Else Roesdahl (born 26 February 1942) is a Danish archaeologist, historian and educator. She has mediated the history of the Vikings for most of her life, including coordination of notable exhibitions on the Viking Age and authoring several books on the subject. Roesdahl's books have been translated into several languages. [1] [2]
Her popular book The Vikings was first published in English in 1991. [3]
Born in Sønderborg in southern Jutland, Roesdahl is the daughter of two medical doctors, Harald Eyvind Roesdahl and his wife Helene Refslund Thomsen. She and her siblings were brought up in a home where education had a high priority. After matriculating from Sønderborg Statsskole in 1960, she studied history and archaeology at Copenhagen University, graduating in 1969. [2]
In 1970, she joined Aarhus University where she became a tenured lecturer in the newly formed Medieval Archaeology department in 1981 and ultimately a professor in 1996. Her first major work, Fyrkat : en jysk vikingeborg (1977) was on the Viking fortress at Fyrkat near Hobro in the north of Jutland, which she investigated together with Olaf Olsen. She went on to study other Viking fortifications, publishing her best seller Danmarks vikingetid in 1980, translated into English as Viking age Denmark (1982). Even more popular was her Vikingernes verden (1987), [2] published in English as The Vikings in 1991. [3] Roesdahl has also written many articles on the Vikings and the Middle Ages as well as a short book on the disappearance of Norsemen in Greenland titled Hvalrostand, elfenben og nordboere i Grønland (1995). [2]
Roesdahl has also played a major role in coordinating exhibitions on the Vikings, including Vikingerne i England og hjemme i Danmark (The Vikings in England and their Danish homeland, 1981) [4] also featured in York, England, and Viking og Hvidekrist (From Viking to Crusader, 1992) [5] which travelled to Paris and Berlin before returning permanently to Copenhagen's National Museum of Denmark. [2]
Now retired, Roesdahl still takes an active interest in Viking sites, opening the Fyrkat Viking Games in May 2016 and celebrating their 30th anniversary. [6]
In 1988, Roesdahl received the Søren Gyldendal Prize, a literary award, and was later honoured as a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1992. In 1995, she was given an honorary doctorate by Trinity College, Dublin. [2]
Aarhus is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately 187 kilometres (116 mi) northwest of Copenhagen.
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia, who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe. They also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, Greenland, and Vinland. In their countries of origin, and some of the countries they raided and settled in, this period is popularly known as the Viking Age, and the term "Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as a whole. The Vikings had a profound impact on the early medieval history of Scandinavia, the British Isles, France, Estonia, and Kievan Rus'.
Else Alfelt was a Danish artist who specialized in abstract paintings. She was one of two female members of the CoBrA movement. She was married to Carl-Henning Pedersen, another prominent CoBrA member.
Gudfred was a ninth century Danish king who reigned from at least 804 to 810. Alternate spellings include Godfred (Danish), Göttrick (German), Gøtrik (Danish), Gudrød (Danish), and Godofredus (Latin). He stands at the threshold of the History of Denmark in the sense that he is the first ruler about whom there is substantial knowledge from contemporary sources. He waged offensive war against the Carolingian Empire with some success, but was murdered under murky circumstances before a major confrontation had taken place. There is no unambiguous trace of Gudfred in the later Norse sagas, and his history can only be traced from the hostile Frankish texts which makes an assessment of his role problematic. His paternity is unknown but he may have been closely related to Sigfred, who preceded him as king of Denmark c. 770–804. He was the uncle of the later Danish King Hemming (810–812) and the father of King Horik I (813–854).
Higher education in Denmark is offered by a range of universities, university colleges, business academies and specialised institutions. The national higher education system is in accordance with the Bologna Process, with bachelor's degrees, master's degrees and doctoral degrees. The majority of higher education institutions are the responsibility of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science; however, some higher education institutions within the arts are the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture.
The Danes were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting southern Scandinavia, including the area now comprising Denmark proper, northern and eastern England, and the Scanian provinces of modern-day southern Sweden, during the Nordic Iron Age and the Viking Age. They founded what became the Kingdom of Denmark. The name of their realm is believed to mean "Danish March", viz. "the march of the Danes", in Old Norse, referring to their southern border zone between the Eider and Schlei rivers, known as the Danevirke.
Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae was a Danish archaeologist, historian and politician, who was the second director of the National Museum of Denmark (1865–1874). He played a key role in the foundation of scientific archaeology. Worsaae was the first to excavate and use stratigraphy to prove C. J. Thomsen's sequence of the Three-age system: Stone, Bronze, Iron. He was also a pioneer in the development of paleobotany through his excavation work in the peat bogs of Jutland. Worsaae served as Kultus Minister of Denmark for Christen Andreas Fonnesbech from 1874 to 1875.
A Viking ring fortress, Trelleborg-type fortress, or trelleborg, is a type of circular fort of a special design, built in Scandinavia during the Viking Age. These fortresses have a strictly circular shape, with roads and gates pointing in the four cardinal directions. Inside the fort, each quadrant has one, in a single case four, square blocks of longhouses, completing the geometric symmetry. There are a total of five confirmed Viking ring fortresses at present, located in Denmark. They have been dated to the reign of Harold Bluetooth of Denmark, with an estimated near contemporary time of construction c. 980. Their exact historical context is subject to debate. In 2023, the five Danish forts were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List because of their unique architecture and testimony to the military power of the Jelling Dynasty.
The Danevirke or Danework is a system of Danish fortifications in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. This historically important linear defensive earthwork across the neck of the Cimbrian peninsula was initiated by the Danes in the Nordic Iron Age about AD 650. It was later expanded multiple times during Denmark's Viking Age and High Middle Ages. The Danevirke was last used for military purposes in 1864 during the Second War of Schleswig.
Sønderborg Castle is located in the town of Sønderborg, Denmark on the island of Als in South Jutland. It houses a museum focusing on the history and culture of the area. The castle is located in the middle of the town, in a park setting overlooking Als Fjord. The museum is open year-round.
Viking art, also known commonly as Norse art, is a term widely accepted for the art of Scandinavian Norsemen and Viking settlements further afield—particularly in the British Isles and Iceland—during the Viking Age of the 8th-11th centuries. Viking art has many design elements in common with Celtic, Germanic, the later Romanesque and Eastern European art, sharing many influences with each of these traditions.
Fyrkat is a former Viking ring castle in Denmark, dating from c. 980 AD. It is located near the town of Hobro, some distance from the present end of the Mariager Fjord in Northern Jutland. The fortress is built on a narrow piece of land, with a stream on one side and swampy area on the other sides. Likely built during the reign of Harald Gormsson or his son Sweyn Forkbeard, the fortress may have served as barracks or as a defensive stronghold. It would have help to enable control of the traffic on the main land-based trading route between Aalborg and Aarhus. Because of its unique architecture and testimony to the strategic power of the House of Knýtlinga, Fyrkat was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List along with four other Viking ring castles in 2023.
Horik II, also known as Hårik or, in late sources, Erik Barn, was King of the Danes from the fall of Horik I in 854 to an unknown date between 864 and 873. During his reign the Danish kingdom showed tendencies of breaking up. After his demise under unknown circumstances, Denmark entered a long period of obscurity, until the rise of the Jelling dynasty in the 10th century.
Sønderborg is a Danish town in the Region of Southern Denmark. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Sønderborg Municipality (Kommune). The town has a population of 28,137, in a municipality of 74,380. In recent times, Sønderborg is a center for trade, tourism, industry, and education in the region of Southern Denmark. The town is the headquarters for several industrial companies. Sønderburg joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in 2016.
Borgring also known as Vallø Borgring, is a Danish Viking ring fortress located near Køge on the island of Zealand. Likely built around 970 or 980, the fortress may have been built to defend trade routes or as a military barracks. In 2023, along with four other Viking ring fortresses, Borgring was isncribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its unique architecture and testimony to the strategic and military power of the House of Knýtlinga.
Bi Skaarup was a Danish archeologist, author, food historian and lecturer. She was employed at Museum of Copenhagen from 1985 to 2006 as curator, and was responsible for parts of the excavations during the construction of Copenhagen Metro and wrote several articles about the subjects.
Margrethe Hald was a Danish textile historian and curator at the National Museum of Denmark. A major contributor to international textile research, she received a D.Phil. in 1950 for her thesis Olddanske tekstiler.
Vibeke Vasbo is a Danish writer and women's rights and LGBT rights activist. In the early 1970s, she participated in the Redstocking movement and in the Danish Lesbian Movement. She embarked on a literary career in 1976 with Al den løgn om kvinders svaghed expanding on the work of a woman crane driver, based on her experiences in Oslo in 1974-75.
Elisabeth Munksgaard was a Danish historian and from 1962 until retiring in 1990, the assistant Keeper in the Department of the Prehistory of Denmark at the National Museum of Denmark.} She was "Denmark's acknowledged expert" on art from the late Iron Age and Viking Age.
Karen Margrete Svensson (1908–1998) was a Danish illustrator who contributed drawings to Danish newspapers and magazines, especially Politiken. Her illustrated books include those by Lise Nørgaard and Johannes Møllehave. Svensson also created posters for Copenhagen's Tivoli and designed decorative plates and spoons for Royal Copenhagen.
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