Carl Wilhelm von Sydow

Carl Wilhelm von Sydow (21 December 1878 – 4 March 1952) was a Swedish folklore scholar. A professor at Lund University, he was a pioneer of folklore studies in Sweden and contributed to establishing systematic methods in the field. Early life and education The son of Ludvig von Sydow, an agricultural school administrator, and Friherrin Göthilda Rappe, von Sydow was born in Ryssby and educated in Växjö; he entered Lund University as a student in 1897 and earned his master's degree in 1908 with a study of the legend of Finn and his wife and his doctorate in 1909 with a thesis titled Två spinnsagor—en studie i jämförande folksagoforskning (Two Spinning Legends—A Study in the Comparative Study of Folk Legends). During his university studies, he taught at folk high schools and met the Danish folklorist Henning Frederik Feilberg, who inspired him to begin collecting folk tales. In 1907 he published Våra folkminnen—Folksaga, folksägen, folktro (Our Folklore—Folktale, Legend, and Folk Belief) and participated in the founding of the Federation of Folklore Fellows' Communications in Copenhagen. Another folklorist who influenced him was Axel Olrik, who was to have been the disputant for his PhD thesis. Career Von Sydow was appointed a lecturer in Nordic and comparative folkloristics at Lund University in September 1910, and became a professor in 1938. In April 1940 he was awarded a personal chair. He was a pioneer of radio lecturing, beginning in 1926. In 1914 he founded the journal Folkminnen och folktankar; in 1921 he became head of the foundation for the study of Swedish folklore established by Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius. He also advised the Swedish government on the formation of a commission to study peasant culture, which was established in 1924. He was called up for national service during World War I. In the 1930s he was a founder member of the Nazi-sympathising (National Swedish-German Association) and served as vice president, but in April 1940 he resigned his membership.