The animal is known from written sources back to the mid-1700. Having learnt by the scots at Loch Ness, the locals frequently use "Sea Serpent" commercially. Seljord has now got a Sea serpent inn, a Sea serpent camping, a Sea serpent gate (a tunnel along the main road), sea serpent this, that and whatever. The camping grounds with bathing and fishing facilities are full of tourists, sea serpents or not.

Seljord lake is a beautiful place like many other of our lakes, basically a crack in the mountains filled with water. It is 13 km long, 1 km across and 153 m deep. The lake is dark from peat making the water pitch black and visibility low to zero if you ever try to dive there. The lake holds a few fish species with an abundance of Coregonus lavaretus and big lake trout. The trout may grow to 10 - 15 kg. The lake is one of several small lakes in a river system ending in the sea at Porsgrunn.

I guess that the sea serpent, the Seljord orm, has been there since the ice age terminated. Most of the other lakes in the area also got stories indicating that the animal inhabits most of the waterway. Since the animal had no value and represented little danger to people, it was accepted as a fact by those who saw it. Just that, a fact that caused no fuss in peoples` lives, like trolls, the little people and other beings

View of Seljord lake from the windy dirt road up to the Sundsbarm lake, towards south east. Seljord is down in front, Bø in the opposite direction far out behind the end of the lake.		View along the steepest north side of the lake towards Seljord.

Around 1880

Gunhild Bjørge was doing her laundry down by the shore at "Bjørgesanden". Suddenly she got aware of a small creature about 1 m long that came crawling out of the water. Finding it utterly repulsive she immediately gave it a solid whack with her washing stick, splitting it in two. The back end slid back ito the water but the front part was left on the shore to rot. A lot of people came to have a look at the weird creature.
Was it a baby sea serpent ?

The small boat "Fjøllguten" was trafficing passengers 1874 - 1924, and was demolished in 1946.

Two men, Torjus Kåsi and Tor Hauge, were busy pulling out lumber from the shore at Strand-øygarden. The boat Fjøllguten had just left the small quay. The men saw that an animal was trailing the wake of the boat. It was black and looked very much like a floating log. Then it rolled over presenting a white underside and short feet, then diving and vanishing.

August 1963

The newspaper Aftenposten, a reader`s letter August 19th 1976.
"Lately I have read a couple of articles concerning the sea serpent at Seljord lake. I want to tell you that I too have seen it. It was the year of 1963. I had made a bicycle trip across the Hardanger plateau, going by Haugastøl and Odda, up the hills at Røldal, past Haukeli and then on through Telemark. Late one night, August if I remember correctly, I arrived at the Seljord lake. I was tired having trod several miles that day and figured I had to spend the night out in the open, when at last I found this old shack down by the lake.

I got up early and went for a walk to have a look at the weather, when I spotted the big animal down in the water. It was lying perpendicular to the shore and the road with its head towards land. (I was not able to see all of the head. The animal was just resting in the surface, but I was able to see some sort of shapes along its back looking like wave forms.) I would estimate the length of the animal to be 30 feet. It was a horrible thing to watch.
I feel that I have to tell someone what I saw. I have never told anyone before.  

Walther Berg"

1975

Postman Olav Juvkås was driving along the lake one sunny summer day. Looking out the side window of the car he suddenly saw a live animal down in the lake. The animal had the length of a log (5 m). The animal was on its side, wriggling its body and waving the flippers. It was of blueblack colour and had short webbed feet. Before it dived, it raised its neck high in the air. The head was small compared to the body.

The Seljord Orm

is described in many ways. Dozens or hundreds of witnesses have told about their meetings with the animal. It has got a longish and slender body, causing some people who have seen it in the water to associate it with a big eel. However it has got a small head and a long neck, and the body has got webbed feet or flippers. An animal like that is as far from a mutated giant eel as you can come. Eels do not possess feet. The colour is most often dark, black or blueblack, - and some witnesses see the lighter belly, that also can be all white.
Very large animals have been seen, but usually the witnesses say 5 - 10 m. When seen in surface position its back is compared with a turned over boat. At other times it looks like a floating log, or a floating knurly stem of tree. Sometimes a row of humps is seen; it has got a head like a horse`s head, and some times a mane down its neck is seen.

The animal have also been seen on land. Witnesses have assosiated it with crocodile and dinosaur. Almost at any time the sight is horrendous and shocking. The animal has been seen crawling across the road down into the water many times.

Just like the Loch Ness animal and many other similar creatures !

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