| Erik Walkendorf,
1465 - 1522
Catholic Archbishop of Trondheim from 1510.
A letter he wrote to Pope Leo X in 1520 contains the first mentioning of the sea serpent
in a public letter: "The smallest of them are 60 feet long and 10 feet thick. The
squarish head is longer than the body. They are grey of colour and are only seen when the
air is clear and the sea is calm; they are greedy creatures that kill people."
Jacob Ziegler
His book "Scondia" was published in 1532. He mentions the serpent in lake
Mjoesa, and that the presence of the 100 feet long sea serpent is an omen predicting the
fall of king Christian.
Olaus Magnus
A swedish high ranking catholic who fled the Reformation in Sweden to seek refuge in Italy.
His map "Carta Marina" from 1539, with drawing of vessels and attacking sea
monsters.
His book "The History of the Nordic People", published in Venice in latin. It
had many illustrations of the sea serpent. The Norwegian Sea Serpent got known in Europe.
"Those who sail along the coasts of Norway to trade or to fish all tell a strange
story, a tale of a serpent of immense proportions, 200 feet long or 20 feet thick, that
inhabits caves and caverns in the sea outside Bergen. This serpent comes out of its caves
in light summer nights to feed on calves, lambs or pigs, or it goes out into the ocean to
eat polyps, crabs and other sea food. It has 2 feet long hair hanging down from its neck, sharp
black scales and flaming red eyes. It attacks vessels, catches and eats people, as it
lifts itself out of the water like a pillar."
An Olaus Magnus book illustration.
Peder Claussøn Friis
Minister in Audnedal.
His book: "About Animals, Fish, Birds and Trees in Norway", published in 1599.
This book was meant the be educational and was written in latin, "A Description of
Norway", published in 1613. "These dangerous animals or fish do not
exist south or east of Jaeren, but are found in the big lake Mjoesa at Hedmarken which is
140 km long and quite a few hundred feet deep at some places. It is both written and told
that a big serpent is seen close to the island in the same lake, - but only when there is
a change to another king, or another big change in the kingdom takes place."
"I do not think it is a natural serpent, because if it was it would have been seen
more often. It is said to be 100 feet long and was seen not many years ago."
Clausson Friis came up with a very plausible theory how a sea serpent
could be found in a lake far in the interior: "In the Lunde lake there is said to be a sea
serpent that has been seen some times. The same has been said about the previously
mentioned lake Mjoesa at Hedmarken. If this is the case, they are not ghosts but
are real sea
serpents who have come from the sea, - sea serpent eggs or tiny sea serpent babies in
the sea have been sucked up into the clouds and later got into the lake together with the
rain."
Totally uncritical to the source Clausson Friis puts in writing anything he gets hold
of, contrary to the later Erik Pontoppidan who actually talked to the witnesses himself.
Friis mentions a herring caught in the Oslo fjord with side markings resembling letters,
an omen said to be a forwarning of the death of king Fredrik the next year.
The best way to save your life if you met a sea serpent would be to read a prayer and then
position the boat between the sun and the animal, thus letting the sea serpent be blinded
by the sun.
Michael Andersen Aalborg
Minister in Vang church at lake Mjoesa, from 1610 to 1626. "In the lake there is
a monster called the sea serpent. It has a horse like head and is 120 - 180 feet long. It
has been seen three times since 1610."
Hans Egede
Missionary and minister at Greenland
In his book "Det gamle Groenlands nye Perlustration eller Natural
Historie" published in 1746, he also wites about a sea serpent:
"...a terrible sea monster.... that was seen in 1734 outside the
colony. It was an enormously big creature: Its head reached the yard arm when it rose out
of the water. The body was as thick as the ship and was 3 - 4 times as long. It had a
pointed nose, and blew like a whale. It had big broad limbs, and the body seemed to be
covered with barnacles, and the skin was very rough. The general shape was that of a
serpent. When it dived, it lunged backwards and then raised the tail above the surface a
ship`s length away."
Erik Pontoppidan,1698 -1764.
He was Bishop of Bergen from 1747, and he wrote a two volume book "The first Attempt
of the Natural History of Norway", 1752 - 54. The book was translated to German and
later to English. This made the Norwegian sea serpent well known abroad. Pontoppidan got
his information directly from fishermen and merchants along the coast, people who had seen
the creature themselves. One of book`s chapters deal with the sea serpent, Serpens marinus,
or "Aale-tust" as it also was called.
"I have been among those who have doubted the reality and the existence of the
sea serpent, but at last my doubts were refuted by solid evidence."
"Hundreds of our finest sailors and fishermen have been eyewitnesses to the
sea serpent. I have met a lot of people from our fjords in the north, and they were able
to confirm my questions, and their descriptions of the animal is the same. Some who has
come here for trading purposes regard these questions as superfluous as questions whether
cods or whales exist."
He wrote this about the "horrible
monstrum marinum" :
"I must assure you of the real existence of this serpent before I start
describing it. This sea creature dwells in the deep except for July and August which is
its playing time. It surfaces when the sea is dead calm, but sinks back when the slightest
stir ripples the surface."
The body is wide as a barrel, but the tail narrows towards the end.
1745: "A fisherman met a long, big and strange animal north of Bergen. It came
swimming towards his boat and got so close that the waves hit the boat before the animal
submerged and was gone. The head looked like that of a a seal, the body was thick, and it
was long as a big boat."
About 1750: "A fisherman who had been so close to it that he actually had been
able to touch its smooth skin, told that sometimes these animals are said to raise the
head out of the water and snatch one of the crew from a boat. I do not know if this is
true, as it is quite uncertain whether it is a fierce predator or not."
Pontoppidan was convinced that the animals that usually were called sea serpents might
belong to different species. Here is one of those really strange stories indicating that
he might be right.
Some fishermen got a 20 feet long weird looking animal in one of their nets. It had four
limbs of some kind and reminded of a crocodile. The absolutely terrified fishermen dropped
both net and creature back into the sea where it disappeared.
Hans Strøm, 1726 - 1797
Minister at Sunnmøre. He sent information of sea serpents and also drawings to
Pontoppidan later to be used as basis for some illustrations in Pontoppidan`s book.
Knut Leem
Missionary and minister in Finnmark, later professor in the lapp/sami language.
His book "A Description of the Sami people of Finnmark" published in 1767.
" The sea serpent known from the southern coasts is also seen in Finnmark, a
terrible sea monster like the kraken. It is about 240 feet long, with black eyes and a
head the size of a whale head, but of shape like a serpent. Its neck is narrower than the
main body, and it has got long light grey hair hanging down on both sides of the neck like
the mane of a horse. The back is also light grey, but the belly is rather whitish. It is
most often seen in dead calm weather, with many coils that partly shows above the surface,
partly hidden in the water. People are afraid of this nasty sea creature, and stays away
if possible when it is around."
Claus Friman
1746 - 1829, the poet minister of Davik at Nordfjord.
For sea travels he always brought with him a pouch of Castoreum as a protection
against the sea serpent. Castoreum is a musklike substance form the beaver`s anal
scent glands, - smoked, dried and then ground to a fine substance. Another serpent
repellant was Asafetida (Devil`s dung) the sap from the plant Ferula foetida
from Iran and Afganistan that was dried and then pounded to a powderish substance. Both
Castoreum and Asafetida were regarded as good serpent repellants and said to function well
against all demonic powers.
The contents of this side is mainly from the book "Den mystiske
sjøormen" (the mysterious sea serpent), with kind permission of the author Rolf
Langstrøm at Lillesand.
1 old "alen" = 2 fot = ca 60 cm = 2 feet
1 "favn", or fathom = 6 fot = ca 1,8 m = 6 feet
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