Carl Christian Rafn

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Carl Christian Rafn

Carl Christian Rafn (born January 16, 1795 at Brahesborg Palace / Funen / Denmark , † October 20, 1864 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish archaeologist and Old Norse philologist who first made the Nordic sagas known to the world. He was the first scientist to popularize the knowledge that America was discovered by the Vikings .

Life

Carl Christian was the son of the dairy landlords Christian Rafn and Christiane, née Kiølbye. After visiting the Kathedralskole in Odense from 1810, he went to the University of Copenhagen in 1814 , where he passed his legal state examination in 1816 after only one and a half years. He was hired as an assistant to the Military Prosecutor MH Borneman. A year later he became a lieutenant in the Funen Dragoon Regiment.

But his real hobby was the Icelandic language , literature and philosophy. In 1818 he was a co-founder of the National Library of Iceland by sending 22 books to Reykjavík . Similarly, he promoted the establishment of the national libraries of the Faroe Islands (1827) in Tórshavn and Greenland ( Nunatta Atuagaateqarfia 1829) in Godthåb (Nuuk).

Carl Christian Rafn lived in this house in Copenhagen

As early as 1820, Rafn became a Latin and grammar teacher at the Landkadetakademie ( Landkadetakademiet ) in Copenhagen . Obviously, this task did not fill him completely, so that at the same time he arranged the Arnamagnæanske Samling of the old Icelandic manuscripts and began to translate texts from them. It quickly became clear to him that this extensive source material could never be mastered by a single person during his lifetime, and so he decided to found a scientific society that was dedicated to the systematic publication of Old Norse texts and the collection of corresponding linguistic monuments and archaeological objects around the world . That was the hour of birth of the Nordische Altschriftgesellschaft ( Nordiske Oldskrift-Selskab ), which was officially founded on January 28, 1825, the 57th birthday of King Frederik VI.

Rafn was the secretary of this society from the beginning, which he directed together with Rasmus Rask and Josef Abrahamson . Financially, she was able to rely on an unexpectedly large number of subscribers to her publications in Iceland. In 1826 Rafn gave up his position as a teacher and devoted himself only to society. In the same year he became a professor. In 1828 the company received the title royal . The society grew rapidly in members around the world and with it wealth. Rafn took care of all correspondence, was treasurer, looked for sponsors and edited the publications of the society, which had a fortune of 170,000 crowns at his death.

In 1830 Rafn became a member of the Royal Commission for the Preservation of Antiquities. The Altschriftgesellschaft took on the task of publishing their periodicals and thus contributed to the Danish archeology of that time. The National Museum in Copenhagen owes its historical and archaeological archive including library and the “American Cabinet”, where archaeological and ethnographic objects were collected.

His book Antiqvitates Americanæ , published in 1837, aroused great attention in America , in which he presented the discovery of America by Leif Eriksson to the world for the first time . The other works (see list of literature) also contributed significantly to the fact that the Old Norse sources became known to the world.

But this international impact was not a one-way street. Through Rafn's extensive correspondence with scholars all over the world and his extensive research trips, he conveyed to the Danish people previously largely unknown foreign literature, which has now found its way into the libraries.

Rafn also campaigned for the Faroese language . He supported VU Hammershaimb significantly in the publication of its standard orthography. He worked with the Danish governor of the Faroe Islands, Christian Pløyen , the Icelandic philologist Jón Sigurðsson and his Danish colleague Niels Matthias Petersen , the latter two being the actual fathers of Hammershaimb's etymologizing orthography.

In 1859 Carl Christian Rafn was appointed royal conference councilor. Foreign universities awarded him an honorary doctorate. Rafn died in 1864 at the age of 69. He is buried in the Assistens cemetery in Copenhagen . The reverse of his tombstone is a rune stone to commemorate his great services to Old Norse philology.

Fonts

Selection and often together with other authors

  • 1821–1826 - Nordiske Kæmpehistorier (eller mythiske og romantiske Sagaer), efter islandske Haandskrifter fordanskede (3 volumes)
  • 1824 - Jomsviking saga
  • 1825–1837 - Fornmanna sögur (12 volumes)
  • 1826 - Krákumál
  • 1826–1827 - Kong Olaf Tryggvesøns Saga
  • 1829–1830 - Fornaldarsögur Norðrlanda (3 volumes)
  • 1829–1830 - Nordiske Fortidssagaer (3 volumes)
  • 1832 - Færeyínga Saga eller Færøboernes Historie i den islandske Grundtext med færøisk og dansk Oversættelse (German 1833)
  • 1837 - Antiqvitates Americanæ (Latin, translated into English and published in New York)
  • 1838–1854 - Grønlands historiske Mindesmærker (3 volumes, new edition 1976)
  • 1850–1858 - Antiquités Russes d'après les monuments historiques des Islandais et des anciens Scandinaves (2 volumes, new edition 1969)
  • 1852 - Saga Játvarðar konúngs hins Helga (together with Jón Sigurðsson )
  • 1854 - Remarks on a Danish runic stone from the eleventh century, found in the central part of London
  • 1856 - Oldtidsminder fra Østen; Antiquités de l'Orient

Magazines

  • 1832–1836 - Nordisk Tidsskrift for Oldkyndighed (3 volumes)
  • 1836–1863 - Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed (above history) (23 volumes)
  • 1836–1860 - Mémoires de la société des antiquaires du Nord
  • 1843–1863 - Antikvarisk Tidsskrift (7 volumes)

items

  • The Söndervissing stone . In: Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology , Volume 24, 1859, pp. 6-15 hs-wismar.de

literature

Web links

Commons : Carl Christian Rafn  - collection of images, videos and audio files


personal data
SURNAME Rafn, Carl Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish archaeologist and Old Norse philologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1795
PLACE OF BIRTH Brahesborg Castle , Funen, Denmark
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1864
Place of death Copenhagen