He locates them in the west of a large island, Scandia, off the mouth of the Vistula river.
A strong etymology of the word is summarized in the American Heritage Dictionary under heath.
Chaideinoi is identical in form to its English relative, heathen; that is, Proto-Indo-European *kaito-, "forest, uncultivated land" becomes Common Germanic *xaiþiz, appearing in *xaiþinaz, "people of the uncultivated land".
Possible locations of the Chaideinoi have therefore been proposed at Hedemark in Norway or, if the east of Scandia is actually Finland, in Dalarna and Gästrikland of Sweden, both of which regions contain a high concentration of Hed- names.
The descriptive nature of the name provides a clue as why they do not appear in such strong sources as Tacitus.