| The museum of Ole Worm (1558-1654) was the | | | | narhwhal tusks. Strangely enough he himself could |
| very first museum in Denmark. It was filled with | | | | not shake off some other superstitious beliefs |
| every kind of exotica from old fossils to stuffed | | | | about unicorns. One of them was that the horns |
| animals and a large part of these objects exists | | | | of these admittedly non-existent animals could |
| even today. As he was obsessed by collecting | | | | heal people when poisoned. To prove that the |
| artifacts of all kinds his museum is rich in details. | | | | legend spoke the truth he set out to poison pets |
| Nothing seems too little or too shallow for him. | | | | for then feeding them ground-up narhwal tusks in |
| For instance, he was interested in lemmings and | | | | order to save them. According to his reports |
| succeeded in establishing the fact that they were | | | | they did indeed survive being poisoned when fed |
| in truth rodents. The old, alternate opinion, which | | | | narhwal tusks. |
| still was very popular, was that they simply | | | | Perhaps it is this experiment which earned him H.P. |
| generated by the air. Another old myth that | | | | Lovecraft's notorious character Olaus Wormius |
| concerned him was the one about the birds of | | | | who translated the "Grimoire the Necronomicon" |
| paradise which were supposed not to have any | | | | from Arabic into Latin. This literary character is |
| feet. Once again he proved that the myth did not | | | | rather creepy, which Ole Worm does not seem |
| tell the truth as they indeed had feet. This he did | | | | to have been. |
| by drawing them. | | | | When he died from a bladder-disorder his rich |
| However, his most illustrious exploit was the one | | | | collection of exotica was sold to the Danish king, |
| of unicorns. The legend went that they were | | | | Frederik III, who turned it into the basis for "The |
| magical animals, but he determined that they did | | | | Royal Kunstkammer". This collection of historical |
| not exist which was quite logical as nobody had | | | | artifacts may still be seen today as part of the |
| ever seen them. He also established the truth that | | | | Zoological Museum in Copenhagen. |
| their famed, magical horns were nothing but | | | | |