Map of Iceland:
Several sea monsters cavort in the waters off Iceland in this 1585 map drawn by Andreas Velleius.
Tales of monsters in Iceland go back as far its history. In ancient chronicles monsters were said to encircle the island destroying everyone attempting to settle it. When King Harald Gormsson of Denmark wanted to settle Iceland he sent a magician to assess weather it would pay off to send people to this isolated island. The magician encountered an army of monsters defending the whole coast line. He turned back reporting that the place was totally inhabitable thus ending further intentions of settlement.
In the 17th and 18th century reports of monsters were frequent, especially in the country side. The most common monsters were skeljaskrímsli (shell monsters) usually seen or encountered at the coast. These monsters were said to be the size of a large cow with their bodies covered with hard shells. Virtually invisible at the beach the only way to detect them was by the terrible rattling sound they made moving around. They were extremely vicious attacking and killing number of travellers and livestock.
One of Iceland’s most infamous monsters is the serpent of Lake Lagarfljot in East Iceland. It is Iceland’s equivalent to the Loch Ness monster annually drawing number of tourists to the lake.
Sightings of monsters have become rare in recent times but every once in a while reports are being made, especially by hunters and farmers.
source: http://www.icelandtoday.is
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