Kraken

The kraken is a legendary cryptid of huge size. Its name comes from Norwegian. Based on its etymology, it is something like a cephalopod. It is said to appear in the Norwegian Sea off the coast of Norway. Many people think the legend may have started with sightings of giant squid, which can grow to 10.5 metres (34 ft) long.

The kraken was part of sailors' superstitions and mythos. It was first described in a Norwegian glossary by Christen Jensøn in 1646. Later, it appeared in a travel book by Francesco Negri in 1700. In 1734, the Dano-Norwegian missionary and explorer Hans Egede gave a detailed account of the kraken and linked it with the hafgufa of medieval stories. However, the first description of the creature is usually credited to the Danish bishop Pontoppidan in 1753. He described the kraken as a giant octopus that was said to pull ships down. In the 1800s, the French scientist Denys-Montfort also became known for early studies into whether giant octopuses existed.

A giant octopus entered French stories when Victor Hugo wrote about the pieuvre, an octopus from Guernsey folklore, in his 1866 novel Toilers of the Sea. Hugo connected it with the kraken of legend. This led Jules Verne to include the kraken in his novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, although Verne did not tell octopuses and squids apart.

Carl Linnaeus may have written about the kraken in an indirect way. He wrote about the Microcosmus group, an animal with other living things attached to it, forming a colony. Later authors have linked his writing, along with Thomas Bartholin's cetus called hafgufa and Christian Franz Paullini's monstrum marinum, to the kraken. The claim that Linnaeus wrote the word "kraken" in the margin of a later edition of Systema Naturae has not been confirmed.

Etymology

The English word "kraken" for the sea monster comes from Norwegian kraken or krakjen. These are the definite forms of krake, which means "the krake." A Norwegian dictionary says krake means "malformed or overgrown, crooked tree." It comes from Old Norse kraki, which is related to krókr, meaning "hook." It is a cognate of "crook." The Swedish dictionary SAOB, published by the Swedish Academy, gives nearly the same meaning. Over time, krake came to mean any cut tree trunk with crooked branches. It also gave its name to simple tools, such as grapnel anchors and drags. The monster is thought to be named after the "crooked tree" or "drag" meaning. Icelandic philologist Finnur Jónsson first suggested this idea in 1920. A related name, krabbe, meaning "crab," also points to drags.

Besides kraken, the monster had many other names. The most common was horven, meaning "the horv." Finnur Jónsson explained in 1920 that this name may come from harv, meaning harrow. He suggested it was chosen because the squid seemed to plough the sea. Since the 1800s, krake has also given its name to the cephalopod order Octopoda in Swedish and German. Because of this, many octopus species have names based on it, such as the common octopus. Some plants, a diminutive form of a word for branchy wood, and even the Shetlandic word for "whale," which is a taboo word, are also linked to this family of words.

General description

In 1741, Hans Egede described the kraken as a many-headed creature with claws. He said it was the same as the Icelanders' hafgufa, though that creature is usually thought of as a make-believe whale. In 1753, Erik Pontoppidan made the kraken known to many more people. He said that, according to legend, it had many arms. He guessed it might be a giant sea-crab, a starfish, or a polypus (octopus). Pontoppidan is considered important for sparking interest in the kraken in the English-speaking world. In 1801, Denys-Montfort wrote about two giants, a "colossal octopus" and a "kraken octopod." In 1920, Finnur Jónsson also thought the kraken was an inkfish (a squid or octopus), based on etymological reasons.

In 1884, the Swedish encyclopedia Nordisk familjebok summarized the kraken legend. It described fishermen rowing a few Scandinavian miles from the coast. The water there was usually about 80 to 100 fathoms deep, but sometimes it was only 20 to 30 fathoms. In these shallower spots, large groups of cod and lings gathered. People believed the kraken was lying below, causing the change in depth. If the fishermen saw the kraken rising, they had to row away quickly. After a few minutes, its body could be seen above the water. It looked like a group of skerries covered in swaying, seaweed-like growths. Its shining tentacles rose high into the air, as tall as ship's masts. When the kraken sank again, boats had to avoid the dangerous suction vortex it created.

Historical descriptions

The Swedish writer Olaus Magnus drew one of the earliest pictures that may show the kraken. It was on his map of Scandinavia, the Carta marina, made in 1539. The map showed sea monsters in the Norwegian Sea, but he did not use the word kraken. He lived far from home in Danzig and later in Venice. The Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner gave the monster with tusks the name "swine whale" (in German: Schweinwal). He called the horned one a "bearded whale" (Bart-wal).

In 1555, Magnus published the Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, which described the monsters in more detail. His description seems to mix traits of whales and squids. The monster was about 14 to 16 metres long. Its "flaming" eyes may have come from bioluminescent photophores, which glow on some squids, such as the Taningia danae and the colossal squid. Its beard may have been whale barnacles like Xenobalanus. Sperm whales hunt giant squids, so the sightings may have been of whales hunting squids near the surface.

The first description of the kraken by name appeared in the Norwegian glossary of Christen Jensøn from Askvoll, published in 1646. He described it as a sea monster with many arms that could pull boats down into the deep. In 1700, the Italian writer Francesco Negri described a "sciu-crak," a huge fish with many arms. He kept it separate from a sea serpent. In 1729, Hans Egede wrote down what Norwegian people told him. They said the kraken's body was many miles long, and when it rose, it seemed to cover the whole sea. Its arms could catch ships, fish, and animals and carry them down into the depths. Fishermen said they could stand on it as if it were a sandbank. If it got tangled in their hooks, they had to say its name to make it go back down. Egede also linked it to the hafgufa of Iceland, though he knew little about that creature. Later, Erik Pontoppidan, bishop of Bergen, wrote about the kraken in 1752 and 1753. He said its whirlpool was as dangerous as that of Moskstraumen. He also said its arms could pull down the largest man-of-war. Henry Lee later suggested that the kraken's supposed waste was really ink released by a squid-like animal. Around 1770, an unnamed glossary from Surnadal described the kraken as a giant fish with tree-like fins that could sink a whole boat.

Mythical identifications

Main article: Hafgufa

Hans Egede believed the krake was the same creature as the hafgufa, a sea monster the Icelanders told stories about. He seems to have learned this from the medieval Norwegian book the Speculum Regale (or King's Mirror, c. 1250). Later, David Crantz also wrote in History of Greenland (1765) that the kraken and the hafgufa were the same. In 1917, an English translator of the King's Mirror chose to translate hafgufa as kraken. The hafgufa is described as the largest sea monster living in the Greenland Sea. Some scholars still connect it with the kraken. If this connection is accepted, the kraken's legendary home would reach waters near Helluland (Baffin Island, Canada), as described in Örvar-Odds saga. The anonymous Historia Norwegiæ also says the hafgufa lived in a deep fjord. Other sea creatures lived there too, such as the hafstramb, the hrosshvalr (often shown as a hippocampus, half horse and half fish), and famous monsters like the Charybdis and Scylla.

Some people think the description of the hafgufa in the King's Mirror is a confused report of a whale. Halldór Hermannsson also reads it as describing a type of whale. The name "sea reeker" may come from a whale blowing water. The King's Mirror describes many sea animals, including whales, seals, and walruses. It gives fairly detailed descriptions of the whales near Iceland. The descriptions of more dangerous and mythical "fish" are less clear. Finnur Jónsson (1920) thought the kraken was most likely an inkfish (squid or octopus). He also doubted the common idea that the kraken came from the hafgufa.

Taxonomic identifications

Erik Pontoppidan wrote about a possible kraken, "perhaps a young and careless one", that washed ashore and died in 1680 in Ulvangen, near Alstahaug Church and the island of Dønna, Norway. He saw that it had long "arms". He guessed it had been crawling like a snail, but that it got stuck in the land. Later, Paul Bartsch suggested it was a giant squid. Pontoppidan was not sure what kind of creature the kraken was. At first he thought it might be a giant crab. Then he compared it to sea monsters described by Pliny. Later he suggested it was a kind of octopus or "starfish", perhaps the one Gessner called Stella Arborescens. This starfish may be one of the northern ophiurids, possibly one of the Gorgonocephalids or the genus Gorgonocephalus, which is now placed under Phrynophiurida. Local stories called starfish "Medusa's heads" and said they were the young of the great sea-kraken, but von Bergen thought this was silly.

In 1802, the French malacologist Pierre Denys de Montfort described two kinds of giant octopuses in his book about mollusks. He linked his "colossal giant" to Pliny's "monstrous polypus", a creature that sailors feared. Montfort also drew a giant octopus next to a three-masted ship. He based the picture on a story from sailors who met the giant off the coast of Angola. That picture was left as a gift at a chapel in Saint-Malo, France. Montfort also blamed giant octopuses for the loss of ten British warships in 1782, including the ship of the line Ville de Paris. Others said a storm was the cause. In 1813, the ship Niagara reported seeing a huge sea animal. Samuel Latham Mitchill drew it as an octopus.

Giant squid (Architeuthis)

Main article: Giant squid

A common idea is that the kraken comes from sightings of giant squid. A piece of squid collected by the French ship Alecton in 1861 was discussed by Henry Lee. It was later identified as a giant squid, Architeuthis, by A. E. Verrill. Another specimen was found by Moses Harvey. In 1873, fishermen off Conception Bay in Newfoundland found a giant squid with a huge beak and long tentacles. They cut off two of its tentacles. Later, it was agreed that giant squid really do exist in our seas.

Iconography

A well-known engraving by Denys-Montfort shows a "colossal octopus," and people often use it to picture the kraken. However, a French expert on shellfish says this is different from the kraken. Commentators describe a ship attack in one picture as showing the "kraken octopod." Other publishers later made similar pictures of a kraken attacking a ship. Egede described the kraken as having "many Heads and a Number of Claws," and some pictures show it with spikes or horns. Some commentators think the "bearded whale" on an early map may be a kraken. A two-headed, horned monster said to have washed up in Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland, was also thought to be a giant octopus-like creature.

Swedish writer Olaus Magnus did not use the word kraken, but various sea monsters appeared on his Carta marina map (1539). Modern writers have tried to link some of them to the kraken. Ashton's Curious Creatures (1890) relied heavily on Olaus' work and identified the kraken as a cephalopod. Olaus showed the giant "polypus" as a lobster-like creature. Henry Lee believed this was a mistake for a cephalopod attack on a ship. The legend on the map does not explain the lobster-like monster "M" off the island of Iona, but its writing links that area to the "Fortunate Island" from St. Brendan's Voyage. On that voyage, the crew landed on an island-sized monstrous fish. Bartholin said this was the hafgufa, a creature already linked to the kraken.

Taxonomical influences

The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus described a strange creature called Microcosmus in his book Systema Naturae (1735). He called it a "body covered with various mixed-up parts" (Latin: Corpus variis heterogeneis tectum). He was inspired by earlier writers, including Thomas Bartholin, Christian Franz Paullini, and Francesco Redi, who wrote about a giant tunicate (Ascidia). Later, the English writer Thomas Pennant and the naturalist James Wilson shared these ideas in English, which helped English readers in the 1800s learn about the kraken. A French writer, Louis Figuier, wrongly said that Linnaeus had included a squid-like animal called "Sepia microcosmus" in his first edition. Linnaeus never described the kraken that way.

Main article: Mark McMenamin § Triassic kraken

The paleontologist Mark McMenamin and his spouse Dianna Schulte McMenamin said that an ancient, giant cephalopod like the kraken caused the deaths of ichthyosaurs during the Triassic period. Many researchers have disagreed with this idea. In 2026, an international team studied 27 fossilized octopus jaws from Japan and Vancouver Island. They concluded that giant finned octopodes of the genus Nanaimoteuthis were highly intelligent apex predators and may have been among the largest animals in the Late Cretaceous seas. Based on wear on their jaws, the researchers thought these "krakens" ate animals with hard bones inside their bodies.

Literary influences

The French writer Victor Hugo wrote a book called Les Travailleurs de la mer (1866, "Toilers of the Sea"). In it, he describes a large octopus from legend, the kraken. The local people of the Channel Islands called it pieuvre (in the Guernsey dialect, among others). Hugo's octopus later inspired Jules Verne when he wrote about the kraken in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. Verne was also inspired by a real event. The French ship Alecton once saw what was probably a giant squid. Verne often used the words kraken, calmar (squid), and poulpe (octopus) to mean the same thing.

In English-speaking countries, there are some well-known examples. In 1830, Alfred Tennyson wrote a poem called The Kraken. It is an irregular sonnet, which is a type of poem with fourteen lines. The kraken also appears in Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick (Chapter 59 "Squid").

Modern use

The kraken is made up and comes from old myths, but the legend still shows up today in films, books, television, and other popular culture. One example is John Wyndham's novel The Kraken Wakes (1953). The Kraken also appears in Marvel Comics, in the 1981 film Clash of the Titans, and in its 2010 remake of the same name. The Seattle Kraken is a professional ice hockey team.

Krakens also appear in video games such as Sea of Thieves, God of War II, Return of the Obra Dinn, and Dredge. The kraken was also featured in two Pirates of the Caribbean movies. In the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, it is the pet of the fearsome Davy Jones, and it appears again in the sequel, At World's End. In George R.R. Martin's fantasy novel series, A Song of Ice and Fire, and its HBO series adaptations, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, the kraken is the sigil of House Greyjoy of the Iron Islands.

The character of Cthulhu, created by H.P. Lovecraft in 1928, also works as a modern version of the kraken. This giant, squid-like creature is linked to the older idea of the mythical serpent, and to the more recent type of horror that focuses on the body. Two features on other objects in space have also been named after the Kraken. Kraken Mare is the largest known body of liquid on Saturn's moon Titan. It is a sea of liquid ethane and methane. Kraken Catena is a crater chain and possible tectonic fault on Triton, a moon of Neptune.

The Kraken Regiment (Ukrainian: Спецпідрозділ "Kraken", romanized: Spetspidrozdil "Kraken") is a Ukrainian military volunteer unit. Veterans of the Azov Regiment formed it, and they chose the mythical sea creature as their name. Their insignia shows a giant squid.