Arvo Krikmann (21 July 1939 – 27 February 2017) was an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

n academician, folklorist, linguist, paremiologist, and humour researcher. He may be best known as a

proverb A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phra ...

scholar, “one of the leading paremiologists in the world.” Krikman was born in Pudivere, Lääne-Viru County. He graduated from

Tartu University The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

’s Department of Estonian Philology in 1962. He stayed on there till 1969 as a researcher at the Literary Museum in Tartu. From 1970-1972, he did postgraduate studies there, then went on to work as a researcher at the Institute of Language and Literature, then the Institute of Estonian Language, and finally at the

Estonian Literary Museum The Estonian Literary Museum (ELM; et, Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum), is a national research institute of the Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Estonia. Its mission is to improve the cultural heritage of Estonia, to collect, prese ...

. He was part of the Tartu Paremiology Group, a group of scholar that did major work on not only Estonian proverbs, but cooperated on comparative work with other proverb scholars in the Balto-Finnic area, led by

Matti Kuusi Matti Akseli Kuusi (25 March 1914 in Helsinki – 16 January 1998 in Helsinki) was a Finnish folklorist, paremiographer and paremiologist. He wrote several books and a number of articles on Finnish folklore. He was the first to have introduced ...

. He also worked with Matti Kuusi on the ‘’Proverbia Septentrionalia. 900 Balto-Finnic proverb types with Russian, Baltic, German, and Scandinavian Parallels’’ (1985). Also, he and Ingrid Sarv assembled the five-volume Estonian proverb collection ‘‘Eesti vanasõnad’’ (1980-1988). Krikmann has published many dozen items on proverb study. Since his native Estonia was under Soviet domination for much of his academic life, Krikmann’s access to proverb publications and outside scholars from outside of the Soviet shadow was limited. Academically, he was named “professor extraordinary” at Tartu University in 1992, then in 1997 was named to the

Estonian Academy of Sciences Founded in 1938, the Estonian Academy of Sciences ( et, Eesti Teaduste Akadeemia) is Estonia's national academy of science in Tallinn. As with other national academies, it is an independent group of well-known scientists whose stated aim is to ...

. He was awarded the

Order of the White Star The Order of the White Star ( et, Valgetähe teenetemärk; french: Ordre de l'Etoile Blanche) was instituted in 1936. The Order of the White Star is bestowed on Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic ...

, 3rd degree. In 2004, he was the winner of the Baltic Assembly Prize for Science. He has also been named to multiple boards and committees. Krikmann was honored by the 2014 volume of ''

Proverbium ''Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship'' is an academic journal covering paremiology, the study of proverbs. Each volume includes articles on proverbs and proverbial expressions, book reviews, a bibliography of recent prove ...

'' dedicated to him as a

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

. He was honored by a symposium held in his honor in 2014.http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol59/n01.pdf Online report It was titled “Scala naturae: Symposium in honour of Arvo Krikmann’s 75th birthday” and was held at the

in Tallinn.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krikmann, Arvo 1939 births 2017 deaths Estonian folklorists University of Tartu faculty Members of the Estonian Academy of Sciences Proverb scholars 20th-century Estonian educators 21st-century Estonian educators 20th-century Estonian writers 21st-century Estonian writers Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 3rd Class People from Väike-Maarja Parish