Moskstraumen

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The Moskstraumen (popularly known as the Maelstrom) is a system of tidal eddies and whirlpools, one of the strongest in the world, that forms in a strait adjacent to the Lofoten archipelago, Norway.

The shallow strait, some 4-5 kilometres wide, lies between the island of Moskenesøya and some islets off the island of Mosken, connecting the Vestfjord and the northern part of the Norwegian Sea (north of Lofoten). The Moskstraumen forms twice a day when the tidal current changes direction.

The Moskstraumen has featured in many historical accounts, generally exaggerated. It was first described more than 2000 years ago by the Greek historian Pytheas, and later, it was marked on many nautical maps with warnings and dramatic descriptions. The Swedish bishop Olaus Magnus showed it on his 1539 map Carta marina, ascribing it to divine force and describing it as stronger than the Sicilian Charybdis. Petter Dass, a Norwegian priest, wrote a detailed factual description in his 1685 topographical poem, The Trumpet of Nordland.

The Moskstraumen has inspired many other authors, notably Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Verne (their respective A Descent into the Maelstrom and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea both portray it inaccurately as a single massive whirlpool), as well as Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Christian Krohg.