estonia-historian-stub