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An Icelandic scholar of the 12th century. He traveled widely in pursuit of learning, visiting Paris and Rome, and afterward was a priest at Oddi. He was unknown to scholars till about 1643, when the then newly discovered Elder Edda was ascribed to him by Brynjulf Sveinsson, though the poems of that collection date in all probability back to the 8th or to the 9th century. Saemund had in his day a great reputation for learning, and was regarded, like Friar Bacon, as a magician. He wrote a "Book of the Kings" from Harold Fairhair to Magnus the Good. He died in 1133.