John Frederick Lindow (born July 23, 1946) is an American philologist who is Professor Emeritus of

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

and

Folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He is a well known authority on

Old Norse religion Old Norse religion, also known as Norse paganism, is the most common name for a branch of Germanic religion which developed during the Proto-Norse period, when the North Germanic peoples separated into a distinct branch of the Germanic peopl ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

Biography

John Lindow was born in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

on July 23, 1946, the son of Wesley Lindow and Eleanor Niemetta. His father was a banker and his mother was a teacher. John Lindow received his undergraduate degree at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, where he gained a

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

magna cum laude in 1968, and a PhD in 1972, both in

Germanic Languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, E ...

and

Literatures Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

. After gaining his Ph.D, Lindow joined the faculty at

, serving as Acting Assistant Professor (1972-1974), Assistant Professor (1974-1977), Associate Professor (1977-1983), and Professor of Scandinavian (1983-?). He was since retired as

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

and

. In 1977, Lindow was elected as a corresponding member of the

Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy The Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy ( sv, Kungliga Gustav Adolfs Akademien) in Uppsala is one of 18 Swedish royal academies and dedicated to the study of Swedish folklore. The name is often expanded to ("...for Swedish Folk Culture"). The Academ ...

. In 2018, he received the Knight's Cross of the

Order of the Falcon The Order of the Falcon ( is, Hin íslenska fálkaorða) is the only order of chivalry in Iceland, founded by King Christian X of Denmark and Iceland on 3 July 1921. The award is awarded for merit for Iceland and humanity and has five degrees. N ...

at the Icelandic president's residence for scholarly contributions in the area of Icelandic medieval literature. He is also a member of the American Folklore Society, the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until c. 1980) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes ...

and the

Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study The Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (SASS) is a scholarly society that aims to advance the study, teaching and research in America of the languages, literature, history, culture and society of the Scandinavian or Nordic countries ...

Research

Lindow specializes in the study of

and

. He is also an expert on

Scandinavian folklore Nordic folklore is the folklore of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. It has common roots with, and has been mutually influenced by, folklore in England, Germany, the Low Countries, the Baltic countries, Finland and Sapmi. ...

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

and

Finnish mythology Finnish mythology is a commonly applied description of the folklore of Finnish paganism, of which a modern revival is practiced by a small percentage of the Finnish people. It has many features shared with Estonian and other Finnic mythologies, ...

, and

Inuit religion Inuit religion is the shared spiritual beliefs and practices of the Inuit, an indigenous people from Alaska, northern Canada, parts of Siberia and Greenland. Their religion shares many similarities with some Alaska Native religions. Traditional I ...

. Lindow's ''Handbook of Norse mythology'' was published in 2001. He is the co-editor of the forthcoming ''Pre-Christian Religions of the North: History and Structures'', which is to be published in four volumes by

Brepols Brepols is a Belgian publishing house. Once, it was one of the largest printing companies in the world and one of the main employers in Turnhout (Belgium). Besides its printing business, Brepols is also active as a publisher. Formerly well known ...

, and the forthcoming ''Old Norse Mythology'', which is to be published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

Personal life

Lindow married Katharine Forbes, a teacher, on October 4, 1968, with whom he has two daughters.

Selected publications

* Lindow, John (1976) Comitatus, individual and honor: Studies in north Germanic institutional vocabulary, University of California Press * Lindow, John (1978) Swedish legends and folktales, Berkeley: University of California Press * ''Myths and Legends of the Vikings'', Bellerophon Books, 1980. * ''Viking Ships'', Belerophon Books, 1982. * ''Scandinavian Mythology: An Annotated Bibliography'', Garland Press, 1984. * (Editor with Carol J. Clover) ''Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide'', Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 1985, University of Toronto Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2005. * (Editor with Lars Lonnroth and Gerd Wolfgang Weber) ''Structure and Meaning in Old Norse Literature: New Approaches to Textual Analysis and Literary Criticism'', Odense University Press (Odense), 1986. * Lindow, John (1997) Murder Vengeance among the Gods: Baldr in Scandinavian Mythology, Helsinki : Suomalainen tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica * (Editor with Carl Lindahl and John McNamara) ''Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs'', ABC-CLIO, 2000. * Lindow, John (2001) Handbook of Norse mythology, Santa Barbara, Calif. also published as Lindow, John (2001).
Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs
'.

. .Lindow (2001:Rear flap). * Lindow, John (2014) ''Trolls: An Unnatural History''. London: Reaction Books O’Donoghue, Heather (2014) From folk tales to internet pests - Review of John Lindow TROLLS An unnatural history, ''Times Literary Review'' 19 November 2014

References

Sources

External links

University of California: Berkeley: John Lindow (Accessed Jan 2011)
1946 births Living people American folklorists American philologists Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Germanic studies scholars Harvard University alumni Knights of the Order of the Falcon Old Norse studies scholars People from Washington, D.C. Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study Writers on Germanic paganism University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty {{academic-bio-stub