This year marks 80 years since the first black and white photograph of the Loch Ness monster appeared in the Scottish press. Today, hundreds of articles and dozens of books have been written about Nessie, and many documentaries and feature films have been shot. At the same time, her numerous European “relatives”, including Russian ones, were unfairly left behind the scenes.
Ladoga lizard
One of the most famous waterfowl pangolins living in Russia is the so-called Ladoga Nessie. The well-known writer and ethnographer of Karelia Alexey Popov has repeatedly mentioned this phenomenon. In his books, he gives a description of a monster that a resident of the village of Mantsinsaari of the Pitkyaranta region A. S. happened to see in the 70s of the last century. Konovalov:
“In the summer of 1973, as usual, we hunted fish on Ladoga. I remember it was a bright sunny day. There was almost no wind. Looking at the smooth surface of the lake, we saw in the distance an object on the surface of the water and shining brightly in the sun.
Actually, that's why we noticed him. At first they thought that some boat had turned over, and even decided to go up to him to check, but after looking closely, they saw that the object was alive! He sailed slowly along the coast, but it was clear that he was approaching us. To be honest, we freaked out, started the engine and went straight to the shore, since it was not far away … My father told me that there is a "monster" in the lake, and people say that somewhere he was allegedly seen … I didn't really believe it, but then I suddenly remembered all this …
Having climbed onto the coastal terrace, we continued our observation and made sure that it was some kind of huge animal. It was approaching, and it was already possible to see those parts of it that protruded from the water. Its body length was about ten meters; it was massive, dark gray. A large head rested on a long neck. We even noticed the expression in this monster's eyes; they were widely spaced, and they felt ferocious and angry. Before reaching the shore a few tens of meters, the animal stopped, then vigorously thrashed in the water, raising a cascade of spray, and dived. It was no longer shown, although at this place we were for a long time, afraid to enter the lake."
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There are a lot of similar descriptions in Popov's archive. Some of them are false testimonies of emotionally susceptible people who sincerely believe that they have personally seen the legendary creature, but in fact take for the body of a "monster" outlines of bizarre driftwood or play of light in the waters of the lake. The remaining evidence is the stories of local residents, the objectivity of which is beyond doubt, because these people simply have no reason for deliberate lies, especially since their grandfathers and great-grandfathers inherited "incredible" stories about the Ladoga lizard.
In confirmation of the reality of the existence of the Ladoga monster, one could also cite local legends and traditions associated with the Valaam monastery. In ancient texts, an unknown animal of monstrous size is often mentioned, which repeatedly devastated the networks of monks, but never fell into them.
Lake myths
It is interesting that if you carefully study the mythological texts of the peoples living on the shores of the northern seas, it turns out that each of them has their own story about a terrible monster living in a lake or coastal waters. In Iceland, there are still legends about a mysterious lake animal called Skrimsl.
In Canada, they talk about the huge Ogopogo that has existed since the time of the Indians in Lake Okanagan. In Ireland, since 1945, a large animal, unknown to modern science, has been observed in four lakes at once. The Swedish press has repeatedly reported on the mysterious inhabitants of six water bodies of the country …
Did they worship dragons in Kizhi?
Some local historians of the North of Russia have put forward a rather controversial hypothesis. They drew attention to the fact that the domes of churches in Kizhi resemble in their appearance a dragon's skin, and the unusual architecture of these temple buildings does not fit into any of the widespread Christian movements. Rather, the style of these ceremonial structures should be attributed to the so-called Celtic Christianity.
In Norway and Sweden there are whole areas where all the churches are wooden. But the Catholics never built wooden churches. These are Gnostic structures built in honor of a dragon or a serpent in the Garden of Eden. Their architecture was significantly different from Catholic churches. Also, their roofs were covered with a material resembling dragon skin, and the crosses belonged to the Celtic culture. Often, instead of crosses, Norwegian wooden temples were decorated with snake heads.
Dragons in the decorations of ancient Norse churches
There are dozens of such churches in Norway, built in the 10th-11th centuries. The oldest surviving structure is a wooden church built in 1130 in Urnes in Norway. Its walls are decorated not only with traditional Christian motives, but also … with images of a creature that looks like a snake or a dragon.
A few kilometers from the temple in Urnes, there is an even more amazing object - a frame wooden church in Borgund. It was built in 1180 and has never been restored. But the main feature of this building is that its roof is crowned with the heads of real dragons! Once there were up to 1,500 such churches in Norway, but nowadays there are only 28 of them. By the way, according to researchers, the tradition of worshiping lizards has also spread in England and Russia.
Norwegian snake
There is no smoke without fire … It is unlikely that our ancestors would have created myths, legends and buildings dedicated to dragons, if they had not had a chance to see these creatures with their own eyes. Perhaps the same conclusion was reached by the members of the international team of mythozoologists, who are still trying to no avail to "detect" the Norwegian Nessie - a huge sea snake, according to legends, living in a lake 160 kilometers from Oslo. At the same time, local residents assure scientists that meetings with the monster have been taking place regularly since the middle of the 18th century.
The domes of churches in Kizhi seem to be covered with a scaly dragon skin
Biologists also know for certain that huge snakes are found in the sea and coastal rocks of Norway. It is believed that they once lived in forests, and then, having reached impressive sizes, moved to the bays and the sea.
Today, almost every major lake in Norway has its own legend of a huge snake. True, in our time, if these monsters are seen, then only in the fjords, where they rise from the bottom of the sea in calm.
However, in the early Middle Ages they were seen much more often. So, according to legend, a sea serpent the size of a calf lived in Bollarvatna. There is also a known case when a giant snake crawled onto a stone cliff. According to ancient legends, her eyes were the size of the bottom of a small barrel, and a long mane hung from her neck. Not calculating its strength, the reptile got stuck between the stones. Seeing this spectacle, one of the local bishop's servants began to shoot with a bow in the eye of the snake. After several arrows hit the target, the snake died, and the ground around it was saturated with green blood. The corpse of the reptile smelled so much that the locals burned it, although the skeleton lay on the shore for a long time …
Even Walter Scott in the novel "Pirate" described a sea serpent that rises from the depths of the ocean, stretches its huge neck covered with a mane to the heavens, like a war horse, and, reaching the height of the mast, carefully moves its huge sparkling eyes around in search of prey or victims. However, the most detailed description of the sea dragons living off the Norwegian coast is Eric Jontopidian in his Natural History of Norway. In his opinion, such snakes live deep in the depths of the sea and only in calm summer weather rise to the surface, in order to soon sink to the bottom again …
The book contains the testimony of Commander de Ferris, given in 1746 before the court. Here is what they say: the sea serpent, which de Ferris saw in the vicinity of Mold, had a head resembling that of a horse, and held it, raising it about an elbow from the water. The color is grayish, with a black snout, very large black eyes and a long white mane hanging from the neck in the sea. Seven or eight loops of his very thick body were also visible.
Maybe somewhere in the depths of the Arctic Ocean there really is a whole civilization of lizards that periodically show themselves to people? It remains only to wait until at least one of them can be captured on camera in such a foreshortening that one can unequivocally declare: dragons exist!
Victor PTICHKIN