Carl Richard Unger

Born in 1817. Died in 1897. A Norwegian philologist, professor of Germanic and Romance philology at the University of Christiania from 1862. Primarily known as a textual editor, he had a significant impact on the development of Old Norse philology, and several of his editions remain the only ones of their kind. Alone and in collaboration with others, he was responsible for publishing a considerable amount of Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian texts (mostly in Old Norse) – sagas, romantic sagas translated from French, and religious literature translated from Latin. His editions were based on meticulous transcriptions of manuscripts by Unger.

One of his most important publications was Flateyjarbók (based on transcriptions by the Icelander Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1827–1889)), which was released in 3 volumes (1860–1868). Among other publications are Fagrskinna (with P. A. Munch) (1847), Kongespeilet (with Keyser and Munch) (1848), Olafs Saga hins helga (Legendary Saga of Olaf (with Rudolf Keyser)) (1849), Morkinskinna (1867), Heimskringla or The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson (1868), and Codex Frisianus. A Collection of Norwegian Kings' Sagas (1871). He also participated in the publication of the first 15 volumes of the important historical source collection Diplomatarium Norvegicum.

Article by Sigvald Grøsfjeld.