Hafgufu

by Thomas Turnbull-Ross

[Item 256x-329]

[Transcript of voice recording, translated from Norwegian. Poor sound quality, with sections rendered unintelligible by background noise.]

[Recording begins]

Is this…? Agh! [inaudible]

Ok, I think this is working now.

My name is Mia Madsen. I live… well, lived, on the island of Sandøya for almost all my life. I wish I could stay, but there is nothing, and no one, for me there any [inaudible] since the day the dead island appeared.

I’m hoping I can reach Engvika before it’s too late, but if it is, then I hope someone will find this. Maybe they’ll know what happened here. I don’t, even though I saw it with my own eyes. I know the kraken is just a myth. My Jakob knew that too. But [inaudible]

I heard about it from Amalie. The whole village was happy and confused at first. I’m only scared of it now. I can still see it if I look [inaudible] that great thing on the horizon, pretending to be another island. It doesn’t have anything living on it, though. It just looks like rocks. That’s what we thought it was at first.

People went to see what it was. Islands don’t just appear. Emil and my sweet young Jakob went in Emil’s boat. My boy always loved hearing the old stories of the [inaudible] the lindworm, and of course, the kraken. Of course, he knew they were just stories, so he wasn’t scared.

[inaudible]

Oh, God!

[inaudible]

There’s something swimming alongside me! Long and thin. Very long. Longer than the boat. I keep imagining it’s a lindworm, but that can’t be right. They’re just stories [inaudible]

[Large portion of recording unintelligible.]

It’s gone now! The dead island! Just like it did when Emil and Jakob and all the others went out to see what it was, it just sinks down before they reached it, it’s doing that now [inaudible] just like the kraken in the old stories it looks like islands and when a ship went near it it closes its mouth and it swallowed the ship whole. It’s doing that now the waves are stronger I think [inaudible]

Oh God please God help me! The dead island’s coming back! It’s on both sides they’re jaws they’re teeth oh God! [inaudible] The boat can go fast enough I’m going to make [inaudible]

I got through! I can see Rebbenesøya [inaudible] I can see Engvika! [inaudible]

There’s something bumping the boat! The lindworm thing is–

[Recording ends]