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Paper short abstract

Cryptozoological beings, cryptids, are liminal and ambiguous creatures, and this affect the narratives about them. Using The Great Lake Monster in Sweden, as a case study, I explore the epistemological ambiguity of cryptids and discuss further what this means for the narratives about them.

Paper long abstract

Interpretations and understandings of the Great Lake Monster in Lake Storsjön - once considered a rå, a guarding spirit of the lake - were reconceptualized during the 1800´s as a “hidden animal,” sought by zoologists. Never scientifically described, it became stuck in limbo: neither spirit nor animal, but a cryptid. In this presentation, I explore what this liminal status - this ambiguity in existence - means for cryptozoologists (here referring to pseudo-scientific explorations of larger “hidden” animals outside academic research; cf. Loxton & Prothero, 2013), zoologists, folklorists, the Great Lake Monster itself, and the narratives surrounding it.

Memorates of witnessing liminal creatures need to be reinforced in various ways to become believable. The epistemological ambiguity of the cryptid - observed by many, yet found, in scientific terms, by no one; at once a wish for zoological discovery, yet still just a cultural phenomenon - implies it dwells in a borderland. Depending on which side you listen from - as a cryptozoologist, a folklorist, a sceptical neighbour, or a trained zoologist - you will hear the observation narrative differently. In this presentation, I outline a few of the ways in which such reinforcement occurs, identified in the case study, while suggesting the development of a framework for further inquiry - one that accounts for the specific cultural embedment of each cryptid, while still allowing for a more generalisable approach to structured analysis.