The lake serpent of the Hamar Chronicles 1522 Hamar This is the oldest known written statement of a specific norwegian sea serpent. The Hamar Chronicles starts to tell about the religious signs that were considered omens predicting the downfall of catholisism. The church bells started ringing by themselves in the bell tower, armies and men of war were seen in the sky, even an Ibex in its alpine surroundings, and a giant sea serpent that appeared in the lake reaching across the lake from Hamar to Helgøya, the island. A wide horned bull were seen running on the surface of the water all the way from Stange to the island Helgøya. Many smaller sea serpents were seen each day. Busy days indeed! Then the Hamar Chronicles tells about the sea serpent that got shot and killed: "Then an enormous Orm with a terrible appearance surfaced. It climbed onto the rocks just ouside the Commune (a hundred and fifty m away from the stone church). Its eyes were large as barrel bottoms, and like a horse it had a big black mane hanging down from its neck. It lay on the rocks for a long time banging its head against the stones. It was about to return to the water, but one of the Bishop´s men was a very brave man. Without the knowledge and permission of the Bishop he had gone down to the shore, and aiming at the eyes of the creature lying on the cliffs he shot many steel arrows with his steel bow. Many people who were watching the evil Orm read prayers and asked God to get rid of it before it did any damage, because it was so big and ugly to look at because of its many colours. The same brave man took another arrow from one of his fellow stable hands and shot the nasty poisenous Orm. He shot him in the eye like he had done before, so the bystanders were able to witness much green stuff running from its eye and head. The water turned green and some of it drifted ashore at the Commune of Hamar. The following night a storm rose with hard winds and much rain, and by the luck of God the wind shifted and the Orm drifted away and landed on the island (Helgøya). The Orm soon emitted a terrible smell. A delegation of islanders visited the Bishop to ask him for advice what to do to get rid of the terribly smelling dead Orm. The Bishop then issued an order that a full grown young man from each farm at Nes and Svabu and some more parishes should meet at the island. All the men then helped burning the nasty Orm. Chopping trees and working as hard as they could, they were carrying and dragging the fire wood to the fire. They stacked the wood onto the Orm and managed at last to burn most of it. The skeleton of the Orm lay on the beach for many years, until some Germans obtained permission to remove the best preserved bones for their own benefit. They were allowed to to this, as the smallest of the vertebrae bones were hard to carry, even to a well fit man. Several hundred loads of wood were wasted in order to completely burn the evil creature." [Steel bow is another Norwegian word for a crossbow. The short arrows are made of steel or iron. This is the only dead Norwegian sea serpent that oozed green blood. It would be ideal for american monster movie makers that love green stuff.]
The Hamar Chronicles was originally a handwritten book, probably put together just a few decades after the Reformation of 1537. The book describes in great detail the life of the medieval city of the Hamar trading town, as it was in "good old catholic times". It also tells about the visions and omens that appeared warning of the downfall of the last catholic bishop, who eventually was easily captured by the Danish King´s man Ulf Truidstand and brought to Denmark to spend his last years in solitude and far away from his beloved city of Hamar. Lucky man, others lost their heads or had to hang in gallows. The short mentioning of the sea serpent sighting was regarded as one of those predictions and warnings according to the writer of the Chronicles. After all unknown monsters were always regarded as the work of the devil in old times. The Hamar Chronicles was put in print several times through the centuries with different translations to suit each time period, and soon got an addition telling about a succession of protestantic clergymen following the upheaval of the Reformation of 1537. Although the Hamar Chronicles survived, the medieval city of Hamar was not so lucky. The Danish king who also ruled Norway fought many a hard war with the Swedes, eventually loosing huge parts of Danish and Norwegian territory to the Swedes. Hamar was temorarily occupied by a Swedish army in the Seven Years War and was finally plundered and burnt to the ground in 1567. It took three hundred years before Hamar got back its status of a town. The old cathedral that was burnt by our nice neighbours is today a mere ruin of some archways, but now it has got a huge glass ceiling making it a nice glass cathedral. Source: "Hamarkrøniken", 1986. Egil Pettersen. Akademisk Forlag. This edition is a reprint of one of the oldest known editions of the Hamar Chronicles, a manuscript from 1610. The Hamar Chronicles was probably written during 1560 - 70 according to E.Pettersen. |
