Jan Erik is associate professor of Irish at The Department of Linguistics, University of Oslo. He studied Celtic languages under professor Oftedal and professor Borgstrøm at the university of Oslo, continued studying Old- and Medieval Irish with prof. Gearóid Mac Eoin, University College Galway in 1976. He has a BA in Welsh and Irish and Norwegian, and a MA in Gaelic (Irish- and Scottish-). His PhD (dr. philos.) is on a sixteenth-century Irish text (a Life of Colum Cille (Columba).

His interests of research are in two different fields:
Irish (and Welsh) hagiography and medieval literature
Crosscultural contacts between Norse and Gael in Scotland (mainly the Hebrides).
At present he is engaged in an interdisciplinary project on crosscultural contacts between Norse and Gael on the isle of Tiree, in collaboration with Aberdeen University. In this project Jan Erik is looking into early Christian influences on the Norse settlements in the area.

Some selected works:
Irish (and Welsh) hagiography and medieval literature
1990: 'Interaction of pagan and Christian traditions in mediaeval Irish narratives' Collegium Medievale 3, 5-18
1991: 'The Irish Ideal of Pilgrimage'
i Härdelin A. (ed.) In Quest of the Kingdom - Ten Papers on Medieval Monastic Spirituality Bibliotheca Theologiae Practicae 48, 9-26. Stockholm
1995: 'From Profile to Face: An analysis of the portrayal of Colum Cille in his sixteenth-century Life by Maghnus Ó Domhnaill - Betha Coluimb Chille'
Doctoral thesis, University of Oslo, The Faculty of Arts, 1995
Crosscultural contacts between Norse and Gael in Scotland
1997: 'Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene'
Rindal, M. (ed.) Selja - heilag stad i 1000 år, 102-122
1998: 'Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales'
H.B. Clarke, M. Ní Mhaonaigh & R. Ó Floinn (eds.)Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, 277-287. Four Courts Press, Dublin.

Bjørn is a Professor Emeritus at the Institute for British and American Studies at the University of Oslo. He was a Professor from 1985 to 2002. Previously he was a lecturer at Oslo, and briefly at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. One of his main research interests over the years has been James Joyce. "Joyce and Ibsen" was published in 1968.

Bjørn has also written and lectured on Irish poetry, not least W. B. Yeats and Semuas Heaney. Bjørn has also written on Norwegian literature, and takes a special interest in cross-currents between Norwegian and English-language literatures.

His latest contribution to literature in a long and distinguished academic career is his book on "James Joyce, his life and writings". The book is the first biography on Joyce written in Norwegian. Joyce would probably have approved; he taught himself Norwegian in order to study the works of Henrik Ibsen in the original language. Joyce considered Ibsen to be superior to Shakespear as a dramatist. Bjørn's career has spanned more than forty years, and his study of the works of James Joyce has been ongoing throughout. Like all Joyce fans Bjørn has walked in his footsteps in Dublin (and in Galway).

Literary Sinews
Bjørn himself has been honoured by a book. This book seeks to honour Professor Bjørn Tysdahl’s contribution to literary studies in particular, and, more generally, to the academic communities of several countries. It does so by presenting a collection of articles which add to the understanding of some of the texts, authors, periods and topics that have appeared in Tysdahl’s own writing during the course of his long professional career – still continuing after more than forty years.