There is a small lake Remmen in the Ostfold district of South-Eastern Norway, near the town of Rømskog.
Although this body of water is the largest in the area - 14 square kilometers - it is still much smaller than most other known Norwegian lakes, which are believed to be home to monsters.
According to the journalist Eric Knetterud (a great expert on Norwegian cryptozoology), who specially studied this issue, in twenty lakes of the Scandinavian country, locals periodically observe strange creatures. As for Remmen, several eyewitnesses saw a monster in the lake or on the shore. Almost every resident of Römskog is sure - there is something there, but they don't know what it is!
The earliest evidence dates back to the early 18th century. The inhabitant of Lake Remmen, according to eyewitnesses, has a calf's head and a body similar to a log.
Several years ago, the Römskog City Council established a prize of NOK 10,000 for anyone who presents any evidence of the existence of the monster - excrement samples, clear photographs, etc. However, the prize remained unclaimed.
The first reliable observation of Remmy, as the monster was nicknamed, dates back to 1929. A young girl Astrid Myhrvold went to the lake for water. On the way back, she stopped to rest. The sun was going down, there was not a breeze, and the water in the lake looked like a smooth mirror. Suddenly, Astrid spotted what looked like a large black pipe on the shore. Suddenly the "pipe" slid into the water and began to wade through the reeds and sedge growing near the shore.
The girl saw the vegetation moving in the path of the monster. A head stuck out above the water, a bit like a horse's, with protruding ears. The creature's tail resembled a fin and wriggled like a snake. Astrid rushed home and called her mother, but when they came ashore, Remmy was already in hiding. Astrid's brothers laughed at her and thought she had seen ducks. Years later, Astrid saw an image of the Loch Ness monster in a magazine and said to herself, "This is who I saw then."
In 1934, neighbor Astrid Asbjorn Holmedal was returning home late at night through the forest from a neighboring village. Suddenly, he saw a few meters away from him a terrible creature resembling a snake, but four meters long. Asbjorn was terribly frightened and ran away towards the lake.
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As it seemed to the man, the monster chased after him. Holmedal started up even faster, having reached the lake, turned onto a path that ran along the coast. Hearing a strong splash, he turned around and saw the creature jump into the water.
Römskog coast
Remmy's other credible observation goes back to September 20, 1976. Erik Gustavson was driving a bus from Lilleström via Römskog towards the Swedish border. In addition to Eric, his wife and 15 schoolchildren, aged 8 to 13, were on the bus. When they reached the crossroads near the church in Römskog, Erik looked at the lake and saw big waves between the shore and the island of Bjornoja.
The driver stopped and the passengers left the cabin. The view was limited to the bushes, but it was clear that a large creature was floating on the lake. Eric thought at first it was an elk. The children screamed as the monster began puffing ashore. Everyone saw perfectly well that the monster had a serpentine body about 10 meters long, on its back - 4 or 5 humps. Eric wanted to get closer, but the animal dived again. Apparently Remmy swam deep, as the surface of the lake was no longer disturbed.
Oslo University professor Hjalmar Monte Kaas suggested that Gustavson and the students saw the log. However, Eric accepted the professor's comment with skepticism: "How could a log float, raising waves, then crawl to the shore, turn around again and jump into the water?"
In 1980, a resident of Römskog, Roger Nielsen, swam with his wife in the lake. They noticed a large animal with humps sticking out above the water and a calf's head swimming in circles at a distance of about 500 meters. Frightened, the Nielsens quickly went ashore. When they looked back, the monster was gone, possibly diving.
In July 1992, Björg Bonn, who was staying with her grandmother in Römskog, went to swim on the lake at 8 am. Coming ashore, she saw a dark object, slightly rising above the surface 15 meters from the coast, about 1.5 meters long and 30 centimeters wide. At the first moment, the girl thought it was a crocodile. "But where do crocodiles come from in Norway?" - flashed a sensible thought in the next moment. Björg later drew what she saw on paper.
The journalist Eric Knetterud, in whose hands the drawing fell, concluded that the object resembles an overturned boat. The girl told the journalist that for 30 seconds she watched Remmy, if it was him, swim to the shore at high speed, leaving a small foam trail behind her.
Then he dived and disappeared altogether. Björg was sure she saw some kind of animal or a huge fish. She called Alex, her cousin, and the young people took a boat along the coast, hoping to find traces of this animal. Remmen is a fairly deep lake, the depth reaches 20 meters, and the bottom immediately drops off the coast. Björg and her brother saw something move in the depths, dark and large.
Before this incident, Alex had laughed at the Nielsens, his neighbors, who often, especially during festive feasts, liked to talk about how they saw the hunchbacked Remmy. Now the young man is ready to enter into a furious argument with any skeptic who says that all animals living on Earth have long been described by biologists, and no lake monster exists in nature.
As you can see, there are many credible observations of Remmy. Eric Knetterud believes that some kind of monster lives in Remmen, probably the closest relative of the Scottish Nessie.
In Norwegian folklore, there are monkey snakes. Perhaps their prototypes were animals such as Remmi or Selma (another popular Norwegian lake monster living in Lake Seljord), which actually live in the waters of this Scandinavian country.