The Mystery of the Loch Ness... Monster?
Is Nessie a fantastic beast?
Background Information
Muggle Side of the Story
First Sightings
20th Century
Wizarding Explanation
Grace Nickelin
Is Nessie Alone?
Background Information
Located in Scotland, in the area known as the Highlands, there is a lake which has intrigued Muggles for many years - the Loch Ness. The lake is surrounded by two cities: Fort Augustus and Inverness. The Loch Ness is the largest soft water lake in all of Great Britain, which may contribute to the reduced visibility underwater. The loch is about 10,000 years old, which means that any of the animals who live in it, have been inhabitants for less than ten thousand years.
Muggle Side of the Story
First Sightings
The first appearance of a "monster" in the Loch Ness, was in 565 AD, but was only reported in the 7th century biography Life of Saint Columba. Saint Columba was visiting the lake area, when one of the men he had met said that he had been bitten by a monster coming from the river Ness. In an effort to convert the Picts to Christianity, Saint Columba was said to have chased
the monster out of the river by prayer. After this occurrence, testimonies of the appearance of a monster, could only be heard among the locals gossiping.
In the 19th century, the aristocrats who came to hunt in the Highlands heard about the fabulous creature and came to see it for themselves. They even claimed that they saw the monster and that it had the "head of a horse." Some of the sightings included:
1871 - D. MacKenzie saw something moving slowly in the water, and then all of a sudden moving off at great speed. He described the monster as a log or an over-turned boat.
1885 - Roderick Matheson described what he had seen as the biggest creature he had ever seen in his life. And it had a neck like a horse.
1888 - In the early morning, Alexander MacDonald saw the monster and said it looked like a salamander.
20th Century
In 1933, the Loch Ness Investigation Office was created. Thousands of testimonies were quickly recorded. Many tales are incredibly detailed and included the creature seen as having a long neck, sometimes drawn up, bumps on its back and moving rather quickly. Many pictures were also taken, but they have been generally determined as being faked. The movies though that were taken were much more difficult to fake and were taken much more seriously. There have been two in particular that interested Muggles.
The first was taken on April 23, 1960. The film shows something which crosses the field of the camera before plunging into
the water. An analysis of the movie concluded that the filmed object was probably moving at approximately 16 km/h or 9.9mph.
The second film was taken on June 13, 1967 and filmed at the northern end of the lake. It showed a creature with approximately 2 meters above the water line. The cameraman said that it had reminded him of a seal.
In 1964, a team from Oxford and Cambridge universities obtained an echo with a sonar. It was an echo much larger than any of the regular fish in the lake could have created. Three boats tried to detect what kind of creature could return such a noise, but they never managed to identify the source.
In 1968, a group of researchers from the University of Birmingham captured an object moving at 12km/h or 7.25mph on sonar. A little later on, another echo gave a speed of 25km/h or 15.5mph. Clearly the Muggles were not just catching fish on the sonar!!
The only conclusion that Muggles have been able to make is that in the Loch Ness, there are one or more creatures, larger than salmon with movements far different than regular fish.
Wizarding Explanation
Nessie was born not too long after the lake was created. She was here long before most of us wizards and will be here long after us. While Muggles have only known about Nessie since 565 AD, wizards have known about her for far longer. In 1453 BC, a young wizard named Draco Morigan, was reported to have seen a "dragon" in the lake. At the time of Morigan's sighting, the magical authorities decided to hide this from the Muggles and were successful until 565 AD.
Grace Nickelin
For many years, Nessie was considered as a "dragon of the sea." But Grace Nickelin helped wizards understand what Nessie really is. In the first century AD, Grace was living in Inverness and used to go swimming in the Loch Ness every summer when it was warm enough. When she was 30, using gillyweed, she once went for a long, underwater dive. This was the first time she saw Nessie. She kept the first meeting, and all subsequent meetings, a secret from everyone until she was 50 years old. Even then, she only told her family. Her own nephew didn't believe her, until she dove into the lake and came out of the water on the back of Nessie.
Grace Nickelin died soon after, and for a century afterwards there were no sightings of Nessie. It was as though she was grieving. Upon a search of Grace's house, many pieces of parchment were discovered explaining how she had met Nessie, how Nessie fed herself, and why she was living underwater in the lake. These precious documents are now located in the Ministry of Magic archives and cannot be publicly viewed, as Grace had asked for Nessie to be left undisturbed.
The documents tell us, though, that Nessie is a kelpie, a water demon that most often appears as a sea serpent. She is
approximately 100 feet long, has a horse-like head and a long snake-like body. While kelpies are generally rather vicious, Nessie undertook a different and more gentle behaviour. Thus she was shunned by other kelpies and lived alone in Loch Ness. Other documents tell us that Nessie is able to live for years underwater without having to rise to the surface for oxygen - which explains why we can go years without hearing about a Muggle sighting. She feeds on the salmon flowing in from the river. After reading such documents, many officials from the Ministry of Magic have tried to communicate with Nessie, but none have been as successful as Grace Nickelin was.
Is Nessie alone?
While Nessie is the only kelpie in the Loch Ness, she certainly isn't the only one out there in the world. Other Muggle legends include tales of many creatures with a sleek, curved back and a long neck. Vikings often decorated the prow of their boats with "dragons of the sea." In Scandinavia around Lake Storsjo, there is still a net that was set up in the 19th century to capture the local monster.
Click here to be taken to Assignment 1.