Let U be a compact, negatively curved surface. From the (finite) set of all closed geodesics on U of length less than L choose one, and let N (L) be the number of its self-intersections. There is a positive constant $K$ such that with overwhelming probability as L grows, N (L)/L^{2} approaches K. This talk will concern itself with ``fluctuations''. The main theorem states that if U has variable negative curvature then (N (L)-KL^{2})/L^{3/2} converges in distribution to a Gaussian law, but if U has constant negative curvature then (N (L)-KL^{2})/L converges in distribution to a (probably) non-Gaussian law.