In the western Balkans, south Slavs and Germanic  Gepids  intermarried with  Avar  invaders, eventually producing a Slavicised population. In central Europe, the Slavs intermixed with  Germanic ,  Celtic  and  Raetian  peoples, while the eastern Slavs encountered  Uralic  and Scandinavian peoples . Scandinavians ( Varangians ) and Finnic peoples were involved in