Reidar Thoralf Christiansen

Reidar Thoralf Christiansen (1886–1971) was a Norwegian folklorist, archivist of the Norwegian Folklore Collection (NFS) and professor of folkloristics at the University of Oslo.

Christiansen studied theology during 1904–1909 and worked as a language teacher for Finnish and Sami for priest sent to Finnmark, but he was not himself ordained as a priest. Instead, he took an interest in folkloristics under the guidance of Moltke Moe (1859-1914). He received a scholarship for a half-year's stay in Finland in 1912, where he studied under Kaarle Krohn (1863-1933). During 1914–1916 he studied in Copenhagen, studying under Axel Olrik (1864-1917). He also visited Lund University and studied under Carl Wilhelm von Sydow (1878-1952).

In 1919, Christiansen received money from the Nansen Fund to conduct field studies in Ireland. He became archivist of the newly-established Norwegian National Archives in 1921. Christiansen married Karin Lundbad, whom he had met in Ludn, in 1921. The couple had five children, living in Blommenholm outside of Oslo.

Christiansen conducted comparative research in fairy tales, comparing the Scandinavian and Irish Gaelic traditions in particular. In his The Migratory Legends (1958) he proposed a type catalogue for the classification of "migratory legends" (a calque of German Wanderlegenden, i.e. folk-tales transmitted via trans-cultural diffusion), by motif, exemplified with a examples from Norwegian folklore.

Christiansen became full professor for folkloristics at Oslo University in 1952. He was awarded a honorary doctorate from University College Dublin in 1954. He retired in 1956 and spent a semester at Indiana University Bloomington at the invitation of Stith Thompson , and 1957/9 returned to Dublin, working with Seán Ó Súilleabháin (1903-1996). In 1958, he became chairman of the Commission International des Arts et Traditions Populaires of UNESCO. He went on to publish his Studies in Irish and Scandinavian Folktales (1959), European Folklore in America (1962) and Folktales of Norway (1964).

In his 1958 Migratory Legents, Christiansen proposes a system of eight major categories (with subtypes), as follows:[1]

See also

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Reidar Thoralf Christiansen

References

  1. ↑ Elizabeth Tucker, Campus Legends: A Handbook: A Handbook (2005), p. 30.
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