Storsjöodjuret
Encyclopedia
Storsjöodjuret (ˈstuːʂøːuˈjʉːrɛ, literally "The Great-Lake Monster") is a lake monster
reported to live in the 300 feet (91.4 m) lake Storsjön
in Jämtland
in the middle of Sweden
. The lake monster was first reported in 1635 and is the only one of its kind in Sweden. When the only city located by Storsjön, Östersund
, celebrated its 200 year anniversary in 1986 Storsjöodjuret along with its offspring and nest became protected by law
, a law which was revoked in 2005.
word for "monster", literally "unanimal" (a name first recorded in 1899), and storsjö is a compound
of the Swedish words stor (big, or great) and sjö (lake) which would closest translate to "great-lake". Sometimes it's simply called Storsjödjuret, which translates to "The great-lake animal" instead of unanimal.
In the local dialect, Jamtish
, it has been named Storgläffs'n "the great yelper" by a locally known poet, this is however not a popularly used name. In the English language
Storsjöodjuret is usually called Storsie, similarly to Nessie
, though the names Storsjö Monster (also spelled Storsjoe where the character ö
is unavailable) and the literal translation The Great-Lake Monster are used. Its latin
name is Hydogiganta Monstruidae Jemtlandicum roughly meaning "The Gigantic Jamtlandic Water Monster". It has also been called Storsjöormen "The Great-Lake Serpent".
or aquatic reptile
with fins across its back and the head of a dog
. It is reported to measure approximately six meters long, and some accounts describe it as having several humps.
The first description of a sea creature in Storsjön was made in a folklorist
tale by vicar
Morgens Pedersen in 1635.
Another legend was written down by the prolocutor Andreas Plantin in an inquiry
in 1685.
The runestone both texts refer to is the Frösö Runestone
, the northern-most raised runestone in the World. However while a large serpent is indeed pictured on the stone there is no reference about it nor "Ketil Runske
" in the text itself, which instead tells about Austmaðr, Guðfastr's son's christening of Jämtland. Though it has indeed been broken in two pieces.
. Since then hundreds of monster sightings have been made. No scientific results have been made, but the supporters have never lost their faith.
In August 2008 a group of filmers claimed to have captured Storsjöodjuret on film. The cameras showed red so it was something warm that was filmed.
and granted it protected status. However, it was removed from the list in November 2005.
Due to the absence of definite proof of its existence, Storsjöodjuret has been examined as a folkloric phenomenon
. The rest of Sweden lack the lake monster tradition present in Jämtland, making Storsjöodjuret the only one of its kind in the country. It has instead been noted that Jämtland in this folkloric and ethnological
perspective is closer to Norway
, the Scottish Highlands
and Ireland
than Sweden, with the exception of the previously Norwegian province of Bohuslän
and the border regions of Dalsland
and Värmland
. As Jämtland was originally populated from the west and was a part of Norway for 450 years before it was ceded to Sweden in 1645 (as a result of the Brömsebro treaty) this lake monster perception is seen as an indicator of this historical legacy. Thus from a folkloric perspective Storsjöodjuret is placed as one of several common Norwegian-Gaelic beings seen as a result of ancient relations across the North Sea
, with lake monster siblings such as Selma
, Nessie
, Morag
and the Connemara
Monster, Storsjöodjuret being located in the eastern-most lake of these.
Lake monster
A lake monster or loch monster is a purported form of fresh-water-dwelling megafauna appearing in mythology, rumor, or local folklore, but whose existence lacks scientific support. A well known example is the Loch Ness Monster. Lake monsters' depictions are often similar to some sea monsters...
reported to live in the 300 feet (91.4 m) lake Storsjön
Storsjön
Storsjön is the fifth largest lake in Sweden, with an area of 464 km² and a greatest depth of 74 m. It is located in the province of Jämtland in modern Jämtland County. From Storsjön runs the river Indalsälven and the lake contains the major island Frösön...
in Jämtland
Jämtland
Jämtland or Jamtland is a historical province or landskap in the center of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders to Härjedalen and Medelpad in the south, Ångermanland in the east, Lapland in the north and Trøndelag and Norway in the west...
in the middle of Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. The lake monster was first reported in 1635 and is the only one of its kind in Sweden. When the only city located by Storsjön, Östersund
Östersund
Östersund is an urban area in Jämtland in the middle of Sweden. It is the seat of Östersund Municipality and the capital of Jämtland County. Östersund is located at the shores of Sweden's fifth largest lake, Storsjön, opposite the island Frösön, and is the only city in Jämtland. Östersund is the...
, celebrated its 200 year anniversary in 1986 Storsjöodjuret along with its offspring and nest became protected by law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
, a law which was revoked in 2005.
Name
It is popularly referred to as Storsjöodjuret whereas odjur is a SwedishSwedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
word for "monster", literally "unanimal" (a name first recorded in 1899), and storsjö is a compound
Compound (linguistics)
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word formation that creates compound lexemes...
of the Swedish words stor (big, or great) and sjö (lake) which would closest translate to "great-lake". Sometimes it's simply called Storsjödjuret, which translates to "The great-lake animal" instead of unanimal.
In the local dialect, Jamtish
Jamtlandic
Jamtlandic or Jamtish is a well-defined group of dialects of Scandinavia. It is spoken in the [Swedish] province of Jämtland...
, it has been named Storgläffs'n "the great yelper" by a locally known poet, this is however not a popularly used name. In the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
Storsjöodjuret is usually called Storsie, similarly to Nessie
NESSIE
NESSIE was a European research project funded from 2000–2003 to identify secure cryptographic primitives. The project was comparable to the NIST AES process and the Japanese Government-sponsored CRYPTREC project, but with notable differences from both...
, though the names Storsjö Monster (also spelled Storsjoe where the character ö
Ö
"Ö", or "ö", is a character used in several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter O with umlaut to denote the front vowels or . In languages without umlaut, the character is also used as a "O with diaeresis" to denote a syllable break, wherein its pronunciation remains an unmodified .- O-Umlaut...
is unavailable) and the literal translation The Great-Lake Monster are used. Its latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
name is Hydogiganta Monstruidae Jemtlandicum roughly meaning "The Gigantic Jamtlandic Water Monster". It has also been called Storsjöormen "The Great-Lake Serpent".
Description
Storsjöodjuret is described as a serpentineSerpent (symbolism)
Serpent in Latin means: Rory Collins :&, in turn, from the Biblical Hebrew word of: "saraf" with root letters of: which refers to something burning-as, the pain of poisonous snake's bite was likened to internal burning.This word is commonly used in a specifically mythic or religious context,...
or aquatic reptile
Reptile
Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...
with fins across its back and the head of a dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
. It is reported to measure approximately six meters long, and some accounts describe it as having several humps.
Legends
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
tale by vicar
Vicar
In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant...
Morgens Pedersen in 1635.
"A long, long time ago two trolls, Jata and Kata, stood on the shores of the Great-Lake brewing a concoction in their cauldrons. They brewed and mixed and added to the liquid for days and weeks and years. They knew not what would result from their brew but they wondered about it a great deal. One evening there was heard a strange sound from one of their cauldrons. There was a wailing, a groaning and a crying, then suddenly came a loud bang. A strange animal with a black serpentine body and a cat-like head jumped out of the cauldron and disappeared into the lake. The monster enjoyed living in the lake, grew unbelievably larger and awakened terror among the people whenever it appeared. Finally, it extended all the way round the island of Frösön, and could even bite its own tail. Ketil Runske bound the mighty monster with a strong spell which was carved on a stone and raised on the island of Frösön. The serpent was pictured on the stone. Thus was the spell to be tied till the day someone came who could read and understand the inscription on the stone."
Another legend was written down by the prolocutor Andreas Plantin in an inquiry
Inquiry
An inquiry is any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem. A theory of inquiry is an account of the various types of inquiry and a treatment of the ways that each type of inquiry achieves its aim.-Deduction:...
in 1685.
"It is said that beneath this [rune]stone lies a dreadfully large head of a serpent and that the body stretches over Storsjön to Knytta by and Hille Sand where the tail is buried. The serpent was called a råRåIn Scandinavian folklore, a rå is a keeper or warden of a particular location or landform. The different species of rå are sometimes distinguished according to the different spheres of nature with which they were connected, such as skogsrå or huldra , sjörå or havsrå , and bergsrå .-See...
and therefore shall this stone be risen. Since no one peacefully could cross [Storsjön], the ferryman and his wife states, along with many others, that in the last turbulent time this stone was tore down and broken in two. As long as this stone laid on the ground many strange things occurred in the water, until the stone was risen and assembled anew."
The runestone both texts refer to is the Frösö Runestone
Frösö Runestone
Frösöstenen is the northern-most raised runestone in the World and Jämtland's only runestone. It originally stood at the tip of ferry terminal on the sound between the island of Frösön and Östersund.On it is inscribed:...
, the northern-most raised runestone in the World. However while a large serpent is indeed pictured on the stone there is no reference about it nor "Ketil Runske
Kettil Runske
Kettil Runske was, according to Olaus Magnus' Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus , the man who brought runes to humankind, by stealing three rune staffs from Odin from which he learnt the runes. An apprentice named Gilbert defied Kettil, who punished him by throwing a rune staff at him whereby...
" in the text itself, which instead tells about Austmaðr, Guðfastr's son's christening of Jämtland. Though it has indeed been broken in two pieces.
Capture
Common interest in the creature was sparked first in the 1890s. After several sightings, an enterprise of locals was founded to catch the monster, even drawing the support from king Oscar IIOscar II of Sweden
Oscar II , baptised Oscar Fredrik was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death and King of Norway from 1872 until 1905. The third son of King Oscar I of Sweden and Josephine of Leuchtenberg, he was a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden through his mother.-Early life:At his birth in Stockholm, Oscar...
. Since then hundreds of monster sightings have been made. No scientific results have been made, but the supporters have never lost their faith.
In August 2008 a group of filmers claimed to have captured Storsjöodjuret on film. The cameras showed red so it was something warm that was filmed.
Protected status
In 1986, the Jämtland county administrative board declared the Storsjöodjuret to be an endangered speciesEndangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
and granted it protected status. However, it was removed from the list in November 2005.
Folkloric perspective
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
. The rest of Sweden lack the lake monster tradition present in Jämtland, making Storsjöodjuret the only one of its kind in the country. It has instead been noted that Jämtland in this folkloric and ethnological
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
perspective is closer to Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, the Scottish Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
than Sweden, with the exception of the previously Norwegian province of Bohuslän
Bohuslän
' is a Swedish traditional province, or landskap, situated in Götaland on the northernmost part of the country's west coast. It is bordered by Dalsland to the northeast, Västergötland to the southeast, the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea to the west, and the county of Østfold in Norway to the north...
and the border regions of Dalsland
Dalsland
Dalsland is a Swedish traditional province, or landskap, situated in Götaland in southern Sweden. Lying to the west of Lake Vänern, it is bordered by Värmland to the north, Västergötland to the southeast, Bohuslän to the west, and Norway to the northwest....
and Värmland
Värmland
' is a historical province or landskap in the west of middle Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Dalsland, Dalarna, Västmanland and Närke. It is also bounded by Norway in the west. Latin name versions are Vermelandia and Wermelandia. Although the province's land originally was Götaland, the...
. As Jämtland was originally populated from the west and was a part of Norway for 450 years before it was ceded to Sweden in 1645 (as a result of the Brömsebro treaty) this lake monster perception is seen as an indicator of this historical legacy. Thus from a folkloric perspective Storsjöodjuret is placed as one of several common Norwegian-Gaelic beings seen as a result of ancient relations across the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
, with lake monster siblings such as Selma
Selma (sea serpent)
Selma is a sea serpent said to live in the lake Seljordsvatnet in Seljord, Norway. According to most who have seen the supposed creature, Selma resembles a giant eel. The first eyewitness accounts date back to the 18th century....
, Nessie
NESSIE
NESSIE was a European research project funded from 2000–2003 to identify secure cryptographic primitives. The project was comparable to the NIST AES process and the Japanese Government-sponsored CRYPTREC project, but with notable differences from both...
, Morag
Morag (loch monster)
Morag or Mòrag is a loch monster reported to live in Loch Morar, Scotland. After Nessie, it is among the best known of Scotland's legendary monsters....
and the Connemara
Connemara
Connemara is a district in the west of Ireland consisting of a broad peninsula between Killary Harbour and Kilkieran Bay in the west of County Galway.-Overview:...
Monster, Storsjöodjuret being located in the eastern-most lake of these.
External links
- Official page of Storsjöodjuret In Swedish, English, German
- Great Lake Monster Website
- Unknownexplorers.com - Storsie In English