Abstract: In 1749, King Frederik V visited Norway, the northernmost part of his kingdom.It was a short journey, restricted to south-eastern Norway and accomplished in a couple of weeks.From Christiania (present-day Oslo), the King travelled to Kongsberg to inspect the silver mines.He also visited the cities of Fredrikstad and Fredrikshald with their fortresses before returning to Denmark.En route, he was celebrated by his loyal subjects and shown all the tributes worthy of a monarch.The King himself is nonetheless reported to have been mostly interested in gambling and in the theatrical company that he had brought with him for his entertainment. 1 When the royal entourage stopped at Hokksund in Eiker on its way to Kongsberg, the vicar Christian Grawe welcomed the King with a poem of his own composition.It bore the title Salve & Vale-Prisca & nova Egerana (Hail and Farewell-Ancient and New Eiker).In 55 four-lined stanzas and with a large array of footnotes, Grawe delivered a description of the parish with numerous antiquarian details.When the poem appeared in print some months later, he could sign it not only as a vicar but also with his newly acquired title: professor antiqvitatis patriae.In the present world, poetry is not often used to communicate research results or to document scientific work.In the early modern period, on the other hand, as the present volume abundantly shows, historical writing employed a wide range of genres and forms.During the same period, literary forms were also used to discuss natural philosophy and the findings of natural history, even if such expressions long have been overlooked in the history of science. 2 The heyday for this type of literature was the seventeenth century.The genre to which Grawe's poem more particularly belongs, topographic descriptive poetry, was established during the same period, developing into romantic landscape poetry in the subsequent century. 3 The aim of this chapter is to look into the specific "genre of historical writing" that Grawe chose for conveying his topographical and antiquarian knowledge about the parish: The poem with footnotes.The first part of this chapter will examine the poem and the knowledge it presents.What does it tell us about Grawe's historical and antiquarian work?And how did he make the rhymed stanzas and their apparatus of notes serve as tools for historical