COUNTRY FILE · EUROPE
Cryptids of Norway
What cryptids are in Norway? The best-known are Kraken and Selma.
Norway’s long Atlantic coast, deep fjords and cold inland lakes have bred sea monsters for as long as Norwegians have gone to sea. The most famous is the kraken, an island-sized creature that fishermen said rose from the deep on calm summer days and could drag a boat down in the whirlpool it left behind. Its roots go back to the medieval King’s Mirror, but it was Erik Pontoppidan, Bishop of Bergen, who made it world-famous in his Natural History of Norway (1752–53), translated into English in 1755. Science later caught up with part of the legend: the giant squid is real, and probably the animal behind it.
Cryptids reported in Norway
LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1752
Kraken
Norwegian Sea, off the coast of Norway
The island-sized sea monster of Norwegian fishermen’s lore, made famous by Bishop Pontoppidan in 1752 – and probably inspired by the giant squid.
FOLKLORE
LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1750
Selma
Lake Seljordsvatnet, Seljord, Telemark
Norway’s best-known lake serpent, said since 1750 to swim the narrow lake at Seljord in Telemark, where she now graces the town’s coat of arms.
REGIONAL LEGENDThe legends of Norway
Norway is also a land of sea serpents – the sjøorm – and they are said to live not only in the ocean but in its lakes. The best known is Selma, the serpent of Seljordsvatnet in Telemark, first recorded in 1750 when a boatman said a serpent overturned one of his boats. Expeditions with sonar and a mini-submarine have searched the lake, most famously in 1998, and since 1989 a golden sea serpent has been Seljord’s coat of arms.
Norway’s monsters are celebrated with good humour, from Seljord’s lakeside serpent-watching tower to the 2026 Norwegian monster film Kraken. A road trip might run from Bergen, Pontoppidan’s see, along the western fjords, then inland to Telemark and the narrow lake at Seljord.
Hotspots
The narrow lake where Selma has been reported since 1750, with a serpent-watching tower on the shore.
Bishop Pontoppidan’s city and the fjord coast whose fishermen supplied his kraken stories.
Deep waters off the coast where the kraken was said to rise – and where giant squid really do live.
Sightings timeline
- 1750The capsized boat Selma
A boatman from Bø reported that a serpent attacked and overturned one of his boats as he crossed the lake. It is the oldest written account of the creature.
- 1786The priest’s description Selma
Hans Jacob Wille noted the strange creature of the lake in his published description of the parish, keeping the tradition on record.
- September 15, 1989A serpent on the coat of arms Selma
Seljord was granted its coat of arms, a gold sea serpent on red designed by Trygve Magnus Barstad – official recognition of Selma as the village’s emblem.
- August 1998Jan-Ove Sundberg’s expedition Selma
A 12-member international team led by Swedish monster hunter Jan-Ove Sundberg spent two weeks searching the lake with modern equipment, followed by a British TV crew. Local witnesses had reported two sightings earlier that summer.
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