Kraken

Also known as Krabben, Sykraken, Kraxe, Krake.

• #1926
•  Norse (culture)
•  Aquatic (attribute)
•  Deadly (behaviour)

An enormous octopus of Norse legend that consumed entire ships. It would grapple a ship with its tentacles and drag it under the water in a swirling motion creating a whirlpool so that none could escape. It especially like the taste of human flesh. At times it would float in the water with its head coming out of the surface of the ocean. Many sailors thought that it was an island until they disturbed the Kraken. Where the Kraken rested with its head floating above the water, many fish would gather near the surface. It is said that anyone who fishes near it without waking the Kraken will be able to take home a whole shipload of fish.

There have been many stories of the Kraken from the north sea near Norway. A more recent sighting was documented in 1752 when Bishop of Bergen, Erik Ludvigsen Pontoppidan wrote in his Natural History of Norway.

“It seems these are the creatures arms, and, it is said if they were to lay hold of the largest man-o-war, they would pull it down to the bottom.”

In the 1930s on three occasions Kraken-like creatures of much smaller size attack a ship. These creatures did not put up much of a fight as they were sucked into the propellers and were killed. It is believed that the Kraken creatures mistook the boat for a whale.

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