The present volume is an English translation of a biographical work by the Swedish folklorist Nils-Arvid Bringéus, Carl Wilhelm von Sydow som Folklorist (Carl Wilhelm von Sydow as Folklorist), which appeared in 2006. Since Ulf Palmenfelt reviewed the original Swedish publication for JFRR (http://www.indiana.edu/~jofr/review.php?id=714), the purpose of this note is principally to call to the attention of interested persons the availability of Bringéus’ enjoyable and informative work in English.
C.W. von Sydow (1878-1952) was indeed a pioneer of modern folkloristics. To the folklorist’s arsenal and vocabulary he contributed such important notions and terms as active or passive “tradition bearer,” emphasizing the role of the individual in the transmission of folklore; “ecotype” (commonly but less felicitously rendered as “oikotype” in English); and “memorate.” von Sydow was one of the instigators of the Irish Folklore Archives in Dublin; in Sweden he founded the Folk Life Archive in Lund and was influential in separating folkloristics and ethnology into two branches within a single academic discipline.
Among the attractions of Bringéus’ treatment is his quoting frequently from von Sydow’s correspondence, so that often we hear von Sydow speaking for himself in his own words. The volume is richly illustrated throughout, includes a complete bibliography of von Sydow’s publications, and, not least, features the text of a talk, “My Father the Storyteller,” by the subject’s son, the actor Max von Sydow.
The English rendering by John Irons generally reads clearly and smoothly, though here and there one comes upon a passage in which something has gone wrong, such as “take keep” (217) and “the large of legends” (226), or in which the rendering is misleading, as in “Lady Day” (instead of Our Lady Day) for vårfrudagen. Also, the translator’s retention of certain mythological names in their Swedish form tends to interrupt the flow of the text; for example, we encounter Fåvne (and Favne), Rhampsinit, and Jephta instead of the more usual Fafnir, Rhampsinitus, and Jephthah.
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[Review length: 321 words • Review posted on February 23, 2011]