A fragment of the _Elucidarium_, comprising, however, the greater part of the work, is published in _Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed_, 1852 and 1853; in the former volume a Danish translation is given; the latter contains the Icelandic text. Footnote 8: See below, pp. 22–25. Footnote 9: See below, p. 101 (c. viii). The importance of the _King’s Mirror_ lies in the insight that it gives into the state of culture and civilization of the North in the later middle ages. The interest follows seven different lines: physical science, especially such matters as are of importance to navigators; geography, particularly the geography of the Arctic lands and waters; the organization of the king’s household and the privileges and duties of the king’s henchmen; military engines, weapons, and armour used in offensive and defensive warfare; ethical ideas, especially rules of conduct for courtiers and merchants; the royal office, the duties of the king and the divine origin of kingship; and the place of the church in the Norwegian state. In one of his earlier chapters the author enumerates the chief subjects of a scientific character that ought to be studied by every one who wishes to become a successful merchant. These are the great luminaries of the sky, the motions and the paths of the heavenly bodies, the divisions of time and the changes that bring the seasons, the cardinal points of the compass, and the tides and currents of the ocean.[10] In discussing these matters he is naturally led to a statement as to the shape of the earth. All through the middle ages there were thinkers who accepted the teachings of the classical astronomers who had taught that the earth is round like a sphere; but this belief was by no means general. Bede for one appears to have been convinced that the earth is of a spherical shape, though he explains that, because of mountains which rise high above the surface, it cannot be perfectly round.[11] Alexander Neckam, an English scientist who wrote two generations before the _King’s Mirror_ was composed, states in his _Praise of Divine Wisdom_ that “the ancients have ventured to believe that the earth is round, though mountains rise high above its surface.”[12] Neckam’s own ideas on this point are quite confused and he remains discreetly non-committal. Footnote 10: C. iv. See also Larson, “Scientific Knowledge in the North in the Thirteenth Century”: _Publications of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study_, I, 139-146. Footnote 11: _De Natura Rerum_, c. xlvi: Migne, _Patrologia Latina_, XC, 264-265. Footnote 12: _De Naturis Rerum_, 441.