Peter Andreas Munch
Encyclopedia
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
historian
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 race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, known for his work on the medieval history
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
of Norway. Munch’s scholarship included Norwegian archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
, linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, and jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
. He was also noted for his Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
Legendary saga
Legendary saga
A Legendary saga or Fornaldarsaga is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the colonization of Iceland. There are some exceptions, such as Yngvars saga víðförla, which takes place in the 11th century...
translations.
Background
Peter Andreas Munch was born in ChristianiaOslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
(now Oslo). He was the son of Edvard Storm Munch and Johanne Sophie Hofgaard. Munch was the uncle of the famous painter Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, The Scream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety.- Childhood :Edvard Munch...
.
Munch grew up at Gjerpen
Gjerpen
Gjerpen is a former township which is now part of the municipality of Skien, in Telemark county, Norway.-Location:The parish of Gjerpen was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 . According to the 1835 census the municipality had a population of 4,381. Gjerpen was located east of the city...
parsonage, where his father was parish priest of the Church of Norway
Church of Norway
The Church of Norway is the state church of Norway, established after the Lutheran reformation in Denmark-Norway in 1536-1537 broke the ties to the Holy See. The church confesses the Lutheran Christian faith...
. He was schooled in the city of Skien
Skien
' is a city and municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Skien. Skien is also the administrative centre of Telemark county....
. He attended the Royal Frederick University
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
. Munch first studied law and took his state examination in 1834, but then turned to historical and philological studies.
Career
In 1837, he became lecturer in history at the University of Oslo and in 1841 became a Professor of History. In 1857 he received a large grant for archives research in RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and lived there 1858-61. He was one of the first non-Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
s to be allowed into the archives of the Vatican
Vatican Library
The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...
. While he was not allowed to bring any notes or books out of the Vatican Library, he had a photographic memory which allowed him to memorize these facts. His research there laid the foundation for his main work, Det norske Folks Historie (History of the Norwegian People), in eight volumes. Among the theories he is remembered for is the theory on immigration to Norway
Theory on immigration to Norway
The theory on immigration to Norway refers to a theory on the origin of the Norwegian people. The theory is mainly associated with Rudolf Keyser, and developed by Peter Andreas Munch.-Theory:...
, in which he developed work done by Rudolf Keyser
Rudolf Keyser
Rudolf Keyser was a Norwegian historian, archaeologist and educator.Jakob Rudolf Keyser was born in Christiania, now Oslo, Norway. Following studies in Iceland, Rudolf Keyser was appointed as a docent at the Royal Frederick University in Christiania in 1828. He became a professor in 1831 and...
. In a renewed trip to Rome, he died from a stroke after plunging his head into a fountain on a hot day, and was buried in the Protestant cemetery in Rome.
Selected works
- Norges, Sveriges og Danmarks Historie til Skolebrug (1838)
- Norges Historie i kort Udtog for de første Begyndere (1839)
- Nordens gamle Gude- og Helte-Sagn i kortfattet Fremstilling (1840)
- Verdenshistoriens vigtigste Begivenheder (1840)
- De nyeste Tiders Historie (1842)
- Fortegnelse over de mest befarede Landeveie og Reiserouter saavel mellem Stæderne, som Landdistricterne i Norge (1846)
- Det oldnorske Sprogs eller Norrønasprogets Grammatik (with C. R. Unger, 1847)
- Underholdende Tildragelser af Norges Historie (1847)
- Nordmændenes Gudelære i Hedenold (1847)
- Det gotiske Sprogs Formlære (1848)
- Kortfattet Fremstilling af den ældste norske Runeskrift (1848)
- Om Skandinavismen (1849)
- Historisk-geographisk Beskrivelse over Kongeriget Norge (Noregsveldi) i Middelalderen (1849)
- Det norske Folks Historie (1852–1859)
- Om den saakaldte nyere historiske Skole i Norge (1853)
- Nordmændenes ældste Gude- og Helte-Sagn (1854)