Worsaae, JENS JACOB ASMUSSEN

Worsaae, JENS JACOB ASMUSSEN, Danish archaeologist, was born at Vejle in Jutland, 14th March 1821. From the gymnasium of Horsens he proceeded to Copenhagen, where, soon abandoning the study of first divinity and then law, he turned his whole attention to the history and archaeology 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, whose cost was largely defrayed by the Danish government, bore fruit in numerous works and papers of interest, three of which have been translated into English as Primeval Antiquities of England and Denmark (1849), The Danes and Norwegians in England (1852), and Pre-history of the North (1886). 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 enounced in his Jylland's Danskhed (1850), especially directed against Jacob Grimm's exposition of the question of German national law. His merits were fully recognised by his countrymen; and the Danish government constantly showed its sense of the estimation in which he was held by placing him at the head of archaeological 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 Holbæk in Zealand, 15th August 1885.