May 29, 2020

Meet Mässie, the Sea Monster


Loch Ness has Nessie, Chesapeake Bay has Chessie and Lake Champlain wouldn't be the same without Champy, who prowls these waters between New York State, Vermont and Quebec, Canada. While Sweden has an old creature in Storsjön (Storsjöodjuret), great Lake Mälaren has hitherto been sadly neglected. So this month we see, for the first time, the probing proboscises, or mouth-eye tentacles, of Mässie, Hässie (as I saw it off Hässelby) and Lammie (as this particular part of the lake is named Lambarfjärden. Said glacial depression (filled with water) is also the deepest part of the entire enclosed archipelago (some 200 ft. deep) making the presence of lurching sea monsters and aquatic dragons all the more likely).


As there are eyes in their mouths, they're able to constantly glare judgingly at you and nag in the same time, and I can't possibly imagine anything more horrible. I who went a-rowing to evade such creatures!

It might perhaps amuse you to know that I only had time to draw a quickie sketch before the presence of Mässie & Friends got too overwhelming. (The colour was added later.) Ballpoint pen is good practice, though. There's no erasing or changing anything. You have to plan forward, save certain spaces and keep things in your head. Yes, you need to concentrate when you live near sea monsters!


(Not to mention, however, the odd things that you might encounter when you're ashore. Most of them have two legs.)