He early made himself known as a poet, especially by glorifying the exploits of the contemporary Norse kings and earls; at the same time he was a learned lawyer, and from 1215 became the lOgsiigumaar, or president of the legislative assembly and supreme court of Iceland.
Of his lost works the most important was the Historia Gothorum, written with the object of glorifying the Gothic royal house and proving that the Goths and Romans had long been connected by ties of friendship. It was published during the reign of Athalaric, and appears to have brought the history down to the death of Theodoric. His chief authority for Gothic history and legend was Ablavius (Ablabius).
In it were found the winged lions, now in the British Museum, the fine series of sculptured bas-reliefs glorifying the deeds of Assur-nasir-pal in war and peace, and the large collection of bronze vessels and implements, numbering over 200 pieces; (b) the Central palace, in the interior of the mound, toward its southern end, erected by Shalmaneser II.
Simultaneously, on the commission of the pope, Raphael decorated the Vatican with frescoes glorifying the Church and the papacy.
The so-called Orphic Poems, still extant, are of much later date, probably belonging to the 4th century A.D.; they consist of: (I) an Argonautica, glorifying the deeds of Orpheus on the " Argo," (2) a didactic poem on the magic powers of stones, called Lithica, (3) eighty-seven hymns on various divinities and personified forces of nature.