as the beast makes its way up river, he calls his nephew, runar, a local news reporter. >> he tells me worm is trying to swim ashore. >> i thought to myself, okay, this is probably some debris floating in the river. i helped him figure out how to take video, and he recorded this video. later that same day, he showed me what he had captured. and i was totally amazed because the debris apparently seems to be swimming. [ speaking native language ] >> the video shows some snake-shaped form swimming in the river. you can almost see the face of the snake or its eyes. it's amazing, i think. >> runar uploads his uncle's footage to the local news website, and it's an instant sensation. >> the editor of our website called me up and told me that the website was almost crashing because there were so many people from japan looking at the video. >> within days, the video has three million views. many believe he's captured the infamous lagarfljot worm on camera. >> there have been all kinds of fairy tales and legends about this animal, ascribing it with all kinds of fantastic supernatural powers. >>