Is this Iceland's Loch Ness Monster? Amateur footage shows 'giant serpent' slinking its way through lake

Is this Iceland’s Loch Ness Monster? Amateur footage shows ‘giant serpent’ slinking its way through lake

By Damien Gayle
Updated: 15:28 BST, 8 February 2012

Iceland’s equivalent to the Loch Ness monster has apparently been pictured on footage taken by an amateur cameraman.

The video, taken by Hjörtur Kjerúlf at the glacial river Jökulsá í Fljótsdal, east Iceland, appears to show the serpent-like monster known as Lagarfljótsormurinn, or Lagarfljót’s Worm.

Belief in the existence of the worm, which is said to reside in the lake Lagarfljót, can be sourced back to at least 1345.

Sightings of the beast are considered a bad omen.

Does this footage prove the existence of Lagarfljót’s Worm?

Amateur cameraman Hjörtur Kjerúlf captured the scene at the glacial river Jökulsá í Fljótsdal, east Iceland

Legends say the monster began life as a tiny worm which a girl placed on a ring of gold to make the it grow, according to Iceland Review Online.

But when the owner of the ring returned she found that instead of making the gold grow, the worm had grown into a giant snake.

In her terror, she flung both into lake Lagarfljót, where the worm continued to grow and eventually became a fearsome dragon.

Lagarfljót, is a freshwater, below-sea-level, glacial-fed lake which has very poor visibility as a result of siltation.

Inauspicious: Sightings of Lagarfljót’s Worm are believed to be a bad omen

Rational explanation? Sceptics say it’s probably just a fishing net which has freed itself from the thawing ice

The worm is believed to be at least 91m (300ft) long, with many humps.

It has sometimes been reported outside the water, lying coiled up or slithering into the trees.

Sometimes it is said to be as long as the lake itself, 30km (19 miles).

Kjerúlf’s video was first shown by the Icelandic national broadcaster, 배터리게임 RÚV.
Sceptics say it could show a torn fishing net which blew into the river and froze.

As the ice thawed, it is thought, the net may have come loose and the ‘worm’ wound its way through the water.