Bo Almqvist
| Bo Gunnar Almqvist | |
|---|---|
| Born | 5 May 1931 Edsgatan, Alster, Värmland, Sweden |
| Died | 9 November 2013 Dublin, Ireland |
| Occupation | writer, academic, folklorist |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Alma mater | Uppsala University |
Bo Gunnar Almqvist (5 May 1931 - 9 November 2013) was a Swedish academic and folklorist.
Born in Edsgatan, Sweden in 1931, Almqvist entered Uppsala University in 1950, studying Nordic languages and folklore. While there, he learned Irish from Kevin Danaher. In 1953 Almqvist first visited Ireland on a scholarship to study Irish at the UCD summer school. He graduated from Uppsala in 1954 and took a BPhil degree in Icelandic language and literature at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. Almqvist worked at the University of Iceland as lecturer in Swedish from 1956-60. He returned to Sweden in 1960 and lectured at Uppsala University, completing a PhD thesis on magical, satirical and insult poetry in the Nordic countries (Norrön niddiktning, 2 vols. 1965, 1972).
Between 1966 and 1972 Almqvist carried out fieldwork in Dunquin, working with traditional storytellers such as Mícheál Ó Gaoithín and Cáit ‘Bab’ Feiritéar. In 1972 Almqvist was appointed Professor of Irish Folklore at UCD. He developed the academic study of Irish and comparative folklore at UCD and served as director of the archive of folklore, later the National Folklore Collection. Along with Pádraig Ó Héalaí, he edited Béaloideas, the journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society, for twenty years.
Almqvist married Irish writer Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and had three children with her: Marja, Ragnar and Olaf.
Norrön niddiktning. Vol. 1 Nid mot furstar. Vol. 2 Nid mot missionärer. (Stockholm : Almqvist & Wiksell, 1965, 1972).
'The Uglier Foot (AT 1559B*). An Anecdote in Old Icelandic Literature and Its Counterpart in Irish Folk Tradition' Béaloideas 27–28 (1973) 1–58 (first published in Swedish in Scripta Islandica 17 (1966)).
(with David Greene (eds.)), Proceedings of the Seventh Viking Congress. Dublin 15–21 August 1973. (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1976).
An Béaloideas agus an Litríocht. (Baile an Fheirtéaraigh, Co. Chiarraí, Ireland : Cló Dhuibhne, 1977).
‘The Irish Folklore Commission. Achievement and Legacy’ Béaloideas 45–47 (1977–79) 6–26.
‘Scandinavian and Celtic Folklore Contacts in the Earldom of Orkney’ Saga-Book 20 (1978–81) 80–105.
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