Lyngbakr ( Icelandic, ''lyngi'' " heather" + ''bak'' "back") is the name of a massive

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

-like

sea monster Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or tentacled beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are of ...

reported in the '' Örvar-Odds'' saga to have existed in the Greenland Sea. According to the saga, Lyngbakr would bait seafarers by posing as a heather-covered island, and when a crew landed on his back, he sank into the sea, drowning the crew.

Örvar-Odds saga

Örvar-Oddr Örvar-Oddr ( non, Ǫrvar-Oddr , "Arrow-Odd" or "Arrow's Point") is a legendary hero about whom an anonymous Icelander wrote a ''fornaldarsaga'' in the latter part of the 13th century. ''Örvar-Odds saga'', the Saga of Örvar-Odd, became very popul ...

and his crew were sailing southwesterly through the Greenland Sea in vengeance against the troll Ögmundr Floki, slayer of Eythjof, the deck officer Vignir knew this area would be dangerous, and made Oddr agree to sail the ship beginning the next day, to which Oddr requested Vignir advise him. As they sailed, they spotted two rocks which rose out of the water. The presence of these rocks puzzled Oddr. Later, they passed by a large island covered in heather. Curious, Oddr made up his mind to turn back and send five men to check out the island, but as they approached where the island had been before, they saw that it and the two rocks vanished. Vignir explained to Oddr that, had they landed sooner, the crew would have surely drowned. The "rocks" and "island" must have been two sea monsters—Lyngbakr, the greatest whale in the world, and ''

hafgufa ( non, haf "sea" + non, gufa "steam"; "sea-reek"; "sea-steamer") is a legendary massive sea monster (or whale), purported to inhabit Iceland's waters (Greenland Sea) and southward towards Helluland. When the creature remains stationary it is mis ...

'', who bore all the monsters in the sea. The rocks had surely been the nose of Hafgufa; the island, Lyngbakr; and Ögmundr had surely summoned the beasts to kill Oddr and his men. Both the lyngbakur and hafgufa seem to have derived from a single creature called the ''

aspidochelone According to the tradition of the '' Physiologus'' and medieval bestiaries, the aspidochelone is a fabled sea creature, variously described as a large whale or vast sea turtle, and a giant sea monster with huge spines on the ridge of its back. ...

'' in the ''Physiologus''. The Icelandic Physiologus contains two illustrations of the aspidochelone, one with its back overgrown with vegetation and another with gaping jaws., citing , ''Icelandic Physiologus'', pp. 10–11, 19

References

* '' Örvar-Odds''

{{in lang, is Mythological aquatic creatures Legendary mammals Fictional whales Sea monsters Creatures in Norse mythology

Örvar-Odds saga

See also

References