Swede Finn or Finn Swede?

They're dwindling as we speak!

My grandpa always told me that I came from royalty.
Both he and my grandma spoke in Swedish fluently.

My mother swore off Swedish as a kindergarten child
when she was flunked in reading, and that language was reviled.

But I was so much different, learning svensk from end to end.
Grandma’s friends could talk about me—I could comprehend!

However, there was one thing that I couldn’t understand:
my grandparents spoke Swedish but were both born in Finland!

My grandpa always told his friends that he was a “Swede Finn.”
He hoped that all those native Swedes would finally let him in.
He didn’t know a word of Finnish, Suomalainen speech,
Too many double consonants made learning out of reach!

A heavy Oravais accent gave his whole charade away,
He’d always be a “Finn Swede,” and that’s how it had to stay!

Those royal claims I doubt, although the Swedish speakers ruled
the Finnish aristocracy, the churches and the schools.

A small ethnic minority, the Finn Swedes have become.
a measly five or six percent—still lucky to be one!

In the end, it matters little where from which I’ve come,
But more important it is, who I am and will become!

You decide!

                        My Finn Swede grandparents, Wendla and Arvid