The Lake Monster of Fegen

Is there a lake monster?

Over the years, there have been numerous sightings of large hideous creatures in Lake Fegen. In the summer of 1969, at least 20 people reported seeing the lake monster. According to their witness accounts, it had a black body, was 4 metres long and made a hissing noise.

Einar Sanden of Lilla Kätebo, at that time chairman of Fegen's fish conservation association, was down by the lake at 8 o'clock in the morning, one weekday in early May of that year, to see if anyone had got their boat in the lake for the upcoming summer fishing season. "Suddenly, I saw some sort of animal moving at tremendous speed along the opposite bank."

Einar clocked the animal to a speed of 1,300 metres in three minutes and watched it disappear behind Brattåsen's headland. Ten seconds or so later, it came back the same way and at the same speed, descended into the depths and disappeared. He described the animal as grey-black, 3-4 metres long, about 1.5 metres wide and 30 cm tall. According to Einar, it resembled an upside-down boat as it rushed through the water.

According to the old newspaper article where the story is documented, the people of Västergötland on the other side of the lake were of the opinion that the Smålanders were hallucinating. However, the Smålanders protested violently and swore that they had seen the monster. According to Einar, it was precisely for this reason that the monster had not been revealed earlier, i.e. there was a fear that people would make fun of the farmers in the pastures around the lake.