Olaus Wormius
Olaus Wormius (May 13, 1588- August 31, 1654), also known as Ole Worm, was a Danish physician and antiquary.
Wormius was the son of Mag Willum Worm who served as the mayor of Aarhus, and was made a rich man by the inheritance from his father. He came from a Lutheran family, and his mother was a refugee from religious persecution in the Netherlands. He was something of a perpetual student: he began his college education at the University of Marburg in 1605; received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Basel in 1611; and received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Copenhagen in 1617. The rest of his academic career was spent in Copenhagen, where he taught Latin, Greek, physics, and medicine. He was personal physician to King Christian V of Denmark. Somewhat remarkable for a physician of the time, he remained in the city of Copenhagen to minister to the sick during an epidemic of the Black Death.
In medicine, Wormius's chief contributions were in embryology. The Wormian bones (small bones that fill gaps in the cranial sutures) are named after him.
Wormius is better known as a collector of early literature in the Scandinavian languages. He also wrote a number of treatises on runestones and collected texts that were written in the runic alphabet. Wormius received letters of introduction to the bishops of Denmark and Norway from the King of Denmark due to the King's interest and approval. In 1626 Wormius published his Fasti Danici, or "Danish Chronology," containing the results of his researches into runic lore; and in 1636 he followed this up with Runir seu Danica literatura antiquissima, "Runes: the oldest Danish literature," a compilation of transcribed runic texts.
In more recent years, the real Wormius (and his various accomplishments) have been supplanted by a fictional character with his name. H. P. Lovecraft created the character as a translator from Arabic into Latin of his notorious fictional grimoire, the Necronomicon. Lovecraft also writes him as a Dominican priest, and misplaces him in the thirteenth century.
