Terpenes and aroma volatiles from rhizomes of Rhodiola rosea L. from Norway have been isolated by both steam distillation and headspace solid-phase micro-extraction coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry analysis. The dried rhizomes contained 0.05% essential oil with the main chemical classes: monoterpene hydrocarbons (25.40%), monoterpene alcohols (23.61%) and straight chain aliphatic alcohols (37.54%). n-Decanol (30.38%), geraniol (12.49%) and 1,4-p-menthadien-7-ol (5.10%) were the most abundant volatiles detected in the essential oil, and a total of 86 compounds were identified in both the SD and HS-SPME samples. Geraniol was identified as the most important rose-like odour compound besides geranyl formate, geranyl acetate, benzyl alcohol and phenylethyl alcohol. Floral notes such as linalool and its oxides, nonanal, decanal, nerol and cinnamyl alcohol highlight the flowery scent of rose root rhizomes.