As a member of the ducal family, he held several fiefs in Southern Denmark.
In the settlement with his brother Eric after the death of their elder brother Duke Valdemar III, Abel received the cities of Svendborg, Rudkøbing, and possibly also Faaborg on the island of Funen, and as a fief the island of Langeland.
Abel died on Easter Day 1279 in Svendborg and was buried in Greyfriars’ Abbey.
At his death, he left only a daughter Margaret, who entered the convent of Zarrentin in Mecklenburg and donated her father's properties to her relatives, the counts of Holstein.
Abel appears to have married a daughter of Gunzelin III, Count of Schwerin: This biography of a member of a European royal house is a stub.