Storsjoodjuret

Sweden's most famous monster is the Storsjoodjuret, which translated as the "Great

Monster of Storsjon" or "The Great Lake Monster." Storsjoodjuret remains of interest to

the citizens around Storsjon, county of Jamtland, in central Sweden. The number of

persons who have sighted Storsjoodjuret is said to be in the hundreds, or maybe even

thousands, and more are added to that number yearly.

Witnesses describe the rapidly swimming, log-shaped, overturned-boat-kuje beast as

having three or more humps. Various accounts have it anywhere from nine to twenty-four

feet in length. Its color is black, gray, or shades of red-yellow-brown. Some observers

say they see feet, a horse-like head, a long neck, large eyes, and a large mouth. A few

people have heard a seemingly bizarre sound, said to be like "two pieces of wood,

clapped against each other," emitting from the creature.

"Every year we hear of people who have seen this beast," remarks Sten

Rentzhog, president of the Ostersund Society for the Scientific Investigation

of lake Storsjon, who has collected hundreds of sighting accounts dating back to 1635. "There are probably also a lot of
witnesses who never tell anybody about their sightings, for fear of ridicule. There are even people who have seen the
beast while they were diving."

In July 1996, Storsjoodjuret was recorded on video by GunBritt Widmark, sixty-seven, while boating on the lake off
Ostersund. The creature had humps and was thirty-three to thirty-nine feet long. Two years later a well publicized
expedition became the focus of worldwide media attention. The expedition consisted of Adrian Shine, a longtime
investigator of the Loch Ness Monster, and a group of Swedish researchers who had been studying the mysteriousevents
at Storsjon. Their inquiries produced no significant results. Storsjoodjuret has been explained in a number of ways - as
logs, ripples, gas bubbles, or misidentification of known animals - but none cover witnesses' descriptions adequately in
the judgement of the area's researchers.

Bibliography: Coleman, Loren & Clark, Jerome. (1999). Cryptozoology A to Z. New York: Fireside.

Sweden