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Olof von Feilitzen (31 August 1908 – 29 June 1976) was a Swedish
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
who specialised in
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
names.
Career
Olof von Feilitzen was born on 31 August 1908 and studied at the
University of Uppsala
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
The university rose to significance during ...
, where he taught as a
docent
The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...
in the English Department. He became a member of Professor
R. E. Zachrisson's seminar and became a specialist in English
onomastics
Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An ''orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study.
Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, w ...
. In 1937, he was awarded a
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
for his thesis "The
Pre-Conquest Personal Names
A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known, ...
of
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
". He served as Treasurer of the
Ortnamnssällskapet i Uppsala lace Name Society of Uppsala">Uppsala.html" ;"title="lace Name Society of Uppsala">lace Name Society of Uppsalafrom 1937 to 1938, when he became a librarian in Gothenburg">Gothenborg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
. He also worked in various positions or as a consultant to the Library of Congress, Yale University Library and the Sainte-Geneviève Library, Bibliotheque Sainte-Geneviève. He joined the department of acquisitions at the Royal Library, Stockholm, Royal Library in Stockholm and worked there as its Head for over twenty years before retiring in 1974. He died suddenly on 29 June 1976.
[Kenneth Cameron, "Obituary: Dr Olof von Feilitzen: Distinguished Swedish philologist", '']The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'', 27 July 1976, p. 14. At the time of his death, von Feilitzen had been working on a complete Old English Onomasticon, and the
University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...
had invited him to take up a special professorship while he worked on the project (he declined the offer for personal and health reasons).
Professor
Kenneth Cameron wrote in an obituary for ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' that von Feilitzen "won great acclaim and affection for his outstanding work in the field of early English personal names. His doctoral thesis ... was received by both philologists and medieval historians as the most important study of its kind to date, and it is a tribute to
isscholarship that it is still today one of our most valuable reference books".
He was an honorary vice-president of the
English Place-Name Society
The English Place-Name Society (EPNS) is a learned society concerned with toponomastics and the toponymy of England, in other words, the study of place-names (toponyms).
Its scholars aim to explain the origin and history of the names they stu ...
, of which he was also an honorary council member;
in 1973, he was the dedicatee of 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 ...
, ''Otium et Negotium''.
[Folke Sandgren (ed.), ''Otium et Negotium: Studies in Onomatology and Library Science Presented to Olof von Feilitzen'', Acta Bibliothecae Stockhomiensis, no. 16 (Stockholm, 1973).]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feilitzen, Olof von
1908 births
1976 deaths
Swedish philologists
20th-century philologists