The Lagarfljót Worm: Iceland’s Serpent and the Video That Divided a Town

The grey-green waters of Lake Lagarfljót in eastern Iceland, seen from a rocky hillside under a cloudy sky

About 6 min readIceland’s Lagarfljót Worm has been reported since 1345. In 2012 a farmer filmed something serpentine moving through an icy river — and a thirteen-member commission declared the footage authentic. The argument since then has been about what the camera actually saw.