382 SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED. 



existence as implicitly as in the tenets of their religious 

 creed. Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala, in Sweden, 

 wrote of it in A.D. 1555 as follows :* 



" They who in works of navigation on the coasts of Norway employ 

 themselves in fishing or merchandize do all agree in this strange story, 

 that there is a serpent there which is of a vast magnitude, namely 

 200 foot long, and moreover, 20 foot thick ; and is wont to live in 

 rocks and caves towards the sea-coast about Berge : which will go 

 alone from his holes on a clear night in summer, and devour calves, 

 lambs, and hogs, or else he goes into the sea to feed on polypus 

 (octopus), locusts (lobsters), and all sorts of sea-crabs. He hath 

 commonly hair hanging from his neck a cubit long, and sharp scales, 

 and is black, and he hath flaming, shining eyes. This snake disquiets 

 the shippers ; and he puts up his head on high like a pillar, and 

 catcheth away men, and he devours them ; and this happeneth not 

 but it signifies some wonderful change of the kingdom near at hand ; 

 namely, that the princes shall die, or be banished ; or some tumul- 

 tuous wars shall presently follow. There is also another serpent of 

 an incredible magnitude in an island called Moos in the diocess of 

 Hammer ; which, as a comet portends a change in all the world, so 

 that portends a change in the kingdom of Norway, as it was seen 

 anno 1522 ; that lifts himself high above the waters, and rolls himself 

 round like a sphere. f This serpent was thought to be fifty cubits long 

 by conjecture, by sight afar off : there followed this the banishment of 

 King Christiernus, and a great persecution of the Bishops ; and it 

 shewed also the destruction of the country." 



The Gothic Archbishop, amongst other signs and omens, 

 also attributes this power of divination to the small red 

 ants which are sometimes so troublesome in houses, and 

 declares that they also portended the downfall, A.D. 1523, 

 of the abominably cruel Danish king, Christian II., above 

 mentioned. His curious work is full of wild improbabili- 

 ties and odd superstitions, most of which he states with a 

 calm air of unquestioning assent ; but as he wrote in the 



* Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, lib. xxi., cap. 43. 

 t " Coils itself in spherical convolutions " is a better translation of 

 the original Latin. 



