56 
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 toward 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 tumultuous 
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, 
* ' Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus,' Lib. xxi. cap. 43. 
t " Coils itself in spherical convolutions " is a better translation of 
the original Latin. 
