Paasselkä devils
Encyclopedia
Paasselkä devils are light phenomena sometimes appearing at Lake Paasselkä
, Finland
and swampy and forested areas nearby the lake.
Paasselkä is a lake formed in an impact crater
. There is a magnetic anomaly
in the centre of the lake.
The Paasselkä Devil is usually told to be a ball of light visible in the air above Paasselkä or areas nearby. It is said to move at varying speeds on some occasions and to remain stationary at others. Sometimes there are several balls. The "ball of fire" has been said by some locals to act as if it were conscious. It can follow fishermen's boats or escape the light of torch. Sometimes the light moves at incredible speeds.
The light has been visible for a long time; it is a part of local folklore
and was given the name "devil". Locals in earlier times may have believed that ball of light was actually an evil creature. In earlier times local people were used to seeing these lights and did not consider them to be something extraordinary. Also nowadays the lights are observed occasionally, they have been taken on movies and photographed. This light phenomenon was made more famous by a book of Sulo Strömberg issued in 2006 and containing stories about this phenomenon.
Paasselkä
Paasselkä is an oval-shaped lake formed in an eroded impact crater in Southern Savonia, Finland. The lake, which is a part of Orivesi, which is in turn part of the Greater Saimaa, is devoid of islands which makes it different from other lakes in the region...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
and swampy and forested areas nearby the lake.
Paasselkä is a lake formed in an impact crater
Impact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
. There is a magnetic anomaly
Magnetic anomaly
In geophysics, a magnetic anomaly is a local variation in the Earth's magnetic field resulting from variations in the chemistry or magnetism of the rocks. Mapping of variation over an area is valuable in detecting structures obscured by overlying material...
in the centre of the lake.
The Paasselkä Devil is usually told to be a ball of light visible in the air above Paasselkä or areas nearby. It is said to move at varying speeds on some occasions and to remain stationary at others. Sometimes there are several balls. The "ball of fire" has been said by some locals to act as if it were conscious. It can follow fishermen's boats or escape the light of torch. Sometimes the light moves at incredible speeds.
The light has been visible for a long time; it is a part of local folklore
Finnish mythology
Finnish mythology is the mythology that went with Finnish paganism which was practised by the Finnish people prior to Christianisation. It has many features shared with fellow Finnic Estonian mythology and its non-Finnic neighbours, the Balts and the Scandinavians...
and was given the name "devil". Locals in earlier times may have believed that ball of light was actually an evil creature. In earlier times local people were used to seeing these lights and did not consider them to be something extraordinary. Also nowadays the lights are observed occasionally, they have been taken on movies and photographed. This light phenomenon was made more famous by a book of Sulo Strömberg issued in 2006 and containing stories about this phenomenon.