LV426
02-08-2004, 06:56 AM
I decided to step away from North American Cryptids, we know most of the usual ones, and I decided to take off to Sweden.
The Storsjoodjuret
http://www.ima.mdh.se/personal/lln/jamtamot/konstellationer/konst-samfund/samf-ssv_storsjoodjuret_o fficiell.jpg
The Storsjoodjuret is considered a dragon species, somewhat like that of a wyrm and yet it is also known as a Lake Monster. It is Swedens most famous monster which translates as the "Great Monster of Storsjon" or "The Great ake Monster".
The Storsjoodjuret remains of intrest to the citizens areound Storsjon, county of Jamtland, in central Sweden. The number of persons who have sighted Storsjooduret is said to be in the hundreds, or maybe even the thousands, and more are added every year.
Witnesses descibe the rapidly swimming, log-shaped, overturned boat-like beast as having three or more humps. Various accounts have it anywhere from nine to twenty-four feet in length. It's color is black, grey, or shades of red-yellow-brown. Some observers say they see feet, a horse-ike head, a long neck, large eyes, and a large mouth. A few people have heard a seemingly bizarre sound, said to be like "two pieces of wood, clapped against each other," emmitting from the creature.
"Every year we hear of people who have seen this beast," remarks Sten Rentzhog, president of the Ostersund Society for the Scientific Investigation of Lake Storsjon, who has collected hundreds of sighting acounts dating back to 1635. "There are probably also a lot of witnesses who never tell anybody about their sightings, for fear of ridicule. There are even people who have seen the beast while diving."
In July in 1996, Storsjoodjuret was recorded on video by Gun-Britt Widmark, sixty-seven, while boating on the lake off Ostersund. The creature had humps and was thirty-three to thirty-nine feet long.
http://www.dinooption.com/img06/foto1.jpg
Two years later a well-publicized expedition became the focus of worldwide media attention. The expedition consisted of Adrian Shine, a longtime investigator of the Loch Ness Monster, and a group of Swedish researchers who had been studying the mysterious events at Storsjon. Their inquiries produced no significant results.
Storsjoodjuret has been explained in a number of ways- as logs, ripples, gas bubbles, or misidentification of known animals- but none cover witnesses' descriptions adequately, in the judgement of the area's researchers.
The folkloric explanation is that the lake monsters of this part of Sweden are seasonal because they migrate from the Gulf of Bothnia, where they spend the winter months, and it was said that sometimes in summer they were observed on land moving between the various lakes. Incidentally, Dr Olsson wondered if the monster might be an unknown species of giant seal, but readily admitted that seals should have been more noticeable in the winter, and noted the lack of breathing holes in the lake's ice.
In 1986, after 22 years of sporadic debate, the county administration of Jamtland (the district which encompasses the lake) declared that anyone trying to capture or kill the Storsjon monster could be prosecuted. The ruling had taken such a long time because lawyers required an "official" Linnaean name for the animal and naturally the zoological establishment would not acknowledge that the creature existed.
No one could decide if the matter should be dealt with under the Game Act or the Fishery Regulation Act. Scandinavian sophistry overcame the conundrum by invoking the Nature Conservation Act, prohibiting any threat to the unknown creature "while awaiting a determination of its species". This was prudent, as descriptions of the monster have changed over the years.
In the 19th century, nearly all the witnesses described a "waterhorse", its head surrounded by a long white mane floating in the water. Contemporary witnesses don't seem to notice its horse-like head and mane. My Swedish correspondent dryly describes the beast as a "camouflageon" - a hitherto unknown species of highly developed amphibian chameleon.
Olle Mattsson, an antiquarian at the Ostersund museum, has spent the last two years examining the museum's archives for historical observations of the monster, to which he has added many interviews with modern witnesses. His version of the "typical" monster is 10 to 16 feet long, 12 to 16 inches wide, dark grey or black with a small head. "All evidence indicates that there is a population [of the monsters]," he said. "They probably move together in a pack."
Source: Cryptozoology A to Z by Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark.
The Storsjoodjuret
http://www.ima.mdh.se/personal/lln/jamtamot/konstellationer/konst-samfund/samf-ssv_storsjoodjuret_o fficiell.jpg
The Storsjoodjuret is considered a dragon species, somewhat like that of a wyrm and yet it is also known as a Lake Monster. It is Swedens most famous monster which translates as the "Great Monster of Storsjon" or "The Great ake Monster".
The Storsjoodjuret remains of intrest to the citizens areound Storsjon, county of Jamtland, in central Sweden. The number of persons who have sighted Storsjooduret is said to be in the hundreds, or maybe even the thousands, and more are added every year.
Witnesses descibe the rapidly swimming, log-shaped, overturned boat-like beast as having three or more humps. Various accounts have it anywhere from nine to twenty-four feet in length. It's color is black, grey, or shades of red-yellow-brown. Some observers say they see feet, a horse-ike head, a long neck, large eyes, and a large mouth. A few people have heard a seemingly bizarre sound, said to be like "two pieces of wood, clapped against each other," emmitting from the creature.
"Every year we hear of people who have seen this beast," remarks Sten Rentzhog, president of the Ostersund Society for the Scientific Investigation of Lake Storsjon, who has collected hundreds of sighting acounts dating back to 1635. "There are probably also a lot of witnesses who never tell anybody about their sightings, for fear of ridicule. There are even people who have seen the beast while diving."
In July in 1996, Storsjoodjuret was recorded on video by Gun-Britt Widmark, sixty-seven, while boating on the lake off Ostersund. The creature had humps and was thirty-three to thirty-nine feet long.
http://www.dinooption.com/img06/foto1.jpg
Two years later a well-publicized expedition became the focus of worldwide media attention. The expedition consisted of Adrian Shine, a longtime investigator of the Loch Ness Monster, and a group of Swedish researchers who had been studying the mysterious events at Storsjon. Their inquiries produced no significant results.
Storsjoodjuret has been explained in a number of ways- as logs, ripples, gas bubbles, or misidentification of known animals- but none cover witnesses' descriptions adequately, in the judgement of the area's researchers.
The folkloric explanation is that the lake monsters of this part of Sweden are seasonal because they migrate from the Gulf of Bothnia, where they spend the winter months, and it was said that sometimes in summer they were observed on land moving between the various lakes. Incidentally, Dr Olsson wondered if the monster might be an unknown species of giant seal, but readily admitted that seals should have been more noticeable in the winter, and noted the lack of breathing holes in the lake's ice.
In 1986, after 22 years of sporadic debate, the county administration of Jamtland (the district which encompasses the lake) declared that anyone trying to capture or kill the Storsjon monster could be prosecuted. The ruling had taken such a long time because lawyers required an "official" Linnaean name for the animal and naturally the zoological establishment would not acknowledge that the creature existed.
No one could decide if the matter should be dealt with under the Game Act or the Fishery Regulation Act. Scandinavian sophistry overcame the conundrum by invoking the Nature Conservation Act, prohibiting any threat to the unknown creature "while awaiting a determination of its species". This was prudent, as descriptions of the monster have changed over the years.
In the 19th century, nearly all the witnesses described a "waterhorse", its head surrounded by a long white mane floating in the water. Contemporary witnesses don't seem to notice its horse-like head and mane. My Swedish correspondent dryly describes the beast as a "camouflageon" - a hitherto unknown species of highly developed amphibian chameleon.
Olle Mattsson, an antiquarian at the Ostersund museum, has spent the last two years examining the museum's archives for historical observations of the monster, to which he has added many interviews with modern witnesses. His version of the "typical" monster is 10 to 16 feet long, 12 to 16 inches wide, dark grey or black with a small head. "All evidence indicates that there is a population [of the monsters]," he said. "They probably move together in a pack."
Source: Cryptozoology A to Z by Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark.