Kraken – Cryptid of the Sea or Real Animal?

Sightings of Colossal Squids and Octopi Reported Since Ancient Times

Oct 24, 2009

Scientists scoffed at these accounts until evidence made them acknowledge these monsters might exist. The debate of cryptid or enormous squid continues.

Sailors reported seeing huge multi-tentacled sea monsters since ancient times. Norwegians called them Kraken. They could reach tops of sailing vessels’ main masts. The Kraken attacked ships by wrapping its arms around their hulls and capsizing them.

Medieval Kraken Accounts

This beast appears to have been named Kraken in twelfth century Norway. It was so big that it was mistaken for islands or archipelagos.

In 1752, Bishop of Bergen Erik Ludvigsen Pontoppidan published The Natural History of Norway. He wrote Kraken was a gigantic crab-like sea monster and was three and a half miles wide. Its biggest dangers to ships were the wakes it made as it surfaced and the whirlpools created when it submerged.

Kraken Descriptions Changed

By the 1700s, the sea monster became smaller and resembled a cephalopod. In 1802, French scientist Pierre Denys de Montfort wrote the creature was the kracken (sic) octopus.

He proposed there was a larger type of cephalopod, colossal octopus, known to attack ships. Allegedly, this happened to a sailing vessel off of the coast of Angola in the 1600s.

Mollusk Expert Classified Kraken

French malacologist Pierre Dénys de Montfort classified two types of giant octopi in 1802. Kraken Octopus was the one described by ancient seafarers and Norwegian and American mariners. The Colossal Octopus was much bigger.

Later, de Montfort lost his credibility when he proposed that ten British warships were attacked and sunk by giant octopi in 1782.

Kraken in Literature

In 650 BCE Homer’s Odyssey recounted Ulysses’ encounter with Skylla. The monster had twelve feet and six heads. Her long arms grabbed passing sailors.

Jules Verne, in his novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, wrote about giant octopi and Olaus Magnus’, a 17th century Swedish writer’s, description. Nemo was the captain of the fictional Nautilus that was attacked by giant octopi.

What is the Kraken?

In the early days of the age of science, the concept of the Kraken was ridiculed, put into the same category with mythical sea serpents and ignored by scientists. Many claimed to have seen giant squids, but they were primarily “superstitious” seafarers, thus sightings were unconfirmed because they weren’t scientists.

The only evidence was beached carcasses. When several carcasses of the beast washed ashore, scientists were forced to acknowledge Kraken could be reality. They conducted expeditions, but failed to obtain videos of a live giant squid.

In September 2004, Japanese scientists attracted one with a baited line. Cameras took over five hundred photographs of the cephalopod before it freed itself, leaving behind an eighteen foot tentacle attached to the bait.

Cryptid Kraken or Giant Squid?

There’s controversy about the true size of the giant squid. Witnesses’ sightings and sucker scars on whales seem to evidence there are squids that are much larger than beached carcasses indicate. Skepticism about giant squids’ existence has weakened.

Some scientists theorize the Antarctic species of squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, is much bigger than the giant squid. The basis for this is that complete specimens of babies have been caught, suggesting adult colossal squids, are enormous. Is it possible that more than one species of giant squids exist, which would bring them out of the realm of cryptozoology into the one of science? Or is Kraken a separate species?

Articles Related to Cryptid Kraken

The copyright of the article Kraken – Cryptid of the Sea or Real Animal? in Cryptozoology is owned by Jill Stefko . Permission to republish Kraken – Cryptid of the Sea or Real Animal? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.