11. Tycho Brahe’s pet moose couldn’t handle its beer
Tycho Brahe was an astronomer and autocrat who fought a drunken sword duel in the dark with his cousin and fellow student at the University of Rostock. Brahe was studying both medicine and alchemy at the time, as well as mathematics, and the argument which led to the duel was over which of the two was the superior mathematician. During the duel, which was broken up by other students, Brahe lost most of his nose, having it severed at the bridge. He had a prosthetic nose fashioned, often reported being of a mixture of gold and silver, though in 2012 researchers in Europe reported that it was made of brass, held in place by paste.
Brahe served the Danish monarchy as both an astronomer and an astrologer from his research center at Hven, where he ruled as a quasi-monarch himself, hosting the nobility of Europe at lavish gatherings. According to his own letters, he kept a tamed elk, often said to be a moose, in his lodgings. During one gathering the animal reportedly drank too much beer during dinner and had the unfortunate accident of falling down a staircase, with fatal consequences. Brahe wrote of the incident in a letter to a nobleman in Hesse-Cassel, referring to the accident occurring while the elk was visiting another gentleman at Landskrona, thereby absolving himself of responsibility.