Magne Skodvin was a Norwegian educator and historian.

Skodvin was born in Ullensvang

Ullensvang

Ullensvang is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Hardanger. The administrative centre is the village of Kinsarvik....

, Hordaland

Hordaland

is a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark and Rogaland. Hordaland is the third largest county after Akershus and Oslo by population. The county administration is located in Bergen...

. He was the son of Anders Skodvin (1884–1938) and Karen Marie Haaland (1884–1958). He was married in 1943 to Eva These Tobiesen.

Skodvin attended the Hardanger

Hardanger

Hardanger is a traditional district in the western part of Norway, dominated by the Hardangerfjord. It consists of the municipalities of Odda, Ullensvang, Eidfjord, Ulvik, Granvin, Kvam and Jondal, and is located inside the county of Hordaland....

 folkehøgskole from 1930–31. In 1935, he took his final exams from Voss

Voss

is a municipality in Hordaland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Voss. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen....

 landsgymnas. He graduated with a cand.philol. degree in 1946, and took his doctorate in 1956 with the paper Striden om okkupasjonsstyret i Norge.

Skodvin work as a university teacher, as professor of history, first at the teacher's college in Trondheim

Trondheim

Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...

, and from 1961 at the University of Oslo. He worked as a professor in history at the University of Oslo

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

 until 1983.

He was the chairman of Noregs Mållag

Noregs Mållag

Noregs Mållag is the main organisation for Norwegian Nynorsk , one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language. In the Norwegian language struggle, it advocates the use of Nynorsk...

 from 1958 to 1960, and editor of Syn og Segn

Syn og Segn

Syn og Segn is a Norwegian cultural and political magazine. It was founded in 1894, and Rasmus Flo and Arne Garborg were the magazine's first editors....

from 1951 to 1959. He was a member of the Royal Norwegian Society from 1957 and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway.-History:The University of Oslo was established in 1811. The idea of a learned society in Christiania surfaced for the first time in 1841. The city of Throndhjem had no university, but had a learned...

 from 1958. Skodvin was appointed a Knight 1st Class of the Order of St. Olav in 1988.