 Opinions differed on how many humps (or rather "bends, curvatures") it had, varyingly given as one, two, or three.It was blamed for making the river overflow and causing the ground and houses to shake.A folktale published by Jón Árnason in 1862, collected from a schoolgirl of Múlasýsla in 1845 tells the story of the great serpent in Lagarfljót which grew out of a small "heath-worm" or "Heath Snake" ().