In Icelandic folklore, the Lagarfljót worm (Icelandic: Lagarfljótsormurinn, Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈlaːɣarˌfljoutsˌɔrmʏr̥]), worm meaning serpent or dragon, is a lake monster purported to live in Lagarfljót, a lake by the town of Egilsstaðir.
Overview The first sighting is generally conceded to be the 1345 "marvel" seen at Lagarfljót century chronicle, and recorded in the medieval annals of the 15th century. The serpent at the lake has been mentioned in 16th century world maps, a 17th century chronicle, and a baroque poem from the 17th century chronicle. The skrýmsli (monster) was seen at the lake in 1749–1750, and the media have reported sightings into the 20th and 21st centuries, including a 2012 video supposedly showing the creature swimming. According to the folktale published in Jón Árnason's collection (1862), a "heath worm" (type of slug) kept with gold grew into a monster inhabiting the lake. Similar "heath worm" stories are attached to several other Icelandic bodies of water. At Skorradalsvatn, Sabine Baring-Gould collected an 1862 account of a monster with a seal-like head, which has been compared to or equated with older accounts of monsters at Lagarfljót.
Description and habitat
The serpentine creature is said to live in Lagarfljót, a freshwater, below-sea-level, glacial-fed lake which has very poor visibility as a result of siltation. The creature is described as longer than a bus, or 40 feet (12 m), and has also been reported outside the water, lying coiled up or slithering into the trees. It is a "many humps" type of lake monster, as opposed to the variety commonly characterized as having an extended neck, like the Loch Ness Monster. The Lagarfljót Worm has been the subject of several reports in modern times, including in 1963 by the head of the Icelandic National Forest Service, Sigurður Blöndal, and in 1998 by a teacher and students at Hallormsstaðir School. In 1983, contractors laying a telephone cable measured a large shifting mass near the eastern shore while performing preliminary depth measurements, and when they later retrieved the cable, found that it was broken where the anomaly had occurred:
"This cable that was specially engineered so it wouldn't kink was wound in several places and badly torn and damaged in 22 different places . . . . I believe we dragged the cable directly over the belly of the beast. Unless it was through its mouth".
A sightseeing boat named Lagarfljótsormurinn, which began operations on the lake in 1999, and the Gunnar Gunnarsson Institution in Skriðuklaustur seek to preserve the traditions of the Lagarfljót Worm for cultural and tourism purposes.
2012 video In February 2012, the Icelandic national broadcaster, RÚV, published a video thought to show the Lagarfljót Worm swimming in snow-covered icy water. 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 as though it was propelling itself forward. The phenomenon could be explained by a flimsy inanimate object (such as a frozen fish net) being moved by rapid current. 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 cryptotourism visitors. 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.
Literary and oral records "There are many stories of kynjaskepnur, that is, strange animals or unknown phenomena, in Lagarfljót". These include accounts of the Lagarfljót Worm, as well as other monsters, a strandvorm, or a monstrous seal or poisonous skate.
Annals 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), 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. The creatures were documented in annals with some frequency in subsequent times as well.
16th to 17th century
The map of Iceland attributed to Bishop Guðbrandur Þorláksson, engraved in 1585 by cartographer Abraham Ortelius is another attestation. 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 appears when some memorable event is imminent". A briefer inscription noting only a serpent of great size is found on a Mercator map of 1595. Bishop Oddur Einarsson's Qualiscunque descriptio Islandiae (ca. 1589) also contains an account of a Lagarfljót monster, probably the serpent. 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. Opinions differed on how many humps (or rather "bends, curvatures") 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.
Folktale A folktale published by Jón Árnason in 1862, collected from a schoolgirl of Múlasýsla in 1845 tells the story of the great serpent in Lagarfljót which originally started out as small "heath-worm" or "Heath Snake" (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), or rather the black slug, Arion ater.
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