Magnùs Einarsson, (Folklorist)

Abstract

Pauline Greenhill, University of Winnipeg On January 11, 1999, friends and colleagues gathered at the Canadian Museum of Civilisation (CMC) in Hull, Quebec to honour and enjoy our memories of Magnus Einarsson. Magnus had worked at the Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies (CCFCS), the folklore division of CMC, since 1969. He had taken early retirement from his position just over a year before his death on December 7, 1998, at age 57, of Wegener's granulomatosis, an extremely rare autoimmune disease. In keeping with Magnus' wishes, the CMC gathering was quite informal; we talked about Magnus' importance to us as a scholar, mentor, and intellectual gadfly. Magnus was born in Iceland, and was raised by his grandparents until the age of ten. He spent his youth in the United States and Italy with his aunt and her American husband who adopted him so that he could stay in the U.S. He completed an M.A. in Folklore at Indiana University, under the supervision of Linda Degh. Shortly after the conclusion of his doctoral research there, where he had also served as Folklore Institute archivist and designed its legend index, Magnus was invited to join the CMC (then National Museum of Man) staff by Carmen Roy, successor to Marius Barbeau. There, Magnus divided his attention between the recording of Icelandic-Canadian folklore and collecting, researching, and curating the Museum's first permanent (1977-1987) exhibit of Canadian folklife and ethnology, Heritage, as well as compiling and publishing a book of photographs, Everyman's Heritage: An Album of Canadian Folk Life (Ottawa: National Museum of Man, 1978), reflecting the exhibit's themes. He was also a significant collaborator in the exhibition and book From the Heart: Folk in Canada (Toronto/Ottawa: McClelland and Stewart/National Museum of Man, 1983), the first all-Canada exhibition of art, which was displayed in museums across the country In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Magnus recorded the life histories and documented the repertoires of immigrant artists, and began work on his three volume magnum opus of Western Icelandic traditions: Icelandic-Canadian Oral Literature (Ottawa, CCFCS Mercury Series #63, CMC, 1991), Icelandic-Canadian Memory Lore (CCFCS Mercury Series #64, CMC, 1992), and Icelandic-Canadian Popular Verse (CCFCS Mercury Series #65, CMC, 1994). At the new CMC facility, he planned and executed three exhibits, including Just For Nice: German-Canadian Folk Art (with Helga Benndorf Taylor, Hull, CMC, 1993). Magnus was critical of CMC's rigid dichotomisation of folk and ethnic culture (the responsibility of CCFCS) from the cultures of Canada's French and English founding peoples (the responsibility of the History division) and aboriginal peoples (the responsibility of Ethnology). One internal memo by Magnus states: We are in the business of recording/studying the cultures of various communities (ethnic, religious, regional, Canadian occupational, social organisations, etc.). Our primary interest is in expressive and symbolically charged communication. …