What is a Kraken?

What is a Kraken? Back then, seafarers don’t know much about the oceans they were navigating in. The sea was unknown, unstable and dangerous. However, it’s the only way to reach other places and discover new lands. For many first navigators, the sea’s unfathomable depth is something that hides some monsters. And even the bravest of them all showed a respectful stance. The stories that these seafarers told eventually became legends and for those who survived, they lived to tell the tale. Any encounter with an unknown sea creature usually had a chance to have some mythical edge to it. What is a Kraken? A Kraken is a monster that’s worthy of such tales. It’s not just gigantic, but also something that the crew members experience great danger from. In this article, you’ll learn what is a Kraken?

The Sea Monster Legend

Over hundreds of years, lots of so – called sea monsters come and go and only a few stories survived. So it’s perhaps interesting to note that if we’re still talking about the Kraken today in the 21^st century that means there could be some grain of truth to it.

The Kraken is one of the largest monsters that were ever imagined or maybe actually encountered by mankind. The legend also started from the navigator’s stories but of course as the tale gets passed on from one to the other it gets modified over the years.  The Kraken was universally incorporated into Nordic mythology and folklore. According to an ancient manuscript by King Sverre of Norway around 1180, the Kraken was just one of many sea monsters. It was described as something that’s humongous and definitely capable of sinking the largest ships. Navigators who dared to travel from Norway to Iceland and Iceland to Greenland are haunted by such sea monster.

The creature is often confused because of the many forms it took when depicted in arts and literature. It’s usually portrayed as something like a giant and misshapen cephalopod; sometimes a sea serpent; sometimes a lobster – like sea creature. After a number of years, the Kraken’s figure stabilized as the seafarers came to learn more about the giant cephalopod. Back then, science and myth were kind of vague but thanks to the sightings and familiarity of seafarers to giant squids, the Kraken eventually took that form. This culminated in the Kraken’s “modern” form as a giant squid, which can be understood as a return to the animal that long ago originated the legend.

The Wrath of the Kraken

Before we examine the science behind this cryptid, it’s perhaps worth knowing more about the myth and further explore this sea monster in all of its legendary glory. The Kraken is the common name found in many literature but it is come in many names such as Skykraken, crab – fish, Krabben and Kraxen to name a few.

A monster will not be regarded as such if it didn’t harm any humans. According to legends, the Kraken was very capable of eating a ship and all of the people in it. Some even say that the Kraken is so huge that it can devour the entire ship at once. It is also worth mentioning the most curious piece of folklore about the Kraken: the belief that the fossilized tree resin found on the beaches of the North Sea was the monster’s excrement

And despite its fearsome reputation, the Kraken also bring some benefits. For many sailors back then, they think that the monster is always accompanied with lots of fishes as they cascade down the monster’s back. And when it emerges from the sea lots of fish can be available for fishermen. Others said that the Kraken produced some sort of “aroma” to attract its fish prey. And despite of the fear, some fishermen risked going near the monster in order to secure a more bounteous catch.

Kraken in Cryptozoology

What is a Kraken? The colossal size of the Kraken can reach a few kilometers in length but as the legend progress and the monster took that molluskan – like shape, it was eventually diminished to more modest proportions. Obviously, even a smaller type of Kraken is still going to be large enough to sink a ship and kill everyone in it.

There are various accounts in the cryptozoological literature, and also in the official naval records that tells the encounters with the Kraken. According to reports, the Kraken would attack a ship with its strong tentacles, and if this strategy failed, it could sink a ship by creating a fierce maelstrom that could drag the fleet to the bottom of the ocean. Interestingly, this is the most recurrent “ability” that a Kraken can do, but with many variations from literature.  

What is a Kraken? Generally, it was thought that the Kraken would start swimming in circles around the ship which can also mean that the monster maybe much smaller than originally thought of; thus creating the deadly vortex. However, when a larger size was attributed to the Kraken, the monster could create a maelstrom simply by submerging, and the helpless ship would be dragged down even if that was not the monster’s original intent.