Rudolf Keyser

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Rudolf Keyser.

Jakob Rudolf Keyser (born January 1, 1803 in Christiania ; † October 9, 1864 ) was a Norwegian historian .

Life and career

His parents were the future bishop Johan Michael Keyser and Kirstine Margarethe Vangensteen. He grew up in the Norwegian civil service environment, which shaped him for the rest of life. Although he studied theology after the Examen artium (comparable to the German Abitur in Denmark and Norway) in 1820, the focus of his interests was always on the field of national history. In 1825 he applied to the "Selskab for Norges Vel" for a scholarship for a study trip to Iceland . He stayed there for two years and learned the old and new Icelandic . In 1827 he returned to Christiania and became a lecturer (assistant teacher) for history and statistics at the university. He was the first in Norway to teach the norrøne language . He was not interested in the philological aspect of the ancient sources , but in their importance for research into the Norwegian Middle Ages. In 1829 he became a lecturer and was a professor from 1837 to 1862. Together with his colleague Gregers Fougner Lundh he founded the "Association for Norwegian Language and History", which in 1833 published the first historical scientific series Samlinger til det norske Folks Sprog og Historie. published in six volumes. Until 1863 he headed the university library.

Scientific achievements

In 1830 the Storting (Parliament) approved funds for an edition of the old Norwegian laws and decisions from the Middle Ages. From 1835 he copied the relevant manuscripts in the archives of Copenhagen , Uppsala , Lund and Stockholm , partly alone, partly with his best student Peter Andreas Munch (1810–1863) . The three volumes " Norges gamle Love indtil 1387 ", which were published between 1846 and 1849, are characterized by their unusually scientific accuracy, also measured by today's standards. The dating of the Battle of Hafrsfjord to the year 872 and the replacement of the halberd by a battle ax in the Norwegian coat of arms can be traced back to him.

Immigration theory

Keyser's skills in the source-critical evaluation of the texts for the representation of medieval history were not particularly pronounced. In his great historical work " Om Nordmændenes Herkomst og Folke-Slægtskab " (About the origins and ethnic kinship of the Northmen), published in 1839, he founded the so-called "Immigration Theory". The theory said that Norway and the northern part of Sweden had been populated from the north and was therefore "norrønt", an expression Keyser introduced in parallel with "oldnorsk" (old Norwegian). In contrast, German tribes from the southeast immigrated to southern Sweden and Denmark after him. The border between the two are the lakes in Götaland and Götaelv. In doing so, he denied the prevailing doctrine of Scandinavian unity and denied any participation of these two countries in Edda poetry and the old saga literature. Although he based this theory on German and Russian sources, he overlooked how thin the basis was, that it sometimes had incorrect dates and found no archaeological support at all. His theory went to the grave with him, and Eilert Sundt refuted it, but it remained the destruction of the romantic view of the common Scandinavian past. What remained was the elaboration of the Norwegian people as an independent historical unit. Even if the theory was flawed, it had the effect of establishing the subject "Norwegian history" as a differentiation from Danish scholarship. In his 1847 lectures, "Nordmændenes Videnskabelighed og Literatur i Middelalderen" (The science and literature of the Northmen in the Middle Ages), he introduced the old norrøne poetry as Norwegian literature.

Norwegian school

With his knowledge of the Old Norse language, he laid the foundation for source-oriented scientific historical research in Norway. Together with Munch he founded the "Norske historiske skole" (the Norwegian historical school). It is his merit to have shown that the Norwegian people belonged to an ancient civilization, which was by no means a matter of course at that time. In his opinion, the original popular rule had been replaced by a strong royal power with a weak nobility. In Denmark and Sweden, the immigrants after him introduced another form of society with feudal systems , free nobility and unfree peasants. According to him, Norway's subsequent decline was due to the fact that the royal power fell into foreign hands. This theory found its continuation in his work " Den norske Kirkes Historie under Katholicismen " (1856-1858), where the national inadequacy of the church was presented as one of the causes of the decline. Such national theories, however, found little echo in academic circles, and the term "Norwegian School", which Danish historians added, initially had a disparaging meaning.

Honors

When the St. Olavs Order was founded in 1847 , the third highest order in Norway, he was one of the first knights . On his departure in 1862 he was awarded the Commander's Cross and was thus raised to the rank of commander of this order. In 1856 he was also made a knight of the French Legion of Honor .

Works

A bibliography of Keyser's publications can be found in Norsk Forfatter-Lexikon (NFL), Vol. 3, 1892, pp. 219-222.

  • "Catalog over det norske Universitets Samlinger af Nordiske Oldsager", Urda Vol. 1, 1836, pp. 238-240 and 398-400, and Vol. 2, 1837, pp. 85-96
  • "Om Nordmændenes Herkomst og Folke-Slægtskab" In: Samlinger til Det Norske Folks Sprog og Historie . Christiania 1833 vol. 6, 1839, s. 259-462. (Special print 1843)
  • "Udsigt over den norske Samfundsordens Udvikling i Middelalderen", In: Samlede Afhandlinger . Christiania 1868.
  • Nordmændenes Religionsforfatning i Hedendommen , 1847.
  • Norges gamle Love indtil 1387 (Ed. PA Munch), 3 vol., 1846-1849.
  • Speculum shelves. Konungs Skuggsjá (ed. PA Munch and CR Unger), 1848.
  • Olaf's saga hins helga (Red. CR Unger), 1849.
  • Strengleikar eða Lioðabok (Red. CR Unger), 1850.
  • Barlaams ok Josaphat's Saga (Red. CR Unger), 1851.
  • Den norske Kirkes Historie under Katholicismen , 2 vol., 1856-1858
  • Norges Historie , edited by "Selskabet for Folkeoplysningens Fremme", 2 vol., (Posthumously) 1866-1870
  • Efterladte Skrifter ( Nachged Schrifter), 2 vol., 1866–1867.

literature

  • Johan Schreiner: "Gammelt and not syn på norsk middelalderhistorie." (Danmarks) Historisk Tidskrift Vol. 10, Series 5 (1939–1941) 1. pp. 412–430.
  • Odd Arvid Storsveen: Article "Rudolf Keyser". In: Norsk biografisk leksikon vol. 5 (2002)
  • Tor Ragnar Weidling: Article "Rudolf Keyser". In: Store Norske Leksikon.

Sources and individual references

  1. In the secondary literature, many different people are named as editors. But on the cover it says: “Utgivne af et Samfund”. (Published by a community) without a name.
  2. ^ Fr. Ording: Henrik Ibsens vennekreds Det lærde Holland. Et chapter av norsk cultural life . Oslo 1927. p. 92.