The legend of Storsjöodjuret

Storsjön is a deep, cold lake in Jämtland, in the middle of Sweden. Folk tales say two troll sisters, Jata and Kata, spent years on its shore brewing something in a great black cauldron. One night the brew boiled over with a scream, and a creature crawled out of it into the water. It grew there: a long black body that rises out of the lake in humps, with a head like a cat’s or a horse’s and a crest down its neck.

The people of the lake carved a runestone on the island of Frösön, and the tale says its runes bind the creature for as long as the stone stands. The stone is real, and it is the northernmost runestone in Sweden.

In 1894 the locals tried to catch it. They forged a huge iron trap, baited it with a whole pig, and sank it in the lake. The creature never took the bait, and the trap is still on show at the Jamtli museum in Östersund. People have reported sightings ever since, and from 1986 to 2005 the creature was a protected animal under Swedish law.

The picture at the top of this page is our Storsjöodjuret gift card. If you know someone who would like the monster in their inbox, send them a Storsjöodjuret gift card.