Oskar Loorits ( – 12 December 1961) 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 ...

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

.Felix J. Oinas, ''Loorits, Oskar'', Encyclopedia of the fairy tale Vol 8 (1996), pages 1193-1195.

Life

Loorits was born in Suure-Kõpu Parish,

Viljandi County Viljandi County ( et, Viljandi maakond or ''Viljandimaa''; german: Kreis Fellin) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is located in southern Estonia bordering Pärnu, Järva, Jõgeva, Tartu and Valga counties. History Viljandimaa, under the ...

. He initially studied folklore at the

University of Tartu 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 ...

and obtained his doctorate in 1926. Between 1927 and 1941, he was a lecturer in Estonian and Comparative Folklore. Also during that period he was a director of the Estonian Folklore Archives. In 1938 he became a member of 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 ...

. In 1944, he fled the

Soviet occupation During World War II, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed several countries effectively handed over by Nazi Germany in the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. These included the eastern regions of Poland (incorporated into two different ...

to Sweden and worked there until 1947 as an archive assistant. From then until shortly before his death he held a position in the folk archives of 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 ...

. He died in

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 ...

, aged 61.

Works

* Livonian fairy tales and fables variants. Helsingfors 1926 (Folklore Fellows' Communications Vol 21, 1 = No. 66). * Estonian folk poetry and mythology. Tartu 1932.

References

1900 births 1961 deaths People from Põhja-Sakala Parish People from the Governorate of Livonia Estonian folklorists University of Tartu alumni Members of the Estonian Academy of Sciences Estonian World War II refugees Estonian emigrants to Sweden Estonian military personnel of the Estonian War of Independence Burials at Raadi cemetery {{estonia-writer-stub