Anna "Anta" Birgitta Rooth (15 May 1919 ? 5 June 2000) was the first Swedish professor of ethnology at Uppsala University . She is known for her research into folklore, especially the Cinderella story.

Early life and education [ edit ]

Anna Birgitta Rooth was born on 15 May 1919, in Angelholm , Sweden, to Hildegard Sofia Helena and Nore Valfrid Waldermarson. She had two brothers, Bertil and Bo Waldemarson. ^[2] Rooth enjoyed reading as a child and at 19, gained a school-leaving certificate at Lunds privata elementarskola, allowing her to attend Lund University the same year. ^[2]

Starting in 1938, she studied art history at Lund University. She began pursuing folkloric research and served as editor and secretary to Carl Wilhelm von Sydow , who headed folkloric research at Lund. Working as an archival assistant, Rooth began a research project which later culminated into her thesis which she defended in 1951 under the direction of Carl Wilhelm von Sydow. ^{[3] [2]} Her doctoral dissertation, The Cinderella Cycle , continues to be a required reading in folklore studies. ^{[3] [4]}

Career [ edit ]

During the 1960s and 1970s, she published many more books on folklore such as Folklig Diktning. Form och teknik ("Folk Poetry: Form and Technique"), ^[3] The Raven and the Carcass , ^[5] and Loki in Scandinavian mythology . ^[6] She also spent some time in Alaska and produced two works based on her field study of the Athabascan tribe and Inuit peoples . ^[7]

In 1973, she became full professor of ethnology at Uppsala University, ^[8] a position she held until 1985. ^[9]

Awards and honors [ edit ]

She was awarded the Pitre Prize for her work. ^{[9] [10] [ when? ]}

Selected publications [ edit ]

• Rooth, Anna Birgitta (1957). "The Creation Myths of the North American Indians" . Anthropos . 52 (3/4): 497?508. ISSN   0257-9774 . JSTOR   40454080 .
• Rooth, Anna Birgitta (1961). Loki in Scandinavian mythology (in Swedish). Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup. OCLC   786246305 .
• Rooth, Anna Birgitta (1962). The raven and the carcass; an investigation of a motif in the deluge myth in Europe, Asia, and North America . Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia. OCLC   963926 .
• Rooth, Anna Birgitta (1976). Folklig diktning: form och teknik (in Swedish). Lund: Studentlitt. ISBN   978-91-44-06001-9 . OCLC   185708957 .
• Rooth, Anna Birgitta (1976). The importance of storytelling : a study based on field work in northern Alaska . Uppsala: Univ. ISBN   91-554-0430-8 . OCLC   3033170 .

Personal life [ edit ]

In 1942, Rooth met Gosta Rooth in an art history course when he was a medical student. They had three children together, Birgitta, Helena and Ivar Rooth. ^[11]

References [ edit ]

Further reading [ edit ]

• Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon