Just Knud Qvigstad

Just Knud Qvigstad (born April 4, 1853 in Lyngseidet , † March 15, 1957 in Tromsø ) was a Norwegian philologist and politician . Qvigstad, who was the rector of the Tromsø University of Education , was linguistically effective as a folklorist , but above all as an important explorer of the Sami languages . On a political level, he was Norway's Minister of Education and Churches from 1910 to 1912.

More remarkable than his long life span - he died just under three weeks before his 104th birthday - was Qvigstad's extraordinarily extensive working life . His first scientific publication appeared in 1881, his last, om samiske kjærlighetsfortellinger (Sami love stories), printed 72 years later, in 1953.

Education and career

His parents were the district doctor Engebret Qvigstad (1814-1869) and his wife Edel Petrine ("Petra") Krogh Wadel (1828-1905). On August 4, 1885, in Hammerfest, he married Margrethe ("Margit") Antonette Aagaard (October 3, 1859– September 29, 1949), daughter of the merchant Bernhard Martin Aagaard (1812–1870) and his wife Marie Malene Noodt (1822–1884 ).

At the age of ten he started at the Latin school in Tromsø. At the age of 16 he passed the Artium exam and enrolled in 1869 to study philology at the Royal Friedrichs University in Kristiania . A year later he passed the “Annenexamen”. He completed two state exams. First he obtained the cand. Phil. for philology with the subjects old Norwegian, Greek, Latin, philosophy, history and literary history, then in 1881 the cand. theol. While still studying theology , he taught from 1874 to 1878 at the Real and Latin School in Kristiania and Tromsø and from 1878 Sami languages at the Tromsø seminarium .

His first study trip took him to Kautokeino in 1878 , but he had to postpone this scientific commitment for a long time because of his teaching activities and his political functions. In 1883 he took over the management of the teachers' college in Tromsø. When the seminary was renamed Tromsø Lærerskole in 1902 , the name of its function changed from head to rector. Qvigstad held several municipal offices and was responsible for some public areas. Among other things, he was a member of the Høyre City Council from 1899 to 1907 and Tromsø City Councilor in 1899, 1903 and 1907. From 1910 to 1912 he was Minister of Education and Churches in Norway.

In 1920, Qvigstad received a state scholarship that released him from his position as Rector of Lærerskole with full wages in order to devote himself to his studies of Sami culture and history and also to his linguistic research in Finnish , Kven ( Finno-Ugric language in Finnmark ) and Sami to pursue further. His research on word and expression resulted in a large collection of texts. He obtained a large part of his material from a network of teacher contacts in the northern Fylken , who sent him legends and answered his questions about ethnomedicine and popular belief . One of Qvigstad's busiest employees was the teacher Ole Andreas Thomassen from Porsanger , who made particularly valuable contributions to his research.

In his role as head of the Sami department in the Tromsø Museum , which he held until 1931, he collected around 2,300 stories and expanded the library's holdings to a remarkable 2,000 volumes.

With the establishment of the Institute for Comparative Cultural Research, Qvigstad received the Sami department. He was also a board member in Det norske samemisjonsselskapet (Society for Sami Mission). In the Tromsø Museum he was on the board from 1884 to 1934. In 1943 the Qvigstads Gold Medal was donated. This is awarded every five years for special services to semen research. In addition, Qvigstad was elected to the Norwegian Academy of Sciences in Kristiania in 1886 and in the Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab in Trondheim in 1894 .

The Qvigstad-auditoriet at Tromsø University was named after him in 2003 on the occasion of his 150th birthday.

Works (selection)

Contributions to the comparison of the related word stock of the Lappish and Finnish languages . Finnish Literature Society printing house. Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae 12, 1881.
(Together with G. Sandberg): Lappiske Eventyr og Folkesagn . With an introduction by Moltke Moe . Kristiania 1887.
Lappish speech samples / recorded by J. Qvigstad and G. Sandberg. Helsingissä: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran kirjapainossa , Suomalais-ugrilaisen Seuran Aikakauskirja 3rd 1888
Nordic loanwords in Lappish. Christiania Videnskabs-Selskabs forhandlinger, 1893.
Lappish superstition . Etnografisk Museum. Kristiania 1920.
Norske Gaardsnavne, Finnmark . Vol. 24. Kristiania 1924.
Lappish fairy tales and legends . FF Communications No. 60. Helsinki 1925.
Lappiske eventyr og sagn I-IV . Instituttet for sammenlignende Kulturforskning . Oslo 1927-29.
Lappish medicine . Oslo 1932.
De lappiske stedsnavn i Finnmark og Nordland fylker . Instituttet for sammenlignende Kulturforskning. H. Aschehoug & Co (W. Nygaard). Oslo 1938.
De lappiske appellative stedsnavn . Instituttet for sammenlignende Kulturforskning. H. Aschehoug & Co (W. Nygaard). Oslo 1944.

Literature on Just Knud Qvigstad

Einar Niemi: Just Qvigstad . In: Norsk biografis leksikon , accessed on April 25, 2010.
Festival letter to Rector J. Qvigstad. Trømso Museum, Tromsø 1928 ( Tromsø Museums Skrifter 2, ZDB -ID 437918-4 ).
Kristian Nissen in: Studia Septentrionalia. 5, 1953, ZDB -ID 1010141-x .
Asbjørn Nesheim: JK Qvigstad (1853–1957). In: Dag Strömbäck (Ed.): Leading Folklorists of the North. Biographical Studies. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo 1971, pp. 323–338.

Web links

Literature by and about Just Knud Qvigstad in the catalog of the German National Library

Remarks

↑ The "Examen artium" was the regular entrance examination for university, which required knowledge of Latin and Greek. So it corresponded to the Abitur, but was accepted by the university until 1883.
↑ The "Annenexamen" was an Examen philosophicum, an intermediate examination, the passing of which was a prerequisite for further studies for a state examination.

personal data
SURNAME	Qvigstad, Just Knud
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Norwegian philologist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH	April 4, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lyngseidet
DATE OF DEATH	March 15, 1957
Place of death	Tromso

[Erl_1-1] The "Examen artium" was the regular entrance examination for university, which required knowledge of Latin and Greek. So it corresponded to the Abitur, but was accepted by the university until 1883.

[Erl_2-2] The "Annenexamen" was an Examen philosophicum, an intermediate examination, the passing of which was a prerequisite for further studies for a state examination.