The seemingly boundless ocean has been a treasure trove of myths and metaphors for poets and thinkers since antiquity. Even today, not all of its inhabitants and secrets have been discovered. One fascinating marine myth is that of the Kraken , which turns ships to pieces. The question of whether this beast truly exists remains to this day.
The Kraken
The kraken, also known in the indefinite form krake, is a fabled animal from Norwegian folklore in the form of a huge sea monster or giant fish that fishermen are said to have seen along the coasts of Norway, Iceland and Ireland. Giant fish stories are found in many very old cultures. The XNUMXth century Norse King's Mirror mentions a monster as Hafgufa. There are also stories of huge sea monsters in Asian waters and in the ancient Mediterranean and Atlantic oceans.
However, the monster they call the kraken was first described in more detail by Bishop of Bergen Erik Pontoppidan in the mid-XNUMXth century. He compares it to an island with arms and masts. Others have equated it with Leviathan-like dragons and sea worms. Others, especially in the XNUMXth century, have interpreted the kraken as a giant squid, and the English-speaking world uses the Norwegian name as a proper name for such a monster.
This has been intensified in modern Anglo-American popular culture. So there are different traditions mixed in, also notions of other sea monsters. The general characteristic is still the size, whether it is fish, whale, turtle or octopus. Krake is a Norwegian and Swedish word, and has the form kraken or krakene in German which is the name of the Polypus (Octopus) vulgaris, a kind of octopus with eight arms.
Sea monsters in ancient times
Already in ancient times there were several stories about sea monsters. In Greek and Roman mythology, for example, there is mention of Scylla, a nymph transformed into a sea monster by the sorceress Circe, and even worse, Charybdis, who could turn into a whirlwind. Together they guarded the Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily, and the Odyssey tells how they nearly swallowed the legendary Greek hero Odysseus. In the Bible, the mysterious sea monster Leviathan is mentioned seven times.
The Greek legend of the Scylla, a six-headed monster that Odysseus must face on his journey, is an example of this tradition. In 1555, Olaus Magnus wrote of a sea creature with "long sharp horns all around, like a tree by the roots: they are ten or twelve cubits long, with enormous very black eyes. The basis of such stories may have been fishermen and sailors who have seen unexplained ocean phenomena, whales and large octopuses. Similarly, the notion of a kraken may have originated in the Middle Ages.
the nordic kraken
The first and most complete written description of the kraken comes from the Danish author and Bishop of Bergen Erik Pontoppidan (1698-1764), who published The First Attempt on the Natural History of Norway. There he refers to the kraken as "the greatest sea monster". He says his name is Kraken, Kraxen, or Krabben. After the book was translated into English a few years later, the Kraken became well known in English.
It is round and flat like a floating island, and has huge arms that stick out like reeds, so big that they can drag large ships with them into the depths. Pontoppidan based his descriptions of him on stories of Norwegian fishermen. When in places where the water used to be 80-100 fathoms deep (140-180 meters), instead of just 20-30 fathoms (40-50 meters), the fishermen knew there was a crack under them.
They said that the crack could be found especially in summer and resembled reefs and islets. Many fish could also accumulate on the back, and the fishermen explained that they could therefore "fish on the hook". So it was just a matter of being careful that the huge animal didn't suddenly rise to the surface, capsize the boats and drag them into the maelstrom that erupted as it plunged back down.
Pontopiddan also tells how the animal eats for a few months, and in the following months it empties the droppings with which it colors the water, makes it thick and muddy and has a pleasant smell and taste that attracts more fish. From western Norway there are some legends and stories about the kraken. The most common legend tells of some fishermen who were out of line. Suddenly, they noticed that the level was getting shallower and shallower. Then they understood that it was the Kraken that was rising, and they rowed quickly to shore.
The phenomenon can originate from actual observations of large octopuses or from visual illusions in the sea, such as air reflections and low cloud formations. However, the kraken is not mentioned in the Norse sagas, but similar animals such as the hafgufa ("sea steamer") are mentioned in the Örvar-Odds saga and in the Kongespeilet (King's Mirror) from around 1250. The text represents a sea monster the size of an island. The animal is rarely seen and the text wonders if there could be only one or two animals in the whole world.
Swedish naturalist Carl von Linne also included the kraken in the first edition of his 1735 systematic natural catalog Systema Naturae. There he gave the animal the scientific name Microcosmus, but left it out in later editions.
Origin of the myth
Many medieval myths about animals such as the unicorn, the dragon, and the sea serpent lack physical evidence that they exist or ever did. However, from time to time there are still "abnormal" animals whose existence was never suspected. Examples of them are the coelacanth and the longnose shark. A myth has been very tenacious throughout history: that of the Kraken.
The Kraken is a large tentacled sea monster that could capsize an entire ship. The story of the Kraken probably originated in the stories of sailors, exaggerated by ignorance and fear. The Kraken also plays a part in famous stories from the XNUMXth century.
In Jules Verne's "20.000 Miles Under the Sea" a Kraken attacks the ship Nautilus. Herman Melville also describes in Moby Dick a gigantic squid that meets the Pequod (the whaler) in its path.
The word 'kraken' comes from Norwegian and is plural, by the way. It should only officially be 'crack'. The original meaning is not fully agreed upon, but the most common translation is "uprooted tree". The tentacles and thin body of the squid would look like this.
The myth probably owes its existence to the giant squid that is only occasionally seen. Aristotle (1555rd century BC) and Pliny (XNUMXst century AD) already mentioned a giant squid. After that it remained relatively quiet until in XNUMX a Catholic archbishop described some 'monstrous fish'.
With current knowledge it is suspected that they were giant squid. Viewers of marine specimens were also inclined to exaggerate the stories. Most of these creatures had never been seen before and did not resemble land animals in the slightest. The 'alien' squids were even scarier than the worst nightmare for superstitious people. This mythical animal clearly appeals to the imagination. The question is whether the Kraken of the stories really exists.
Squid or octopus?
The most likely place to look for an animal fitting the Kraken's description is the deep sea. The deep sea is the largest habitat on this earth, but also the least known to humans. Under extreme conditions (total darkness, cold, high pressure) lives a spectacular number of primitive-looking animals. One of the most fascinating groups of animals is the cephalopods, which includes squid and octopus.
Cephalopods are highly intelligent animals, for example squids are known to learn from previous mistakes. They also have a special body language with color patterns caused by pigment cells in the skin. A squid's color pattern says something about its state of mind: fear, exhaustion, deterrence, calmness, hiding from predators due to stealth or interest in mating. Cuttlefish have very well developed eyes that can be compared to the human eye.
A candidate for the role of the mythical Kraken is a giant octopus. Scientists agree that the arm length of octopuses can be up to eight meters. In March 2002, New Zealand scientists found a dead octopus in the net of a trawler recognized as a large specimen of Haliphron atlanticus. The beast weighed more than 70-75 kg and was four meters long.
That's the same order of magnitude as a giant squid. The large animal lives in the subtropics and adults can be found in the waters of New Zealand. The Haliphron inhabits from the surface to a depth of 3.180 meters, but never in large numbers at the same time. The gelatinous beast is believed to live on the bottom or just above the seabed. It was featured in an original BBC article titled Giant octopus baffles scientists.
But there are also reports of even larger octopuses in Florida and Big Bahama Island. Here they found an octopus with an arm length of no less than eighty feet. In 1896 the remains of what looked like a giant octopus were found on Anastasia Island, Florida, on the beach south of St. Augustine. Some pieces of the arms measured more than eight meters. Estimates of the animal's total length reached twenty-five meters. However, there are doubts whether the remains belonged to an octopus or a whale due to the advanced state of decomposition.
While the giant octopus might explain the history of the Kraken, the most compelling evidence seems to point towards a giant squid. The main difference between squids and octopuses is the fact that octopuses have eight arms and squids have eight arms plus 2 longer tentacles (ten total). A good candidate for the Kraken is, for example, the giant squid of the genus Architeuthis.
The Kraken in Greek myths
The Kraken's name comes from Norse myth, and although Greece had many sea monsters, including one waiting to feed on the beautiful Andromeda chained to a rock, the kraken is not among them. The original was Ceto, from which the scientific name of the whale is derived. The squid-like Scylla also qualifies as a more legitimate Greek sea monster. The confusion stems from movies that are supposedly based on Greek mythology, in this case Clash of the Titans.
There is no kraken in Greek mythology. The kraken comes from later Norse mythology. The earliest known references to the kraken come from Icelandic manuscripts dating back to the XNUMXth century AD, nearly a millennium after the end of classical antiquity and thousands of miles from the Mediterranean.
Here are some links of interest: