Kraken: The Mythical Sea Monster of Northern Legends

The Kraken: when myth encounters science

The Kraken is a fabled sea monster most famously of Norse and Scandinavian origin typically a giant squid or octopus like creature with immense tentacles that could draw whole ships and the sailors in to the depths. The Kraken was feared in Norwegian waters, off Iceland and Greenland; its existence was first noted nearly 1200 AD by Norwegian sea-farers. It was reported to be so large in fact that when it dived beneath the surface of the water to create the whirlpools, sailors said that it could raise a whirlpool storm that kills.

The Natural History of Norway (1753) by Erik Pontoppidan suggested that Kraken did not just sink ships but also attracted fish to surface through a foul smell which made it quite a hazardous but very convenient fishing tool. Early illustrations even made the creature resemble crab-like, with armor plates and also with spines on the arms and limbs although it was later developed to resemble more the form that we know as squid-like.

It is said that the Kraken would lay dormant at the bottom of the ocean taking centuries to wake up as an enraged beast. There were also some myths that the Kraken would strike because it has been offended when humans have interfered in its territory. In one story it took a ship to be one of its foes and dashed it to atoms. Its dreadful fame bore with it to the farther side of Europe by tidings of sailors, artworks and even scientific lore.

Carl Linnaeus briefly classified it as Microcosmus marinus.