François-Xavier Dillmann (born 27 November 1949) is a French philologist who specializes in Old Norse studies.

Biography

François-Xavier Dillmann was born on 27 November 1949. Dillmann studied at the universities of

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

Germanic studies Germanic philology is the philological study of the Germanic languages, particularly from a comparative or historical perspective. The beginnings of research into the Germanic languages began in the 16th century, with the discovery of literary tex ...

at Caen in 1976 with a thesis on

runes Runes are the letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, a ...

Old Norse literature Old Norse literature refers to the vernacular literature of the Scandinavian peoples up to c. 1350. It chiefly consists of Icelandic writings. In Britain From the 8th to the 15th centuries, Vikings and Norse settlers and their descendants colon ...

, and another Ph.D. in Scandinavian philology in 1986 with a thesis 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 peop ...

. His supervisor was . Since 1988, Dillmann has been Chair of the History and Philology of Ancient and Medieval Scandinavia at 4th Section (History and Philology) at the

École pratique des hautes études The École pratique des hautes études (), abbreviated EPHE, is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is highly selective, and counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions. It is a constituent college o ...

. Dillmann is strongly influenced by the research of

Georges Dumézil Georges Edmond Raoul Dumézil (4 March 189811 October 1986) was a French philologist, linguist, and religious studies scholar who specialized in comparative linguistics and mythology. He was a professor at Istanbul University, École pratique d ...

. He is the founder and President of the Société des études nordiques, and editor of its journal . He is a member of a large number of learned societies, such as 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 ...

Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities also called simply the Royal Academy of Letters or Vitterhetsakademin abbreviated KVHAA ( sv, Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien Historie och Antikvitets Akademien or or ) is the Swedish royal ...

, the

Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters ( da, Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab, DKNVS) is a Norwegian learned society based in Trondheim. It was founded in 1760 and is Norway's oldest scientific and scholarly institution. The s ...

, the

Royal Society of the Humanities at Uppsala The Royal Society of the Humanities at Uppsala ( sv, Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala) is a Swedish Royal academy for the study of the humanities. Founding The society was founded in 1889 by a donation from tannery factory owner ...

, the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Univer ...

, the

Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala The Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskaps-Societeten i Uppsala), is the oldest of the royal academies in Sweden, having been founded in 1710. The society has, by royal decree of 1906, 50 Swedish fellows and 100 foreign. ...

, and a corresponding member of the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions ( epig ...

. Dillmann was written a number of works on

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

history and culture, Old Norse religion and literature, and runes.

Selected works

* Snorri Sturluson, ''L’Edda. Récits de mythologie nordique''. Traduit du vieil islandais, introduit et annoté par François-Xavier Dillmann, Paris, Gallimard (L’aube des peuples), 1991, 233 p. * ''Histoire des rois de Norvège (Heimskringla)'' par Snorri Sturluson. Première partie : ''Des origines mythiques de la dynastie à la bataille de Svold''. Traduit du vieil islandais, introduit et annoté par François-Xavier Dillmann, Paris, Gallimard (L’aube des peuples), 2000, 706 p. et ouvrage a été couronné par l’Académie royale Gustave Adolphe en novembre 2000.* ''Les magiciens dans l’Islande ancienne. Études sur la représentation de la magie islandaise et de ses agents dans les sources littéraires norroises'', Upsal, Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien för svenk folkkultur (Acta Academiae Regiae Gustavi Adolphi, XCII), 2006, XVIII – 779 p.

Sources

* 1949 births French philologists Germanic studies scholars Living people Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Members of the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy Old Norse studies scholars Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters Runologists Writers on Germanic paganism {{France-linguist-stub

Biography

Selected works

See also

Sources