Bo Almqvist

Bo Gunnar Almqvist (5 May 1931 – 9 November 2013) was a Swedish academic and folklorist.

Early life Bo Gunnar Almqvist was born on 5 May 1931 in Edsgatan, a small community in Alster, a farming district in the province of Värmland, Sweden, an area noted for its old customs and traditions. He was the youngest child, born eleven years after his siblings, in the family of two sons and three daughters of Oskar Almqvist, a 'landfiskal', effectively the police superintendent of the rural area, and Hulda Almqvist (née Rydberg). Oskar Almqvist died when Bo was fourteen and mother and son moved to the town of Karlstad, where he attended Karlstad Läroverk, the local secondary school. Hulda Almqvist worked for a time in her family's hat making business. She had a remarkable repertoire of traditional proverbs to be used on any occasion, and her knowledge of folklife crafts and calendar customs deepened her son's interest in the folkways and oral culture of his native region.

Relevant literature Obituary, The Irish Times, 16 November 2013. Terry Gunnell, 'In Memoriam: Bo Almqvist (1931-2013)', Folklore 125 (August 2014), 258–61. Anne Markey and Anne O'Connor (eds). Folklore and Modern Irish Writing. Sallins, Co. Kildare, Ireland : Irish Academic Press. 2014. Fionnuala Carson Williams. In Memoriam: Tribute to Professor Bo Almqvist. Proceedings of the Seventh Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Proverbs, November 2013, at Tavira, Portugal, ed. by Rui J. B. Soares and Outi Lauhakangas, pp. 483–484. Tavira: Tipografia Tavirense. 2014. Séamas Ó Catháin. 'Bo Almqvist 1931-2013' Fabula Vol. 55 Issue 3/4 (2014), 318–21. Klintberg, Bengt af. 2016. Bo Almquist, obituary. ARV Nordic yearbook of Folklore Vol. 70, Special issue: Magic and Texts 167–170.