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URECAT - UFO Related Entities Catalog

FALL 1938 OR 1939, JUMINDA, ESTONIA, TWO ESTONIANS:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

Coming apparently from the Swedish ufologist Sven Schalin, some 30 years after it allegedly occurred, a report indicates that in Juminda, Estonia, in Fall 1938, or 1939, at a date and hour that are not specified, two Estonians, not more identified than that, had seen a "frog man." They chased it on approximately 30 meters to apparently lose sight of it behind some lattice close to a path.

The size of this entity was around 1.06 meters. Its legs were slightly longer than half of its body. Its head was hemispherical and directly on the body, without neck, and the body had a bump on the chest. Its skin resembled brown-green synthetic leather.

Its mouth was a straight slit prolonged on a large part of the head and the eyes were also like slits. The hands were "of human color."

Its walk had been described as quite weird: it raised its legs in a cautious but gracious manner, as if our gravity were too weak, the head waving up and down, which makes think of a wader. When it was pursued, it accelerated enormously, like "propelled by a terrible fluttering of its feet."

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. jv1:] JACQUES VALLEE:

In his catalogue of UFO landings, Jacques Vallée indicates that on fall of 1938 or the following year, in Juminda on the Estonian coast, two people saw a strange "frog-man" 1 meter tall with a round head, no neck, and a hump in front of the body.

The mouth was a large, straight slit, the eyes were like smaller slits. The skin was brown-green, compared to pegamoid, hands normal. The creature walked in a peculiar "but elegant" fashion, the head waving up and down while the legs moved "carefully."

When pursued, the creature accelerated very fast, with feet "fluttering." About 100 meters away it vanished completely.

Vallée indicates that his source is "Personal."

[Ref. pp1:] T. PETER PARK:

T. Peter Park tells of grotesque a small humanoid seen at Juminda, Estonia in 1938 or 1939, with no mention of a UFO although Jacques Vallee put it in a UFO landing catalogue.

According to a personal communication to Jacques Vallee, two persons, in the Fall of 1938 or perhaps 1939, saw a strange "frog-man" 1 meter tall at Juminda on the Estonian coast. It had a round head, no neck, and a hump in front of the body. Its mouth was a large, straight slit, the eyes were like smaller slits, while its hands were normal. The creature's skin was brownish-green, compared by the witnesses to synthetic leather. It walked in a peculiar "but elegant" fashion, its head waving up and down while its legs moved "carefully". When pursued, the creature accelerated very fast, with feet "fluttering". About 100 meters away from the witnesses, it vanished completely.

T. Peter Parkes provides the reference of the source, Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia, Appendix, Case 49, pp 189-190.

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Albert Rosales indicates that in Juminda, Estonia, in 1938 at an unknown time, two Estonians saw a "frog man," and one chased him some hundred feet, when he disappeared. Its height about 3.5 feet, the legs slightly more than half this; the head hemispherical and directly on body without a neck; the body had a hump on the chest; the mouth "a straight slit extending over great part of head;" the eyes were also slit like. The skin "looked like brown-green pegamoid material" except for the hands, which were "human colored."

The being walked "very strangely, the legs moving in a careful lifting fashion, yet very elegant, as though our gravity were too small." When chased, "the being accelerated enormously, so to speak propelled by a terrible flutter of its feet." It was thought to have vanished behind some latticework beside the path.

Albert Rosales indicates that the source is Sven Schalin.

[Ref. jb1:] JEROME BEAU:

Jérôme Beau indicates that on fall of 1938 or fall of 1939, in Juminda on the Estonian coast, two people saw a strange "toad-man" 1 meter tall with a round head, no neck, and a hump in front of the body. Its mouth was a large straight slit, the eyes were like smaller slits. The skin was brown-green, similar to pegamoid, but the hands were normal. The creature walked in a peculiar but elegant fashion, the head waving up and down while the legs moved carefully. Pursued, the creature accelerated so fast that its feet appeared nearly blurred. About 100 meters further it completely disappeared.

Points to consider:

The mention by Vallée that the source is "personal" must not be understood as being a direct contact with the alleged witnesses. Vallée usually indicated that the source was "personal" when he did not remember where he heard or read of a case. It is likely that the story emerged through NICAP's Sweden representative Sven Schalin, but now, because it was not formally documented and correctly sourced, the story has lost all value regarding its credibility.

T. Peter Park is correct in pointing out that it should not have been part of a catalogue titled "UFO landings" as there is no UFO neither landing. There is a creature, apparently of high strangeness, it could have been a visitor from another planet, or some confusion stared by some sighting under improper conditions of some weird-looking night bird or other animal, or it could be a completely made-up story. I do not see any reason to go beyond this, as there is no sign that anyone investigated and documented the occurrence properly.

The reason I think the case was actually originating from Sven Shalin is one of the errors in Vallée's version compared to the Rosales/Schalin version. The version allotted to Schalin mentions a 100 feet distance. Vallée, a Frenchman, made it a 100 meters by distraction. Also, in Rosales' version, the creature does not actually "disappear" but disappears "behind some latticework", i.e. it does not vanish in thin air but is lost of sight. Vallée's distortion is very frequent; often, reporters of such occurrence actually mean to say that the UFO or entity "disappeared" form sight, and often this is then presented as an actual disappearing, prompting speculations about "aliens not being aliens because they violate the laws of physics and thus they are paranormal or from other dimensions" etc.

Serious UFO reports students must be very careful not to be fooled by such distortion - another one in this case is that a frog is not a toad, thus a frog/man is not a toad/man. The difference is the erroneous notion of awfully-looking skin introduced by the unjustified change from frog to toad.

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Extraterrestrial visitors or confusion or hoax. Insufficient data.

Sources references:

* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.

• [---] ? Sven Schalin, NICAP representative for Sweden.
• [jv1] * "Passport To Magonia - On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds", book by Jacques Vallée, Contemporary Books publisher, USA, pp 189-190, 1969.
• [pp1] * "Little Men, Frog-Men, and Mini-Men: Aliens or 'Other Folk'?", text of a talk by T. Peter Park, November 7 "at a UFO and ET Congress" in Bordentown, New Jersey, USA, sent to the Forteana discussion group, May 8, 2004.
• [ar1] * "1935-1939 Humanoid Sightings", compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2004, at www.ufoinfo.com/humanoid/humanoid1935.shtml
• [jb1] * "1938", page web par Jérôme Beau, France, circa 2004, à www.rr0.org/data/1938/index.html

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This page was last updated on July 18, 2007