The three seasons she spent there deeply influenced her development as an archaeologist and scholar. Although she studied in Copenhagen, she returned to Jutl and with her husband, Erich Lange, in 1970, and soon became firmly established in Aarhus University.Īs a student (and later as a postgraduate) she took par t in P.V.

This was the foundation of a friendship which spans her professional career.Įlse was born on Als and her sense of history and her fierce in dependence is based in the background of her family, which was deeply involved in the politics of Sønderjylland after 1864. L first met Else Roesdahl in 1969, when, newly graduated, she was working as an assistant in the National Museum. She was married to an economist, has a son, and likes to sit in the garden with family and friends.Else Roesdahl Resumé Else Roesdahl reaches 60 In 1988 she was awarded the Soren Gyldendal Prize for the Danish edition of The Vikings. She was the Academic Coordinator of the XXIInd Council of Europe exhibition From Viking to Crusader: Scandanavia and Europe, 800-1200, shown in Paris, Berlin, and Copenhagen, for which she also edited the catalog. Roesdahl was a consultant for the 1981-1982 joint British-Danish exhbition The Vikings in England and co-editor of the catalogue, and she has also written The Viking Age of Denmark, a full accout of the Vikings in her own country. She is a Knight 1st Class of the Order of the Dannebrog. She has traveled and lectured across most of the Vikings' world and has taken part in many excavations in Denmark and elsewhere. She was special Professor in Viking Studues at the University of Nottingham from 1989 to 1997 and again from 2000 to 2003.

About the Author: Else Roesdahl is Professor Emerita in Medieval Archaeology at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and an honorary doctor of Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of York. The result is a rich and compelling picture of an extraordinary civilization. This encyclopedic study brings together the latest research on Viking art, burial customs, class divisions, jewelry, kingship, poetry, and family life. Far from being just wild, barbaric, axe-wielding pirates, the Vikings created complex social institutions, oversaw the coming of Christianity to Scandinavia, and made a major impact on European history through trade, travel, and far-flung consolidation. For 300 years, from just before AD800 until well into the eleventh century, the Vikings affected almost every region accessible to their ships, and left traces that are still part of life today. Thoroughly updated and with a new foreword The Viking Age is shot through with the spirit of adventure.

The vikings by else roesdahl