11 Facts About Knut Stjerna

Knut Martin Stjerna was a Swedish archaeologist and scholar.

Knut Stjerna is notable for a number of papers analyzing Beowulf from an archaeological perspective.

Knut Stjerna was a lecturer at Uppsala University, where he taught, among others, Birger Nerman and Sune Lindqvist.

Knut Stjerna was born on 14 March 1874 in Malmo, Sweden, to Johan Stjerna and Matilda Johanna Gronlund.

Knut Stjerna studied at Lund University under Henrik Schuck, focusing on the history of art and literature, and in 1898 published his first major independent work, Erik den helige: en sagohistorisk studie.

The death of his father forced Stjerna to find employment at the newspaper Sydsvenskan to support his family, while continuing his studies at the university.

Knut Stjerna switched however to studying archaeology, in part because of the resistance he was met with for his "hypercritical" method of analysing legendary stories.

Knut Stjerna began teaching at Uppsala University in 1906, sharing responsibilities with Oscar Almgren, and took on a full-time position as lecturer in Scandinavian and Comparative Archaeology in 1907.

Between 1903 and 1908 Knut Stjerna published a number of articles about the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf.

Knut Stjerna's articles were credited with "providing a most welcome addition to the critical apparatus of the poem", by supplementing the meagre historical record with observations gleaned from archaeological research.

Knut Stjerna published at least 23 works, several posthumous, between 1898 and 1911.