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Norwegian Nessie

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aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=342883
Link is dead. See subsequent post for more about the MIA webpage.


Apparently a giant snake type creature is living in a lake in Norway. It has humps which makes me believe its not a snake as we all know a snake doesnt make humps protrude from the water as they swim as their spines dont go that way. Leaving the posibility of a mammal reptile or amphibian. Perhaps it could even be a cadborosaurus? Or some type of prehistoric whale thought long extinct.
 
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think you'll find its more likely a zeuglodont... there was an expedition there in the early 90's by some Brit guys, news came out theyd got something pretty conclusive but havent heard much since
 
aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=342883
Link is dead. See subsequent post for more about the MIA webpage.

The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/2002080.../english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=342883

For archival purposes, here is the full text of the MIA webpage ...
Serpent sightings stir 'Loch Ness' fever

A group of seemingly rational men were planning to launch an unusual hunt on Monday. They hope to determine once and for all whether a lake in southern Norway really harbors a sea monster, after years of reported sightings.

Espen Samuelsen, 20, is leading the so-called Global Underwater Search Team (GUST) that will search for a serpent in the lake called Roemsjoeen, not far from the Swedish border.

Reported sightings of some sort of sea monster in the lake date back to the 1700s, building up a local legend akin to that of Scotland's famed "Loch Ness monster." For centuries, locals have passed on stories of strange sightings in the lake, from huge dark figures to sudden waves and turbulence in the water that disappear just as suddenly.

"We believe there is something in the lake that should be investigated," Samuelsen told newspaper Dagsavisen in Oslo. He claims researchers haven't taken the sightings seriously.

One of the more recent sightings, in September 1976, involved a busload of people who were being driven along the shore of the lake. Bus driver Asbjørn Holmedahl said he saw something unusual swimming in the water and thought it was a moose. He stopped the bus so his passengers could watch the moose come up on land.

Nothing emerged from the water, however, so he started driving again, until several passengers started hollering and telling him to stop. "I saw big waves, maybe 50 centermeters high, and something dark swimming, maybe 10 meters long," Holmedahl said. "It looked like it had humps."

And then it disappeared and the water became still again. "It all happened so fast, but it was big," Holmedahl said.
Another sighting in 1994 was similar. Samuelsen says he's aware that many laugh off his expedition, which appears similar to another (unsuccessful) attempt to find a serpent in a large lake at Seljord, in Telemark.

"There's a lot of skepticism about our work," he said. "But we're not paying attention to that." He said his group will use "advanced search methods," including an underwater microphone once used to track Soviet submarines.
 
The Rømsjøn lake creature has been noted since the 17th century. In January 2002 Fortean Times presented a feature article on the creature on the magazine's now-defunct website. The MIA article webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/2007101...es/255/in_search_of_norways_nessie_rmmie.html

For archival purposes, here is the full text of the MIA webpage ...
In search of Norway's Nessie, ‘Rømmie’

Norway still produces plenty of lake monster sightings. Espen Samuelsen spoke to the townsfolk of Rømskog about their very own ‘Rømmie’.
Text: Espen Samuelsen / Images: Espen Samuelsen
January 2002

Rømsjøen, or Rømmen as it used to be called, is a small lake in the county of Østfold in south-eastern Norway. It’s close to the Swedish border, and not far from the hamlet of Rømskog. Though it is the biggest lake in the area, at 14 sq km (5.4 sq m) it is smaller than most other ‘monster-lakes’.

As well as being rather small, Rømsjøen is not at all well known as a monster lake, even in Norway. Seljordsvatnet, with its ‘Selma’, is probably the most famous, but many lakes in Norway have had – and still have – sightings of the so-called “sjøorm”. According to Erik Knatterud, monsters have been sighted in 50 Norwegian lakes and up to 20 of these still generate sightings today.

As for Rømsjøen, there are several people who can testify that they have seen something strange in or around it (two people claim to have seen an unknown animal on land near the lake). Almost everyone in Rømskog “knows” that there is something there – they just don’t know what.

One old report suggests that the sea serpent of Rømsjøen was sighted as long ago as the 1700s, contemporary with the first Selma sightings. According to this account, the monster had a head resembling a calf’s and a body like a log. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Some years ago, Rømskog town council offered a reward of 10,000 Norwegian Kroner to anyone who could bring them a specimen of the lake’s unknown inhabitant. The councillors stated that while they did not believe in the existence of any such beast, most townspeople did – and now they had a chance to prove its existence. The reward, unsurprisingly, was never claimed.

I have gained the impression that more people have seen things in Rømsjøen than have actually come forward. During my research into the Rømsjøen lake monster, I spoke to people who were very reluctant to speak of what they had seen or tried to laugh it off. Such fear of ridicule, I imagine, will only grow in the 21st century. Fortunately, some witnesses were willing to talk, allowing us to compare their testimonies and see what they can tell us about the identity of the Rømsjøen monster.

In 1929 Astrid Myrvold was fetching water for her mother down by the shore. On her way back, she stopped for a rest and looked out over Rømsjøen, which was dead still in the sunshine. Suddenly she noticed something big and black lying on the shore. Astrid says it was rather like a plastic pipe; but as she says, such things did not exist back then.

Suddenly, it descended into the water and started weaving through the vegetation. “I clearly saw the vegetation move,” she says. Its head was above the water, and it had protruding ears – making it look a bit like a young horse. Its tail was like a fin, and it swam quickly through the bay, in a serpentine manner, leaving a large wake. Astrid ran to tell her mother that she had seen something horrible in the lake, and her mother rushed to see for herself, though Astrid tried to hold her back. Whatever had been there was now gone. Astrid’s brothers teased her that she had only seen a duck and ducklings. As a result, she kept the story to herself until, in 1976, a local man called Asbjørn Holmedal told everyone that he had seen something strange in Rømsjøen. Astrid was shown a drawing of the Loch Ness monster several years later and said to herself “That is what Isaw.”

In the 1930s, an unnamed neighbour of Asbjørn Holmedal was returning through the woods one night after visiting a friend. He saw an unknown animal just metres in front of him which looked like a big, black, crawling mass, and reminded him of a forest snail, only – at around 3-4 metres long – very much bigger. It was, he believed, on its way from a small lake higher up in the mountains down to Rømsjøen. The man was deeply shocked and fled as soon as the animal disappeared into the lake.

On Monday, 20 September 1976, at around 1.30pm, Asbjørn Holmedal was driving his bus from Lillestrøm through Rømskog towards the Swedish border. With him in the bus were his wife and 15 schoolchildren aged 8–13. When he reached the crossroads near the Rømskog church, he saw big waves coming to shore between the mainland and Bjørnøya island. There were no boats on the lake. Some bushes blocked Asbjørn’s sight, so he told the children to look out the window and try to spot a swimming elk, which is what he thought was out there. When they passed the bushes, he stopped the bus and the kids got out. There was no elk; instead, one of the children shouted that there was a big animal on the lake. Asbjørn saw it rise out of the water with great force, splashing water up into the air. It was 7–10 metres (23-33ft) long. The animal had four or five humps, one or two metres apart and about a metre long, showing about 30–40 cm (12-16in) above the surface. Asbjørn got out of the bus to get a better look, but as he got out, the animal suddenly sank into the water again, and Rømsjøen once more lay dead calm.

Professor Hjalmar Munthe-Kaas, of the University of Oslo, suggested that what had been seen was a swamp-gas filled log; emerging gas disturbed the water, and when the log was emptied, it sank again. Asbjørn Holmedal is sceptical: “Why did this thing swim towards land, then suddenly turn, swim out into the sea again, and then towards land again. And, when we got close to it, it suddenly sank.” Asbjørn also says one of his colleagues saw something similar splashing out on the lake when he drove past in his bus, but didn’t stop to examine the phenomenon more closely.

After Asbjørn’s encounter, Kjell Roger Nilsen came forward and told everybody that two years earlier, in 1974, he had been bathing with his wife in Rømsjøen one summer’s day when they saw something quite large swimming in circles around 500 metres (550 yards) away. They had got out of the water as quickly as possible. They were reluctant to tell people about it at first, afraid that they would not be taken seriously. They didn’t, and still don’t, believe in lake monsters, and thought it must have been some sort of big fish.

Early one morning in July 1992, Bjørg Bøhn, her husband Thorleif and daughter Anne Grethe were at their holiday home at Rømsjøen. Bjørg got up for her daily morning swim at around 8am. The sun was shining and the lake was dead calm; she sat on the mountain for a couple of minutes to watch the lake, then returned to their cabin. She took another look at the lake, this time through the window, and then she saw it – a dark object in the water, about 10–15 metres (33-49ft) from the shore. It was about 1.5 metres (5ft) long and 25–30 cm (10-12 in) or more in width. She estimated it rose above the water by 10–15 cm (4-6in). After talking to Bjørg and examining her drawing, I concluded that the object looked a bit like the underside of a boat. It also had a sort of pattern on its back, something Bjørg noted when she called her husband and daughter: “Come and see, the sea serpent’s coming! No wait, it’s a crocodile.” Bjørg says the pattern reminded her of a crocodile’s. All three of them watched the object approaching the shore at speed, leaving it a small wake behind it. After 10–15 seconds, it suddenly dived and disappeared. Bjørg believes that what she saw was the back of the animal. Bjørg called her brother-in-law and they went down to the shore to look for more signs of it; at a point where the water was some 2–3 metres (7-10ft) deep, they could see disturbances, as if something was moving in the depths. The family are good friends of Asbjørn Holmedal, and had often made fun of his sea-serpent sighting. Now it had become a reality for them too.

Throughout most of the “civilised” world, the lake monster phenomenon is regarded as a myth, and people are therefore ridiculed when they come forward to claim they have seen such a creature. Many people in Norway have been reluctant to come forward, especially as the media tend to sensationalise such things. Most people seem sincere and, as we have seen, many have had close sightings of these animals. I believe that at the root of the lake monster phenomenon there is, in fact, an unknown animal. The fact that people come forward with detailed reports even today, at a time when folklore and superstition are more or less dead (at least officially), seems to only strengthen my case. Why else would people risk ridicule for telling their story? Hoaxers wouldn’t have an easy time in Norway: few people consider lake monsters to be real, and the whole concept is looked on as a joke. But the fact that we still see these things (despite our education, despite “knowing better” than our ancestors) suggests that this is a genuine phenomenon, and most probably an unknown animal!
 
I've just come across this footage from another Norwegian lake, shot in 2012. The guy who films it has no idea what it is. The footage is blurry & shaky although something is moving in the water. Commenters on the YouTube page offer various solutions:

 
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