Also called Sea Serpent, Sjöorm, Havorm, Storsjöodjuret (lake form).
The tale
Olaus Magnus in 1555 described an enormous sea serpent off the coast of Norway, two hundred feet long, which came ashore on summer nights to eat cattle and would rear up to snatch sailors from ships; its appearance was an omen of change in the kingdom. Pontoppidan also collected accounts. In Sweden, Lake Storsjön has its own famous monster, reported from the seventeenth century to today.
When they are met
- at sea or by deep lakes
- in storms
Staying on their good side
- care for water and shore
- a stone returned to the shore
Honouring them, or keeping safe
- Sit by a deep lake or fjord and think of how many people saw serpents in the waves.
- Check weather and water conditions before going out on deep water, as the old sailors did.
What their tales teach
- wonder
- respect for deep water
Symbols
- a long humped body
- a maned head rising from the water
- a ship in its coils
A creature of later folklore and early natural history, related to but distinct from Jörmungandr.
Sources
- Olaus Magnus, Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (1555)
- Erik Pontoppidan, The Natural History of Norway (1752–53)
More Norse folklore
- Huldra The hidden woman of the forest
- Nisse The little old man of the farm
- Draugr The restless dead of the sagas
- Trolls The old dwellers in mountain and stone
- Valkyries The choosers of the slain
- Fossegrim The fiddler beneath the waterfall
- Nøkken The fiddler in the still water
- Mara The spirit who rides sleepers