May 13 – Happy Birthday, Ole Worm

nPostednon May 13, 2014

Okay,ncan just say right off the bat that I really like this guy’s name?

nSometimesnyou will see the Latinized form of his name, Olaus Wormius—but henwas Danish, so I vote we don’t use that here!

nOlenWorm, born on this date in 1588, was a doctor—he was even thenphysician to King Christian IV of Denmark! He was known for doing thenunusual thing of staying in Copenhagen to tend to the sick during annepidemic of the Black Death, and he contributed to the scientificnknowledge of embryology—which is the study of the growth of animalsnfrom fertilized egg to full-grown baby.
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nHe also studied runes, earlynliterature in the Scandinavian languages (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian,netc.) written in early Germanic alphabets.

Rune stone

nWormnis known for having created one of the best “wonder-rooms” innEurope.

nAn“wonder-room” is another name for a “cabinet of curiosities.”

Earlynmuseums were private collections of rare objects—natural things andnartifacts from far away or long ago—that the collectors displayednin a room or cabinet. Worm collected everything from taxidermednanimals to fossils, from bones to narwhal horns, from minerals tonrune stones, from antiques to native items brought from the “NewnWorld.” n
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nA Contribution to Modern Thought
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nOne thing that Worm did was question some of the claims of “experts” from ancient times or of general “knowledge.” He questioned whether lemmings really could be formed inside clouds—and he dissected a lemming to gather more information to make his best, most educated guess about the supposedly cloud-born creatures. He was skeptical about the horns of unicorns that so many people displayed in their own wonder-rooms. They looked an awful lot like narwhal tusks to Worm, and he wondered why an entire skeleton of a unicorn had never been found. To find out more about Worm and his skeptical side, check out this short video.

Narwhal tusks

nBynthe way…
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nIf you look up Ole Worm or Olaus Wormius on Google, you willnfind some mention of his Latin translation of the Necronomicon.nHowever, the Necronomican is just a fictional book that was nevernwritten, let alone translated. Wormius-as-translator was an inventionnof the early twentieth-century horror author H. P. Lovecraft, andnanother horror writer, Anders Fager, mentioned Worm’s translationnseveral times, as well—but it is just a myth.

nWormncould’ve been a translator, though. He had an excellent education innmany different fields, and he taught Latin, Greek, physics, andnmedicine. n

nAlsonon this date: