Peter Andreas Munch (Christiania 1810 – Rome 1863) was a central figure of what in Norwegian historiography has been termed the “national breakthrough” (det nasjonale gjennombrudd), signalling growing interest in national culture in the 1840s and ’50s among scholars and artists. Although Munch, in his scholarly pursuits, was highly versatile, pursuing interests ranging from geography to linguistics and Norse mythology, he is now mainly remembered as the historian who wrote the monumental 8-volume Det norske Folks Historie (“The history of the Norwegian people”, 1851-63), which, though unfinished at the author’s death, has a generally acknowledged benchmark status in the development of academic history-writing in Norway. As a historian, however, Munch was never a stranger to controversy, and his personal mission to “give the Norwegians their history back” (from Denmark, predominantly) more than once brought him into conflict with fellow-historians, both in Denmark and at home.
In 1828, Munch commenced his law studies at the University of Christiania and in his spare time took private lessons in Old Norse from the historian Rudolf Keyser. The two men shared their historical interests but belonged to different political factions within the Norwegian intelligentsia. Munch was of the opinion that Norway should retain its strong cultural ties with Denmark because of its higher level of cultivation, while Keyser, on the other hand, adhered to the ideas of the “Patriots”, who wanted to develop an independent Norwegian culture, free from Danish influences. These divergent views collided most openly in linguistic debates: the Patriots wanted to “Norwegianize” the existing Danish written standard; Munch and the Intelligens party wanted to hold on to Danish.
However, on Norway’s historical identity, Munch and Keyser saw eye to eye. Munch adhered to and elaborated on Keyser’s “migration theory”, which saw the Norwegians as the original inhabitants of Scandinavia, who had entered the peninsula from the north before the ancestors of the Danes and Swedes had migrated in from the south. The theory met with great criticism from Danish historians (Caspar Paludan-Müller, Christian Molbech, J.J. Worsaae), who accused Munch and “the Norwegian historical school” (den norske historiske skolen) of nationalistic prejudice. Munch responded by accusing Danish historians of having robbed Norway of its historical memories, both in a material sense (manuscripts were unjustly held in the libraries of Copenhagen and should be returned) and in an immaterial sense (because of the four centuries of Danish rule).
Although he supported Pan-Scandinavian cooperation in the fields of culture and science, Munch saw Scandinavism as part of this Danish appropriation of the Norwegian heritage. He was even more ardently opposed to the political agenda of Scandinavism, perceiving it as a serious threat to Norway’s independence. Instead, Munch welcomed the Pan-Germanist ideal of a political union between the three Scandinavian nations and the German states, following the logic that in a larger community Norway’s autonomy would be best guaranteed.
Munch was as much a nationalist as a cosmopolitan. He was a well-travelled man and had a substantial international network. Grants from the Norwegian parliament allowed him to travel to Copenhagen, Vienna and Rome. He was the first non-Catholic researcher who was given access to the papal archives in the Vatican. Munch died in Rome at the age of 52 after suffering a stroke while working behind his desk.
