Niels Matthias Petersen

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Niels Matthias Petersen (mostly abbreviated to NM Petersen , born October 24 or 25, 1791 in Sanderum near Odense ; † May 11, 1862 ) was a Danish linguist , literary scholar ( Scandinavian studies ) and historian .

Life

In 1845 NM Petersen was appointed - allegedly somewhat reluctantly - the first professor of Scandinavian studies at the University of Copenhagen , and he served in this position until his death. As a scientist, he worked in many fields. He was a close and devoted friend of Rasmus Rask since childhood and throughout his life .

Petersen was a champion of the spelling debate of his time and called for a common Scandinavian written language. History was particularly close to his heart, to which he contributed with several important works. For example, he founded the research into Danish place names.

As a literary scholar, he wrote a five-volume literary history from 1853 to 1861, which is considered groundbreaking in Denmark.

youth

NM Petersen was born in Sanderum near Odense in 1791, where his father, Matthias Pedersen, was a tailor. However, the parents in the village only kept the child with them for a year and a half until Jacob Jørgensen, a wealthy citizen of Odense who was married to the father's sister, took the child and raised it with great love as his own.

In 1801 Petersen was sent to the Odense School of Science. There he met his classmate Rasmus Rask . They became lifelong friends and shared an interest in Nordic languages and history. They learned Icelandic together , and by the time Petersen left school he had already read the original Heimskringla and other sagas.

Another childhood friend was the later philosopher Augustus Krejdal (1790-1829). His mother was married to the pastor Torkild Lund for the second time, and Petersen fell in love with Lund's daughter Sofie Magdalene, whom he later married.

In 1808 Petersen graduated from high school in Copenhagen and decided to study theology. But he made only idle progress with this, since his independent thoughts were difficult to reconcile with church dogmas. He would rather be a poet. However, his foster parents soon let him know that he should look after himself, and so he became a tutor in a parish and in 1815 a teacher at the Bernstorffs Minde seminary .

In 1816 he finally married his bride, who would be a steadfast support to him throughout his life. He did not yet know what the right area for his skills should be, but his love for poetry was so strong that he began to write dramas and lyric poetry. However, only one of these works came to press, his dramatic portrayal of Cølibatet ("The Celibacy". 1823), which showed that his talent in this direction was limited. Nevertheless, he continued to write without ever publishing these pieces.

The scientist

In the meantime, his linguistic knowledge matured and his scientific view became clearer. In 1826 he published his first linguistic writings.

The first significant work by NM Petersen came out 1829-30 and was called Det danske, norske og svenske Sprogs Historie under deres Udvikling af Stamsproget ("The history of the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish languages ​​under their development from the original language"). Here he could clearly demonstrate his skills.

In 1829 he was employed by the university library and the following year he became registrar of the secret archive. This contemplative activity with access to the great treasures of the past appealed to him very much. As an archivist, he expanded his field of study and published various writings that he came across.

In this way he became a member of the Royal Danish Society for the History and Language of the Fatherland in 1836, of which he was secretary from 1839–48. There he published numerous old Danish documents from the 14th to 17th centuries, which were of great importance not only linguistically but also historically.

But Petersen's historical interest went back further than the old files in the archive could shed light on. In 1834 his Haandbog appeared in the Gammelnordiske Geografi eller systematisk Fremstilling af de gamle Nordboers geografiske Kundskab , a representation of the Old Norse geography and the geographical knowledge of the ancient Vikings .

In the magazine Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed he published 1836-39 articles about the Viking trains to Ireland and against the Wends .

When Rask and Petersen studied the sagas together in their school days, the former was particularly concerned with the form of language and syntax, while Petersen was more interested in the content and the historical context. As much as Petersen was a skilled linguist, he was interested in history as the real goal of his research.

His translation of the Norwegian royal sagas Oldnordiske Sagaer appeared in 1831–36 , and in 1834–38 he published his Danmarks Historie i Hedenold (“History of Denmark in the Heidenzeitalter”), which was then a standard work on the earliest history of Denmark up to Christianization. Petersen's claim was not to simply come up with daring hypotheses, but on the other hand he still wanted to tell something about the content of the old legends. So he told the legends in his own style and provided them with critical comments about the possible origin and connection with other stories. He also described Nordic mythology , the ancient poetry of the skalds and Nordic cultural history, with particular emphasis on the Danish peculiarities.

His work Historiske Fortællinger om Islændernes Færd hjemme og ude (4 volumes, 1839–44) on the old Icelandic sagas and Iceland's geography , history and society during the Free State period was of similar importance .

Closely related to this work is his Nordisk Mythologi from 1849 in the form of a lecture (Petersen became a Scandinavian professor in 1845)

His greatest work came out in 1853-61 under the modest title Bidrag til den danske Litteraturs Historie ("Contributions to Danish literary history"). The five-volume work not only contains all the necessary bibliographical and biographical information, but also highlights the peculiarities of each individual work and each author and places them in the context of the prevailing attitudes and movements of their time. He does not only deal with fiction , but also with scientific and scholarly specialist literature. This work is considered to be one of the finest in 19th century Danish literature .

Petersen was an advocate of the Nordic and skeptical of the influences especially from Germany. At every opportunity he urged the Danes to return to their own roots and what they had in common with the other Scandinavian peoples. Nevertheless, he was considered to be strongly influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau .

Half a year after his 70th birthday, Niels Matthias Petersen passed away. His wife followed him on July 27th of the same year. Their marriage was childless.

Fonts (selection)

  • Dansk Orddannelseslære (Copenhagen 1826)
  • Det danske, norske og svenske Sprog's history (1829–30, 2 volumes)
  • Danmarks Historie i Hedenold (2nd edition 1854–55, 3 volumes)
  • Haandbog i den gammel-nordiske Geographi (1834, vol. 1)
  • Historiske Fortællinger om Islændernes Færd bjemme og ude (1839–44, 4 volumes. 3rd edition 1900–01)
  • Nordisk Mythologi (2nd ed. 1862) and above all his
  • Bidrag til den oldnordiske literary history (1866)
  • Bidrag til den danske Literaturs Historie (2nd edition 1867–71, 5 volumes), the first complete treatment of Danish literary history.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Petersen . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 15, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1908, pp.  656–657 .
personal data
SURNAME Petersen, Niels Matthias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Petersen, NM
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish linguist, literary scholar (Scandinavian studies) and historian
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1791 or October 25, 1791
PLACE OF BIRTH Sanderum near Odense
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 1862