By Natalie Pearce
The Kraken is a sea monster, huge in size, that comes from Scandinavia mythology. Allegedly it lives along the coast of Norway and Greenland and spends its time terrorising sailors that come into its path. The word Kraken is derived from the Swedish for ‘unhealthy’ or ‘twisted’ animal. In modern German, Kraken means Octopus, but can also refer to the mythical monster.
Many tales call it the “biggest monster in the sea” that is big enough to swallow ships and whales. It is said to be so large that sometimes its body can be mistaken for land mass. It is described as having a flat body with dozens of long tentacles that can reach the height of a ships mast. Giant waves and ripples come out of the water and fish are seen swimming away in fright of its presence.
So is it real?
Could it simply be ‘Architeuthis dux’ the world’s largest known squid? The beast can grow up to 46ft in length and are very shy when it comes to people being able to photograph its existence. Most evidence has been from carcases that have washed up on shore. Thankfully in 2012, a group of divers captured a picture of one 2000ft below the seas of Japan, then again in 2019 in the Gulf of Mexico.
Palaeontologists theorise that we in fact had a Triassic Kraken, located around the western USA, speculating that these were around 30ft in length and that they pulled land-dwelling dinosaurs into the water to kill them.
In 2019, a shark was spotted off the coast of Hawaii with unexplained markings to its torso. The 7ft long white tip shark had notable suction marks which the biologist found very strange. So much so he contacted other scientists to take a look. This bread of shark is among the most deadly in the ocean. Analysis of the photographs led to the biologists concluding that the shark had been attacked by a “Kraken-like creature”. The bite marks showed that the creature was around 27ft. The shark was still alive so despite who it may have fought with, it wasn’t a one sided fight.
The Kraken has made its way nicely into modern popular culture, some examples of which are listed below. They are also depicted heavily in Marvel and DC comics.
In film
- Clash of the Titans (2010)
- Hotel Transylvania 3 (2018)
- Kraken: Tentacles of the deep (2006)
- Under the Seas (1906)
- Jack the Giant killer (1962)
In literature
- Moby Dick (1851)
- The blue world (1964)
- Good Omens (1990)
- Pirate Latitudes (2009)
- A Song of Fire and Ice (1996)
Video Games
- Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (2006)
- Wizard 101 (2008+)
- Call of Duty (Ghosts) (2013)
- Grandia (2007)
- World of Warships (2015)
Whilst we have no definitive evidence of the mighty Kraken, it must be pointed out that nautical exploration is as old as us humans. Despite this we have only explored and mapped around 5% of the world’s oceans. This is mainly due to the relative newness to mapping technologies and the fact the ocean is so vast and dark when you go deeper into it.
Under the ocean surface is 99% of the liveable space on planet Earth. So, whilst we have no concrete evidence of the existence of the Kraken, we have hardly scraped the surface of hunting for it. Only time will tell.
