More than three million people have viewed the recent footage which may or may not be of Iceland’s mythical Lagarfljóts Worm; which is often dubbed the country’s answer to the Loch Ness Monster.
The Worm is one of many in Norse mythology and not directly related to Loch Ness in any way; but the Nessie connotations and the high quality of the video have seen the story sweep the globe this week — especially capturing the imaginations of people in Japan and the USA. It has been featured on many of America’s biggest news programmes.
Now the amateur cameraman responsible for the footage, Hjörtur E. Kjerúlf, has told the media that “This is absolutely not a hoax by me, that is ridiculous. This is no joke.”
He explained to Bylgjan Radio that he did not set up the ‘monster footage’ and that he did not ever claim that it was the Lagarfljóts Worm. He left that for others to decide.
Hjörtur says that he noticed the ‘monster’ in the river from his kitchen window and continued to drink his coffee. After finishing his drink and seeing that the strange sight was still there, he says he decided it might be fun to catch it on tape.
Hjörtur says that he did not upload the video to the internet himself, instead taking it to the RÚV television office in Egilsstaðir. From there the national news decided to play his footage and then somebody else put it onto YouTube and Iceland’s English language media also translated the news. The rest, as they say, is history.
An expert interviewed by ABC in the USA claims the video was probably a joke; but Hjörtur says it was not. But neither did he definitively claim it to be the Lagarfljóts Worm. He also says that he has been too busy this week to follow the global media sensation he has caused.
Well, we all need a “bigfoot”, so why not Iceland? It’s good for tourism. Didn’t someone tie some rope or thread around this thing to keep it tame??? That’s what the “Lindworm” tale says…it must have come loose.
If it’s a female, send me a little one. I have this gold watchband…
W. in CO/USA
Well I don’t see how it could be fake. It is moving up the current so that throws the whole its a frozen net theory out. It looks uncannily like a snake. Although, how would a snake specie move in such cold water? Oh well, always a mystery.
>>>Well I don’t see how it could be fake. It is moving up the current
Apparently not:
“She analyzed the video and took several screen captures at different times and compared the location of the animal’s “head” to static reference points to see if the swimming creature was actually moving, or the result of an optical illusion. She found that the object is stationary in the water; it appears to be moving up the stream but is not.”
http://news.discovery.com/animals/icelandic-river-monster-121302.html
I like the idea that the ‘witness’ to this great phenomenon, after noticing the ‘monster’, proceeded to drink and finish his coffee before investigating the matter any further.
It looks to me like some shards of ice moving along a ice edge that is shaped like a snake, the wind blows the shards against the current.
If this was a mythical Icelandic worm monster it would be 100 meters long, it would have swam straight to the camera man, spit poison at him, then fried him with flames from its nose while bashing him with its tail.
Then it would have destroyed the nearest town just out of spite before swimming out to sea to be lost again for a few 1000 years.
All those worms are based on the one and only Midgardsormur,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B6rmungandr
The worm of Midgard, Midgard is the world of men.
Loki created this worm and when Odin took it and threw it into the ocean it grew into a huge monster that circled the earth, biting its tail.
Its odd to think about it, its like they are describing the Mid Atlantic Ridge, it also circles the earth and only surfaces in Iceland, where it looks like a head biting its tail.
Reykjanes being the tail.
http://academic.emporia.edu/aberjame/student/brown3/iceland.htm
Ooooohoooh I’m back to scare everyone…..now then, now then boys and girls….I can tell you that if I was witness to this event, I would’ve spat my coffee out and s**t myself at the same time. Ironicallly my friends, I nearly did a similar thing when I first appeared on television back in the 60′s. Enough of the spooky monsters, must get back to the duchess…oooooooh
That’s a mystery animal in iceland and it looks so scary uhhh my mother said it’s long like 31km omg so long.