Kraken

The kraken is a legendary sea monster said to live in the Norwegian Sea near Norway. People have imagined it as a huge cephalopod, similar to a giant squid or octopus. Old stories tell of it pulling ships underwater.

The idea of the kraken may have started from real sightings of very large giant squid. Writers and explorers from many places wrote about it. Famous writers like Victor Hugo and Jules Verne included the kraken in their stories. Even scientists like Carl Linnaeus may have written about similar creatures. The kraken is one of the most famous monsters of the deep sea.

Etymology

The word "kraken" comes from Norwegian. It means a large sea monster. The root of the word is krake. This word originally described a crooked or overgrown tree. Over time, it was used for tools shaped like crooked tree trunks, such as anchors. The name "kraken" likely came from these descriptions. People thought the monster looked like a large, tangled tree or a creature with many arms, much like a cephalopod.

Early names for the kraken included words like horven, meaning "the harrow," and other terms such as søe-horv and krabbe. In Swedish and German, the word krake has also been used to name types of octopuses. This shows how the legend influenced everyday language.

General description

The kraken was a legendary sea monster said to live near Norway. People described it as a giant creature with many arms. Some thought it might be a huge octopus, while others guessed it could be a giant crab or starfish.

One writer in 1884 said the kraken could make the sea look higher, attracting many fish. Fishermen believed that if they saw the kraken rising, they should row away quickly, as the monster could appear with tall tentacles and create danger in the water.

Historical descriptions

One of the earliest mentions of a creature like the kraken is on a map from 1539 by Swedish writer Olaus Magnus. The map, called the Carta marina, shows sea monsters in the Norwegian Sea. One looks like a fish with tentacles, and another like a fish with tusks. Magnus said these monsters had huge eyes and looked fierce.

The word “kraken” was first used in a Norwegian book from 1646 by Christen Jensøn. He described the kraken as a sea monster with many arms strong enough to pull boats deep into the water. Later writers added to the story, saying the kraken was a giant that could cover big areas of the sea and pull large ships underwater.

Mythical identifications

Hafgufa

Main article: Hafgufa

The kraken is sometimes thought to be the same as the hafgufa, a huge sea monster from old stories. Early writers thought they were the same creature. The hafgufa was said to live in the Greenland Sea and near Baffin Island in Canada.

Some people think the hafgufa might have been a whale. Others believe the stories came from seeing very large sea animals. Old tales also told of other strange sea creatures, which added to the mystery of these legends.

Taxonomic identifications

Erik Pontoppidan wrote about a possible young kraken that washed ashore in 1680 near Alstahaug Church on the island of Alsta, Norway. He described it as having long "arms" and guessed it might have crawled like a snail. Some scientists later thought this could have been a giant squid.

In 1802, French scientist Pierre Denys de Montfort described two types of giant octopuses. He believed one type could attack ships, while the other was even larger. Stories of giant sea creatures often mixed facts with imagination.

Later discoveries of real giant squid helped explain the kraken legend. In 1861, a French ship found a huge squid, and in 1873, fishermen in Conception Bay in Newfoundland caught parts of another giant squid. These finds showed that very large squid do exist and may have inspired tales of the kraken.

Iconography

The kraken has appeared in many artworks. A famous drawing by Denys-Montfort shows a huge octopus attacking ships. Some pictures show the kraken with spikes or horns. Old maps, like the Carta marina by Olaus Magnus from 1539, sometimes show strange sea creatures that people think might be the kraken. These images include lobster-like monsters and big fish, adding to the mystery of this legendary sea beast.

Taxonomical influences

The famous Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus wrote about strange sea creatures in his book Systema Naturae in 1735. He talked about a giant whale called hafgufa and a big sea creature named monstrum marinum. Later, the word kraken was added to his book.

An English writer named Thomas Pennant wrote about large octopuses. Another writer, William Turton, included these in an English version of Linnaeus's book. This helped share stories about the kraken in England in the 1800s.

Main article: Mark McMenamin § Triassic kraken

Paleontologist Mark McMenamin thought an ancient giant cephalopod, like the kraken, might have affected sea reptiles called ichthyosaurs during the Triassic Period, but many scientists disagree.

Literary influences

The French writer Victor Hugo wrote about the kraken in his book Les Travailleurs de la mer in 1866. Another famous writer, Jules Verne, also wrote about the kraken in his book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. He used real stories, like one from a French ship called Alecton, where they saw something that looked like a giant squid.

In English books, Alfred Tennyson wrote a poem called The Kraken in 1830, and Herman Melville mentioned squid in his novel Moby-Dick.

Modern use

The story of the Kraken is still very popular today. You can find it in many books, movies, TV shows, and video games. Some examples are The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham, the Kraken in Marvel Comics, the 1981 film Clash of the Titans and its 2010 remake, and the Seattle Kraken hockey team. It also appears in video games like Sea of Thieves, God of War II, Return of the Obra Dinn, and Dredge. In the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the Kraken is the pet of Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and At World's End. In George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series and its TV shows, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, the kraken is the symbol of House Greyjoy.

Two places in space are named after the Kraken: Kraken Mare, a large sea on Saturn's moon Titan, and Kraken Catena, a chain of craters on Neptune's moon Triton.