Education
He graduated from Uppsala in 1954 and took a Bachelor of Philosophy degree in Icelandic language and literature at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik.
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Bo Almqvist
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Born in Edsgatan, Sweden in 1931, Almqvist entered Uppsala University in 1950, studying Nordic languages and folklore. While there, he learned Irish from Caoimhín Ó Danachair. In 1953 Almqvist first visited Ireland on a scholarship to study Irish at the University College Dublin summer school.
Almqvist worked at the University of Iceland as lecturer in Swedish from 1956-1960.
He returned to Sweden in 1960 and lectured at Uppsala University, completing a Doctor of Philosophy thesis on magical, satirical and insult poetry in the Nordic countries (Norrön niddiktning, 2 vols 1965, 1972). Between 1966 and 1972 Almqvist carried out fieldwork in the Dún Chaoin Gaeltacht, working with traditional storytellers such as Mícheál Ó Gaoithín and Cáit ‘Bab’ Feiritéar.
In 1972 Almqvist was appointed Professor of Irish Folklore at University College Dublin. He developed the academic study of Irish and comparative folklore at University College Dublin and served as director of the archive of folklore, later the National Folklore Collection. Along with Pádraig Ó Héalaí, he edited Béaloideas, the journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society, for twenty years.
Almqvist married Irish writer Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and had three children with her: Marja, Ragnar and Olaf.
