Lagarfljót Worm

In February 2012, the Icelandic national broadcaster, RÚV, published a video thought to show the Lagarfljót Worm swimming in snow-covered icy water.[1] But according to a frame-by-frame analysis of the footage by Finland-based researcher Miisa McKeown, the filmed object actually made no progress through the water, although optical illusion made it appear to propel forward. The phenomenon could be explained by a flimsy inanimate object (such as a frozen fish net) being moved by rapid current.[5][6] Despite this, in 2012, an Icelandic panel voted by a 7-to-6 margin to authenticate the video as genuine, awarding money to the filmmaker. This received criticism as an attempt to attract visitors of cryptotourism.[6][7]

In August 2014, an Icelandic truth commission reported that members were divided about the video but saw no reason to doubt the existence of the creature.[8]

The legend of the worm is arguably first mentioned in the entry for year 1345 in Icelandic Annals (specifically the Skálholts Annáll which reaches AD 1430),[11][12] although the text only refers to the sighting as a "wonderful thing" (undarligr [h]lutr) or a marvel, and not specifically as a worm. The "thing" seen in Lagarfljót looked like either islands or humps out of water, distanced hundreds of fathoms apart, but no one saw that it had either a head or tail.[12][13] The creatures were documented in annals with some frequency in subsequent times as well.[4][14]

Abraham Ortelius's map of Iceland. Detail around Lagarfljót showing the inscription

The map of Iceland attributed to Bishop Guðbrandur Þorláksson, engraved in 1585 by cartographer Abraham Ortelius is another attestation.[lower-alpha 1] The map bears inscription next to Lagarfljót stating that "In this lake appears a large serpent (In hoc lacu est anguis insolitæ magnitudinis)" which poses a menace to the inhabitants and appear when some memorable event is imminent". A briefer inscription noting only a serpent of great size is found on a Mercator map of 1595.[15][16][17]

Bishop Oddur Einarsson's Qualiscunque descriptio Islandiae (ca. 1589) also contains an account of a Lagarfljót monster, probably the serpent.[18]

A description of a supposed river-serpent that dwelled in Lagarfljót river occurs in De mirabilibus Islandiae (Chapter VI), written by the Bishop Gísli Oddsson of Skálholt (d. 1638). The serpent was referred to as a strandvorm in the Norwegian language.[lower-alpha 2] Opinions differed on how many humps (or rather "bends, curvatures"[lower-alpha 3]) it had, varyingly given as one, two, or three. It was blamed for making the river overflow and causing the ground and houses to shake.[19][20]

A folktale published by Jón Árnason in 1862, collected from a schoolgirl of Múlasýsla in 1845[21] tells the story of the great serpent in Lagarfljót which originally started out as small "heath-worm"[22] or "Heath Snake"[23] (Icelandic: lyngormur) before it grew to unmanageable size. It has been explained elsewhere that this "heath-worm" is actually a type of snail (Icelandic: brekkusnegill),[24][25] or rather the black slug, Arion ater.[26][27][lower-alpha 4][lower-alpha 5]

A black slug aka "heath worm" lyngormur.

The girl had been given a gold ring by her mother, and was instructed that the best way to profit from the gold was to place it under a heath-worm (black slug). She did so, and put it in the top of her linen chest for a few days, but then found that the little worm (serpent, dragon) had grown so large, it had broken open the chest. Frightened, she threw both it and the gold into the lake, where the heath-worm continued to grow and terrorize the countryside, spitting poison and killing people and animals. Two Finns were commissioned to destroy it and retrieve the gold, but they only managed to tie its head and tail to the bottom of the lake; killing it was made impossible because of a still larger dragon that lurked underneath.[30] Appearances of the creature in the open was considered a portent for harsh season or fodder grass crop failure.[11]

There has been suggestion that this is a corruption of the lore surrounding creatures from Norse mythology, namely the Miðgarð Serpent and Fenriswolf, with some elements of Fáfnir, the gold-hoarding dragon of Gnitaheiði from the Völsung Cycle.[31] Similarity to the overgrown dragon in Ragnars saga Loðbrókar has also been noted, for in this saga the dragon also grew large along with its gold.[32][33]

The legend that keeping a brekkusnegill (black slug) together with gold will make both grow enormous is associated with other bodies of water, namely Skorradalsvatn (see below),[24][34] Kleifarvatn, and the Hvítá and Skaftá Rivers.[24]

Accounts of a serpent sitting on gold, the poisonous skate, and a strange giant seal localized at Lagarfljót are told of in the baroque poem "Rönkufótsríma" by Stefán Ólafsson (d. 1688).[lower-alpha 6][36][35][20]

The gold-hoarding serpent according to the poem measured one-half Þingmannleið in length or approximately 20 km,[lower-alpha 7] and had its head and tail pinned to the ground (lakebed).

Jón Árnason also touched upon the skate and seal (Selurinn og skatan í Lagarfljóti) in his 1862 book.[10] It was poisonous enough to kill anyone who touched it with one finger. To prevent its from doing harm, the monster was bound by potent magic poetry uttered by "power poets".[31] Other sources say the skate had nine tails.[15]

The seal had strange hair like branches growing out of its head,[35] and it too was bound with poetry at the waterfall where it dwelled.[31]

A one-humped "monster" (skrýmsli) of Lagarfljót was allegedly spotted in 1749–1750.[10] This has been treated as the creature of the same ilk as the humped creature of the annals by Sabine Baring-Gould,[13] and in more modern times, equated with "The Water-Snake of Lagarfljot" by Jacqueline Simpson, an authority on dragon legends in the British Isles.[11]

A lake monster reportedly seen at Skorradalsvatn.

Baring-Gould (1863) had obtained reports about a 46 feet long lake monster (which he referred to as a "skrimsl") allegedly surfacing in Skorradalsvatn and witnessed by at least three farmers.[38][41] It had a head like a seal's, and subsequently one hump appeared in view, then another. A sketch was produced by one of the witnesses, and Baring-Gould printed a replica of it. The author considered the description to bear an uncanny resemblance to the creature reported in the annals.[42]

The term skrimsl is Old Norse, equivalent to modern Icelandic skrýmsli and refers to "monster",[43] however it was specifically used in the sense of "sea or lake monster" (German: Meer-ungeheuer) in Konrad Maurer's book on Icelandic folk legends (1860).[44][45]