Hovedkilder

Hovedkilder is a term used in Norwegian historiography and source criticism to refer to the principal sources that provide the most direct evidence about a topic. The concept emphasizes the value of originals or first-hand accounts for reconstructing events, contexts, and processes with greater fidelity. Hovedkilder can include written documents such as charters, legal registers, official correspondence, diaries and memoirs, as well as non-written sources like inscriptions, artifacts, and audio or visual records when they are contemporaneous and informative.

In practice, historians distinguish hovedkilder from secondary sources, which interpret or synthesize information from hovedkilder, and from tertiary sources that summarize secondary literature. Key criteria for identifying hovedkilder include contemporaneity, proximity to the event, authenticity, and coverage. Researchers also assess authorship, provenance, reliability, potential biases, and the preservation state of the material. Hovedkilder are often supplemented by other sources to fill gaps or provide alternative perspectives, a process known as source criticism.

Use of the concept involves compiling and evaluating a corpus of hovedkilder, with attention to context, interpretation, and provenance. In Norwegian scholarship, hovedkilder frequently come from national and local archives, church records, government reports, legal documents, and period newspapers. Limitations include fragmentary survival, biased perspectives, language barriers, and the need for careful translation and contextualization.

See also kildekritikk, primærkilde, secondary source.