Loch Ness might get the most press, but Nessie certainly does not possess a corner on the market of lake monsters. The Serpent of Hornindalsvatnet, in Hornindal, Norway has been reported all the way back to the 1700’s, and recently by three men, Andreas Solvik, Arvid Otterdal and Finn Nyhammer who were on their way home to the village of Eid in a small boat when a disturbance on the water caught their attention.
– It was almost silent on the water as the ripples began. We sat in a small motor boat 70 meters away, but did not know what we saw, but I got a picture of it, says Solvik to Dagbladet.
You will really need to go to the original article at Dagdbladet.No to get a better idea of the photo.
At more than double the depth of Loch Ness, Hornindalsvatnet is Norway’s and Europe’s deepest lake, officially measured to a depth of 514 metres (1,686 ft) but only 14 miles long compared to Ness’s 23 miles.
Because the original article appears in a Norwegian newspaper, and Google Translate I am sure does a fine job, but lacks the finesse of an actual human translator so there are certain discrepancies. The original article linked above quotes the length of the serpent at between two and three feet in length. But just a casual look at the picture will tell you it is either more than that, or skinny as a clothes line. Hardly to be feared. Another article at Doppler1000.com quotes the length at three to four meters, which gives the Hornindalsvatnet serpent (Horny?) a bit more presence. But it is not the size that counts, Chupacabra gets just as much press as Bigfoot.
In any case, while there are known to be eels in the lake, they do not grow to the size reported, and eels do not swim in this fashion, rather sweeping side to side. As members of the fish family they have no good reason to surface like this since there is not likely a predator in the lake to threaten something 12 feet long. Or, if there is, then whoops that opens up a whole new can of worms.
Norway is habitat to only three species of snake, and only one lives in wetlands regions.
Somehow I don’t think this guy gets mistaken for a sea serpent by anything bigger than the occasional lemming. And, water snakes are also side to side swimmers, just like eels. The only animals known to swim with an “up and down” motion are mammals.
At the crushing depths of this lake, who knows what has sunk to the bottom and might float up from time to time. However the men claim to have observed the creature moving and disappearing below the surface again. There are a number of serpents reported to exist across Norway, Europe and the world, and various attempts to prove the existence of any of them have netted few if any substantive results. Pictures and stories are all we ever have. And maybe in some cases the stories are better than the facts.
They can certainly be more fun, and after all, what would we have to report to you if every mystery were proven?
