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Kraken
The Kraken of Scandinavian lore was
a horned sea monster so huge that it was sometimes mistaken for a group of islands by
unsuspecting sailors who ventured far from shore (the back of a fully grown Kraken was
about one and a half miles long). But when curious mariners drew near, the islands might
erupt into a mass of multiple heads, horns, and waving tentacles that could grasp and sink
even the largest of ships. It was also said that when the Kraken submerged, it could suck
down a vessel just by the whirlpool it created.
The Kraken was also known to discharge
an inky liquid that blackened and poisoned the waters — a characteristic that, like
its tentacles, hints the creature to be a monster-size version of the real-life giant
squid.
Probably the first recorded mention of
the Kraken is in Homer's Odyssey, when Odysseus has to pass Scylla's lair. The creature
was also mentioned in 1555 by a Swede named Olaus Magnus, who wrote a book about the
history of the Scandinavian nations. In it he described this strange monster, which seems
to have been a giant squid or octopus or cuttlefish. Bishop Erik Pontoppidan, of Bergen,
Norway, wrote in 1752 (A Natural History of Norway) that floating islands that
appeared and disappeared suddenly in the northern seas were certainly krakens. The Bishop
of Midaros found a Kraken on the shore. Thinking it to be a rock, he set up an altar on
its back and celebrated Mass. The creature waited respectfully until the bishop had
finished and then quietly slipped into the sea and vanished.
Modern skeptics tend to dismiss the
Kraken, saying that witnesses had probably been confused by sightings of giant
squids. But
in the vast depths of the sea, who knows? Perhaps as the poet Tennyson wrote:
"Below the thunders of the upper
deep;
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth..."
Related
books.
More related
books.
Further info:
The Unnatural Museum - The
Kraken.
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