Video: Iceland 'Lake Monster' Captured on Film?

Footage was captured of an obscure phenomenon yesterday which appeared to be swimming in the glacial river Jökulsá í Fljótsdal, east Iceland.
  People speculate whether this may be the notorious snake-like monster Lagarfljótsormurinn, which is said to reside in the lake Lagarfljót.
 
The video was taken by Hjörtur Kjerúlf and posted on ruv.is.
 
Lagarfljótsormurinn is Iceland’s equivalent to Scotland’s Loch Ness monster. It was first mentioned in sources dating back to 1345. According to legend, it was at first a tiny worm which was placed on a ring of gold to make the gold grow.
 
When the owner of the ring returned she noticed to her great terror that the worm had grown immensely but not the gold. She tossed the ring and worm into Lagarfljót where the worm continued to grow.
 
Whether Hjörtur’s video (Below) is indeed evidence of the existence of the legendary monster is debatable; skeptics believe it shows a torn fishing net which blew into the river where it froze. 
 
When the river cleared itself of ice the net came loose and the “worm” wriggled its way through the water.

The legend of the worm is first mentioned in the Icelandic Annals of 1345.


Sightings were considered to portend a great event such as a natural disaster.

According to the folk tradition recorded by Jón Árnason, the great serpent in Lagarfljót grew out of a small "lingworm" or heath-dragon; a girl was given a gold ring by her mother, and asked how she might best derive profit from the gold, was told to place it under a lingworm.

She did so, and put it in the top of her linen chest for a few days, but then found that the little dragon had grown so large, it had broken open the chest. Frightened, she threw both it and the gold into the lake, where the serpent continued to grow and terrorized the countryside, spitting poison and killing people and animals.

Two Finns called in to destroy it and retrieve the gold said that they had managed to tie its head and tail to the bottom of the lake but it was impossible to kill it because there was a still larger dragon underneath.


Source: Iceland Review

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