The Kil­de­væld Lake

Tales from the lake

The Kil­de­vælds­par­ken lake is not much lar­ger than a regu­lar-sized public swim­m­ing pool. And yet, the­re are eyewit­ness testi­mo­nies, most­ly from the 1970’s, about “somet­hing” in the lake, remi­ni­s­cent of what has been repor­ted from Loch Ness and other, much gre­a­ter, bodi­es of water throug­hout the wor­ld. Most acco­unts have come from dog wal­kers during the late night or ear­ly mor­ning hours of sum­mer. They have descri­bed somet­hing look­ing like a capsized boat (usu­al­ly in the region of 2–3 meters, but some­ti­mes repor­ted to be up to 4 or 5 meters) moving back and forth in the water, with a wake fol­lowing it. The “thing” would always sub­mer­ge after no lon­ger than a few minu­tes. Over the years, seve­ral dogs have also been said to have drow­ned in the lake under stran­ge circum­stan­ces. The dog would be swim­m­ing, when sud­den­ly the water aro­und it began to rea­ct vio­lent­ly, and the next minu­te it dis­ap­pea­red with a *plop*.

The sto­ri­es of lake cre­a­tu­res may be scof­fed at for its imme­di­a­te unbe­lie­va­bi­li­ty. But the fol­lowing, said to have taken pla­ce in the late 1990’s, is more rea­li­stic: A young, drunk coup­le had tres­pas­sed into the park one night, to go for a secret swim in the lake. They had both taken their clo­t­hes off and were rea­dy to jump in, but in the last minu­te the guy decli­ned becau­se he sim­ply was too intoxi­ca­ted. The girl went ahe­ad anyway, whi­le the boyfri­end pas­sed out to the sound of her splas­hing in the water. The next mor­ning he woke up, with both their clo­t­hes in piles on the grass, but the gir­l­fri­end nowhe­re in sight. Even after an inten­si­ve search, she was never found again.

Pos­sib­le expla­na­tions

The afore­men­tio­ned inci­dent with the coup­le is like­ly an urban legend, but that doesn’t mean that the­re isn’t a core of truth to the story. We know for a fact that peop­le have drow­ned in the lake even in recent times. In regards to the “thing”, the obser­va­tions were most­ly made during peri­ods of hot weat­her. If the­re real­ly is, or was, a lar­ge cre­a­tu­re in the lake, it would make sen­se that it came to the sur­face pre­ci­se­ly during the­se times, as heat makes the oxy­gen level in water drop.

As to what natu­re of beast we might pos­sibly be dea­ling with, aut­hor and cryp­tozoo­lo­gist Lars Tho­mas leans toward a lar­ger than avera­ge pike. A pike is a rat­her gro­tesque and pre­hi­sto­ric-look­ing fish found all over Den­mark, and a good sized spe­ci­men would be able to drag down a small dog wit­hout too much troub­le. Howe­ver, a pike with a length of 3 or 4, let alo­ne 5, meters, as some reports sug­gest, is whol­ly unre­a­li­stic.

The­re is also a legend that the­re exists an underwa­ter pas­sa­ge, lea­ding from the lake to the near­by Sva­ne­møl­len har­bor. This notion has been rein­for­ced by visi­tors at times having caught the unusu­al scent of seawe­ed, and other odors not usu­al­ly asso­ci­a­ted with fres­hwa­ter. If that were true, then the pos­si­bi­li­ties of what the lake might hold, at any given time, would expand dra­ma­ti­cal­ly.

Ulti­ma­te­ly, sin­ce the­re hasn’t been any reports about the “thing” for deca­des, the ori­gi­nal cul­prit is pro­bably long dead. Howe­ver, the­re is not­hing to pre­vent that ano­t­her “mon­ster” could one day appear and spark a new gene­ra­tion of sigh­tings — or somet­hing even wor­se.

Sour­ces

• Lars Tho­mas —  Det Mysti­ske Dan­mark (Asche­houg, 2005)
• Lars Tho­mas — Weird Waters (CFZ Press, 2010)