Dag Strömbäck | |
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| Born | (1900-08-13)13 August 1900 Järbo, Sweden |
| Died | 1 December 1978(1978-12-01) (aged 78) Uppsala, Sweden |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Uppsala |
| Thesis | Sejd. Textstudier i nordisk religionshistoria (1935) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | |
| Sub-discipline | Old Norse studies |
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Dag Alvar Strömbäck (13 August 1900 – 1 December 1978) was a Swedish folklorist, historian of religion andphilologist. He was a professor atUppsala University and also headed theSwedish Institute for Language and Folklore atUppsala.
Strömbäck was born inJärbo but grew up from the age of three inAlfta, where his father was appointedpastor. His elder brotherHelge Strömbäck became a vice-admiral andChief of the Swedish Navy.[1]
After a classical education atNorra Latin in Stockholm, Strömbäck studiedOld Norse and history of religion at Uppsala University, spending some time also at theUniversity of Oslo and theUniversity of Iceland (where he was an instructor in Swedish in 1926). He earned a B.A. in 1921 and a doctorate in Old Norse in 1935 with the thesisSejd: Textstudier i nordisk religionshistoria (Seiðr: Textual Studies in the History of Norse Religion).[1]
While completing his doctoral studies, Strömbäck worked at the university library in Uppsala and then from 1929 as alexicographer and editor with theSvenska Akademiens ordbok, the national dictionary project, inLund; he continued to work on the dictionary until 1940. In 1935 he became adocent inIcelandic philology atLund University. In 1937–38, he was avisiting professor at theUniversity of Chicago and was offered a permanent position, but he returned to Sweden in 1939 after one further year.[1]
In 1940, he became a director of the Swedish Institute for Language and Folklore in Uppsala, where in 1944 he also became chief archivist. He continued to head the Institute until his retirement. In 1941, he became a docent inNordic languages at Uppsala University; in July 1947 he was appointed Professor of Norse and Comparative Folklore. He took up the position in July 1948 and retired in July 1967.[1][2]
From 1959 to 1963, he was a member of the Swedish National Council for Research in the Humanities. He became a member of theRoyal Gustavus Adolphus Academy in 1935 and served as its president from 1957 to 1966, of theRoyal Society of the Humanities at Uppsala in 1941, and of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities in 1945, serving as its president from 1965 to 1973.[1][3] He edited three major journals for many years:Arv,Saga och sed, andSvenska landsmål och svenskt folkliv, the first two then published by the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy and the last later taken over by it.[1]
Strömbäck retired from Uppsala University in 1977.
Strömbäck viewed the study of medieval Norse texts as inseparable from that of folklore, and resisted both purely methodological discussions and the subsuming of folklore byethnography.[1]
Strömbäck was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Iceland and theUniversity of Aberdeen.[2] Afestschrift entitledFolkloristica was published in 1960 to honour his 60th birthday.
He married Rosalie Olivecrona on 24 September 1927;[1] they had one daughter,Gertrud Gidlund [sv], a journalist and editor.[4] He suffered a serious illness in 1974, but recovered; he died inUppsala Municipality on 1 December 1978[1] and is buried in theold cemetery at Uppsala.[5][6]
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