WIKANDER, Oscar Stig. Norrtälje 27.8.1908 — Uppsala 20.12.1983. Swedish Indo-Iranian Scholar. Professor in Uppsala. Son of Åke Magnus W., a pharmacist with classical education and literary activity, and Gerda Holmberg, educated in Uppsala. Studies in 1925-38 at Uppsala, of classics, Semitic (Zetterstéen), Iranian (Nyberg) and Indology (Charpentier), then alsoat Copenhagen under Christensen, and at Paris and Berlin. Degrees at Uppsala: 1927 phil.mag. in classics, 1937 phil.lic., 1938 phil.dr. with the very first dissertation on Iranian topic in Sweden. In 1938-39 Lecturer in Swedish language at Munich. PD 1941 Lund, in Iranian Languages. From 1953 Professor i sanskrit med jämförande indoeuropeisk språkforskning at Uppsala, retired in 1974. Visiting Professor at Columbia University in N.Y. in 1959-60, at Colegio de México 1966-67 and at University of Chicago in 1967. Married 1937 Gunnel Tellervo Heikel (1911–1970), a nurse of Finnish origin, three daughters.
When in Germany, Wikander admired the Nazi Germanist Otto Höfler, but detested the enthusiasm of young Nazis (Timuş). Soon the cold reception of his Männerbund and the war taught him more caution and criticism. Nevertheless, he shared some of their ideasand according to Schlerath’s autobiography (198f.) he still had Nazi sympathies in the 1960s. Among his students were G. Gren-Eklund, F. Josephson and Bo Utas. He was a friend of Eliade and Dumézil.
Publications: Diss. Der arische Männerbund. 8+111 p. Lund 1938.
– Vāyu: Texte und Untersuchungen zur indo-iranischen Religionsgeschichte. 1. Texten. 18+218 p. Uppsala & Leipzig 1941.
– “Gudinnan Anahita och den zoroastiska eldskulten Religion och Bibel”, 1, Uppsala 1942, 26-??.
– Feuerpriesten in Kleinasien und Iran. 12+244 p. Acta Regia Societatis humaniorum litterarum Lundensis 40. Lund 1946; Études sur les mystères de Mithras. 1. Introduction. 46 p. Vetesk.soc. i Lund Årsskrift 1950.
– “Sur les fonds communs indo-iraniens des épopées de la Perse et de l’Inde”, La Nouvelle Clio 1-2, 1949-50, 310-329.
– Recueil de textes kourmandji. 108 p. Uppsala Univ. Årsskrift 1959:10.
– Articles on Iranian, Armenian, and Indology, especially on the Mahābhārata, e.g. “Pāṇḍavasagan och Mahābhāratas mystiska förutsättningar”, Religion och Bibel 6, 1947, 27-39 (French version in Dumézil’s Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus 4, 37-53); “Sur le fonds commun indo-iranien des épopées de la Perse et de l’Inde”, La nouvelle Clio 1-2, 1949, 310-329; “Nakula et Sahadeva”, Or. Suec. 6, 1957, 66-96; “Från Bråvalla till Kurukshetra”, Arkiv för Nordisk filologi 75, 1959?, 183-193; “Tansarnāmeh och Mahābhārata”, AO 30, 1966, 213-217; “A Central Asian Loanword in Arthaśāstra”, Kuiper Vol. 1968, 270-274; “Epopée et mythologie”, RHR 185, 1974, 3-8.
– “Från indisk djurfabel till isländsk saga”, Vetesk.soc. i Lund Årsskrift 1964, 98-114.
– Articles on Armenian, Hittite, etc., also on Maya language and the Swedish poet Stagnelius.
– Araber, vikingar, väringar. 103 p. Svenska humanistiska förbundet 90. Lund 1978.
Sources: Bio-bibliogr. de 134 savants. 1979, 548f.; Uppsala Univ. Matrikel 1951–1960, with bibliography; Vem är Vem & Vem är det; *Stefan Arvidsson, “Stig Wikander och forskningen om ariska mannaförbund”, Chaos 38, 2002, 55-68; *Stig Y. Rudberg, “Stig Wikander”, Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund, Årsbok 1986, 167-170; M. Timuş, “Quand l’Allemand était leur Mecque. La science der religions chez St.W. (1935-1941)”, Junginger (ed.), The Study of Religion under the Impact of Fascism. Numen Book Series 117. Leiden 2008, 205-228; Bo Utas, Encyclop. Iranica 2009; *annotated bibliography by M. Timuş in Studia Asiatica 1, 2000, 209-234; Wikipedia; photo in S. Kahle, H.S. Nyberg. 1991.
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