Several authors and zoologists discussed creatures similar to the Kraken before Pontoppidan, but he was seen as the real driving force behind stories of the Kraken.īecause of the translation, we don’t know if it was meant to be a squid or an octopus. In his works, The Natural History of Norway published in 17, he believed it to be a great tentacled monster that would surface and attack ships at sea and then subsequently caused whirlpools when returning to the seabed. The term Kraken was first used by the Danish Norwegian author Erik Pontoppidan when he argued that the Kraken along with mermaids and sea serpents existed. On his journey, he encounters two enormous monsters-the world’s largest whale and then the world’s largest sea creature, the Hafgufa, a monster so big that it could swallow an entire ship, feed on an animal as large as a whale and creates a whirlpool by merely rotating its body. The narrator concludes that it must be infertile, otherwise, there would be hundreds of them at sea.Ī creature of the same name is mentioned again towards the end of the 13th century, in the Icelandic saga which details the journey of a hero as he travels through the Greenland Sea. Here the narrator discusses all sorts of creatures found in Ireland, Iceland and Greenland, including Mermaids and Mermen, and of course, the Kraken.Īlthough at this stage it was referred to as the HAFGUFA-it’s described as a large fish or whale that resembles an island, more so than a living creature. Mentions of the Kraken can be found once again around 1250, in a Norwegian text known as the King’s Mirror. It terrorized sailors who crossed its path, dragging them into the depths of the ocean, destroying their ships and making their journey the voyage from hell. Sigurdsson believed a monster in the shape of a giant squid stalk the waters around Norway, Iceland, and Greenland. The first written account of the beast was in 1180 from Sverre Sigurdsson, who would later become the king of Norway in 1184. The stories of the Kraken originate from Scandinavian folklore in the early 12th century. If the Kraken isn’t from Greek mythology, then where do these stories originate from? So, why not just use the original name?įrom a mythological standpoint, it doesn’t really make any sense, but if you’re in Hollywood’s position and you have this giant sea monster from the Greek myth that the average person doesn’t really know by name, then why not just call it a Kraken-more people will have heard of the name and it’s going to generate more excitement.Īlso, the phrase ‘release the Kraken’ is infinitely cooler than ‘release the Cetus’-because it sounds too much like a foetus, but maybe that’s just me. ![]() In neither of these movies does it resemble what we would expect a Kraken to be. The confusion thing comes when both the original Clash of the Titans and the 2010 remake refer to this creature as the Kraken. Its best known as the sea monster Perseus defeated when saving Andromeda. The most terrifying of all these creatures was Cetus Aethionius-a giant fish whale shark sea monster thing-it doesn’t have a set appearance that we can easily identify. The works of Homer helped to popularize creatures such as Scylla and Charybdis, but neither one of these resembles a Kraken. To say the ancient Greeks enjoyed sailing around is a colossal understatement, so naturally, they would have many stories of monsters at sea. There is this misconception that the Kraken is a beast that originates from Greek mythology, but why? -Well, shiny Liam Neeson pretending to be Zeus doesn’t help in this case. That night we would experience its final acts of cruelty most of the men were below deck in their beds, blissfully unaware of the horrors we had awoken.Ĭreatures you wouldn’t believe existed, but worst of all was the Kraken. We had set out to discover the wonders of the sea, but instead, we were greeted only by hellish nightmares. ![]() Our journey was finally coming to its end. According to the Norse sagas, the Kraken dwells off the coasts of Norway and Greenland and terrorizes nearby sailors-with this, you may see a similarity to the Greek mythology sea monsters, Scylla, and Charybdis. In Scandinavian folklore, the Kraken is a legendary sea monster of enormous size with an octopus-like appearance.
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