 An inhabitant of the sea , the stoor worm was a mythical serpent @-@ like creature created by malevolent spirits . A gigantic beast with a ferocious appetite , it was able to demolish ships and houses with its prehensile forked tongue it used as a pair of tongs , and even to drag entire hillsides and villages into the sea . Its eyes were like " round lochs , very deep and dark " in the modern retelling , whereas it " glowed and flamed like a ward fire " in Dennison 's long text , which noted in an aside that some accounts stated that the stoor worm had only one eye . 
