Reimund Kvideland was born on 28 January 1935 in Hojland in a district of western Norway characterised by strong religiosity, and he was the first in his family to follow an academic career. From 1957 to 1964 he studied Nordic philology and literature, history and folkloristics in Oslo, Copenhagen and Frankfurt am Main. title of his unpublished dissertation in folkloristics submitted for a Master's degree in 1964 was Eventyrforteljeren og forteljemiljo (The Storyteller and Storytelling Milieu). It was his teacher in Oslo, Svale Solheim, who spurred him on to undertake folktale research that focused on the tradition bearers and their and milieu. Above all, the inspiration came from works in German by Otto Brinkmann, Gottfried Henssen and Linda Degh. orientation towards context and function was to mark Reimund Kvideland's work throughout his career as a folklorist. Remund Kvideland's name became well known in the folklore world because of his eminent talents as an organiser of international folklore cooperation and as an editor of folklore texts. His own scholarly production should not be forgotten, however; this consists mostly of articles, introductions and reviews, as he never published a magnum opus. After his student years, Reimund Kvideland was appointed to the University of Bergen with the task of creating a folklore programme, which did not then exist there. He devoted his considerable energy to carrying out this mission and he was, indeed, successful. From a modest beginning he created--together with his colleagues Brynjulf and Bente Alver, later on--one of the most important centres for folklore studies in Scandinavia. Its international reputation reached a peak in 1984, when he and his colleagues arranged the 8th International Society for Folk Narrative Research Congress in Bergen, where many important papers were presented in a friendly, relaxed environment. Reimund Kvideland also showed his capacity as a swift editor on that occasion--together with Torunn Selberg, he published all the congress papers in four volumes within one year. two first volumes were actually presented to the participants while the congress was still in progress. In 1991, Kvideland succeeded Lauri Honko as Director of the Nordic Institute of Folklore, based in Turku, Finland. During his directorate he made contacts with scholars in India and China and--closer to home--in the Baltic states, which had gained independence consequent on the breakdown of the Soviet Union. He remained in his position in Nordic Institute of Folklore until Nordic politicians took the unfortunate decision to close the Institute down in 1997. He then returned to Bergen where he was appointed professor in 1999. Reimund Kvideland loved to travel and to meet colleagues. extensive scholarly network that he built up, and his good reputation as a scholar, meant that he was well-suited to central positions in international folklore cooperation activities. He was elected President of Societe Internationale d'Ethnologie et de Folklore for the period 1987-90, and he was President of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research from 1989 to 1998. He was also a man of extensive reading, which is reflected in his own scholarly production. Here I must confine myself to his special interests: folktales, folk song, children's lore, folk religiosity, and research history. His most important contribution, perhaps, to folktale theory was his article The Study of Folktale Repertoires, published in Telling Reality. Folklore Studies in Memory of Bengt Holbek (1993). Here Kvideland shows that the term repertoire is not as unproblematic as it may seem. article exemplifies Kvideland's best qualities as a scholar: even if his voice is low, he shows a stubborn will to analyse the concept in its whole complexity. storyteller who interested him most was a poor landless labourer named Olav Eividson Austad, who has been called Norway's last great storyteller. …