Danish archæologist, born at Vejle, in Jutland, on the 14th of March 1821. From the gymnasium of Horsens he proceeded to Copenhagen, where, soon abandoning the study, first of divinity and then of law, he turned his whole attention to the history and archæology of the north, and from 1838 to 1843 was assistant in the Royal Museum of Northern Antiquities. Between 1842 and 1854, when he was nominated to the honorary rank of professor in the University of Copenhagen, Worsaae made repeated visits to the other Scandinavian lands, to Great Britain, Germany, France, and other parts of central Europe, which retained traces of the former presence of the Northmen. These journeys bore fruit in numerous works and papers of interest. Somewhat inclined to exaggerate Scandinavian influences, Worsaae always showed himself an ardent patriot, and a strenuous opponent of the spread of German tendencies in the duchies, and his views in this direction were forcibly announced in his Jylland’s Danskhed (1850). The Danish government showed its sense of the estimation in which he was held by placing him at the head of archæological commissions, and by appointing him to important posts in connection with the University and Antiquarian Museums. He was minister of education (1874–75), and died near Holbak, in Zealand, on the 15th of August 1885.
