SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

68 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
472), and must have been made for Stephanius during
this period at Worm's request, before the poem was sent
to the chancellor.
Friis was a patron of letters and deeply interested in
the new antiquarian studies developing in Scandinavia in
his time. He encouraged Magnus in his literary work, and
in r629 Magnus made a Latin version of his redaction of
the Prose Edda (the so-called Laufds-Edda) for him.
Magnus had also, for several years before his death, been
having negotiations with the chancellor, mainly with
Ole Worm as intermediary, aimed at first at obtaining an
ecclesiastical, later a secular, office in Iceland for his son
Benedikt, whose wild oats sown at the University in
Copenhagen in r626-9 had offended the authorities both
in Denmark and Iceland. Both his Latin Edda and other
similar antiquarian work, as well as the drdpa in honour
of the chancellor, were evidently undertaken by Magnus
at least partly in the hope that Friis would show his
gratitude by helping Benedikt. Worm and Friis were not
unsympathetic, but for various reasons Magnus had not
yet secured any positive result at the time of his death,
and still nothing had been achieved for Benedikt when
Friis died in r639. Benedikt never received any
official position.
Worm and Friis were mainly interested in early Scandinavian
history; but Magnus was also interested in
medieval poetry and verse forms. He wrote a short
treatise on skaldic poetry (printed by Worm in his Runir
seu Danica literatura antiqvissima, r636, r9r-6), and like
other Icelanders of his time made several experiments in
composing poetry in the skaldic style, both in Latin and
Icelandic (some of these were also printed by Worm in the
same work). One of his most ambitious attempts at this
is Frissdrdpa, a full-blown drdpa in dr6ttkvrett with refrain. 4
4 It is possible that Magnus had intended the poem to be longer than it is,
for the refrain is not positioned symmetrically and the last verse as it stands
bears no obvious sign of being a conclusion.