Long neck and
a row of humps

Time: August 4th 1902
At: Hvaler, in the outer Oslo fjord
Seen by: Minister Hans Davidsen, together with 6 other adults and 4 children.

In the afternoon of August 4th Hans Davidsen was out sailing in the outer Oslo fjord together with six adults and four children. The sail boat enjoyed a light breeze with a slight dribble of rain on the calm sea. One of the passengers suddenly raised an arm pointing: "What is that over there?" Everybody had a look, and 300 yards away they spotted an unknown sea creature. It came from Heia and was heading for Koster. As it passed them aft, they calculated its speed to16 knots.

Three gleaming humps stood out against the surface of the sea, and it had a head that swayed from side to side. From the movements in the water they estimated the length to 15 - 20 m. They watched it both with their bare eyes and through a pair of binoculars, and got convinced that it definitely was not a number of animals swimming in succession.

Davidsen recorded this event in writing in his parish book at Hvaler, and he made a sketch of the unknown creature. The story was first known to the public in 1933 when the newspaper Aftenposten did an article on the subject. Was it maybe so that our newspapers started a hunt for local sea serpent related stories, just when the newspapers in Scotland and England had started to write about the Orm of loch Ness?

Ingøy in Finnmark

Time: 1910
At: Ingøy in Finnmark
Seen by: Teacher R. Eliassen

In his youth R. Eliassen was together with his father at Ingøy island. One day an extraordinary event happened when they were out fishing . They saw something that suddenly rose 1,5 m out of the water. It was a long neck topped by a narrow head. Behind the neck a small hump surfaced, and a bit further back another, but bigger hump. Seeing this they quickly pulled in their fishing lines and rowed for the shore. The monster disappeared, only soon to surface again. It swam away dipping its head in the water like a duck. A short while passed, and then it submerged for good.

The paper "Tidens Tegn" did an article about the event in 1934. That was the second year of mass observations in Loch Ness. In 1933 and -34 a new road was built along the north side of the loch, creating a lot of traffic noise and dynamite blasts to cut through the steep rock faces.

The sea serpent in the Ofot fjord

Time: 1914
At: Ofotfjorden
Seen by: Many

At Bogen the sea serpent arrived in 1914, when it happened to enter the Ofot fjord. The orm criss crossed the fjord, passing the skerries and the islands, before it finally headed for the sea again. It was a hot day and the sea was dead calm.

The accountant at Ofoten iron ore company was testing his fishing luck in the company of some ladies. Further out in the fjord they spotted the head and the long neck of an animal that abrubtly was raised out of the water. Behind the neck they were able to make out a row of humps. The sea serpent slowly moved forward leaving a v-shaped wake behind. Now and then it stopped as if to check on its bearing. The people watching from the quay knew well visiting seals and porpoises that showed up from time to time, but this creature was quite new to them. The fuss drew even more people to the quays to watch this strange and weird creature. The harbour master at last entered a boat to go out and study the animal. The amount of noise caused the sea serpent to turn back to the open seas.

The sea serpent at Grimstad

Time: 1980
At: Grimstad
Seeen by: Anonymus

It was a warm and nice August day outside Gressviktangen at Grimstad.  Something that rose out of the sea, 70 - 80 m away, caught the attention of the witness on the shore. One hump, then two more surfaced. Accidentally she had brought a pair of binoculars this time. Training it towards the creature floating calmly in the surface, she saw that it was brownblack in colour. She watched the creature for a while before it disappeared from the surface.

The woman had never ever seen a basking shark or a school of porpoises, but after having read about these animals she dismissed the very thought that the creatures were of that kind. Previously she had been skeptical to the existence of sea serpents, but now she was not so sure. It just might have been a sea serpent.

Observations describing this type of animal seems to be the most common of all local sea serpent observations.

The animal has got a very small head and a very long neck. The head is described as a sheep´s head, a calf´s head and a horse´s head. The animal is seen in the fjords along the coast, - and in the lakes. The Loch Ness sea serpent, the Seljord orm and the Mjoes orm all have consistent descriptions. It has got four flippers or webbed legs. Few witnesses see the flippers. A number of humps can be observed along the back. In some cases a long mane is seen hanging from the neck. The animal is greyish, dark or black of colour, and considerably lighter on the underside, sometimes all white.