Iceland has its own lake monster
The Icelandic folk tales know about a serpent that had grown into a monster, after a young woman had hidden her golden finger ring beneath the creature. None managed to tame the giant serpent, or to seize the gold. According to the legend, many lost their lives on the lake, while others considered the story to be nonsense. A priest, who succeeded to row across the lake, testified that there was no monster in Lagafljót.
In February 2012 the farmer Hjörtur Kjerulf on Hrafnkelsstöðum in Fljótsdalshérað had been able to film a very strange phenomenon on lake Lagarfljót:
The video literally swam around the world, and in the following year a “truth committee” was formed to determine whether the filmed sea monster really exists. In the spring of this year, the committee finally came to a positive conclusion: a monster lives in lake Lagafljót!
Last weekend the truth committee of Fljótsdalur district presented an award of half a million ISK (3200 euros) to Hjörtur Kjerúlf, reports Austurfrétt.
What only a few people know: in early March Hjörtur had succeeded to shoot another video of the monster. The video can be viewed here:
On the occasion of the award ceremony Hjörtur said that he indeed had expected the saga worm to be much bigger than in his movie. At least in the story-telling the worm had been growing in size. However, it is quite possible that he had filmed only sperm of the legendary saga worm.The farmer from Fljótsdalur has received many reporters and answered countless questions since the successful run of his video. Once an FBI-member asked him what he was mixing into his morning coffee. Hjörtur grins: “I told him that there was no LSD, and even if so, it would have no effect on the camera.”
He feels that things have changed a bit. In the old days people used to say hello with “How are you, Hjörtur?”. Today, however, he rather gets to hear “Well, it’s you, bloody old worm!”
