As a mythical beast, the kraken has had its name placed once again into the forefront of people’s mind with the release of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.

The legend of the Kraken can be traced back to tales from Norway and Iceland, and were said to be giant sea monster that lived off of the coasts of both countries. Being from Scandinavia it would normally be safe to assume that the Kraken would appear in the Norse sagas, but there is no mention of the monster by name in these tales, and as a specific monster, the Kraken appears first in 1752. It was in this year that the Bishop of Bergen, Erik Ludvigsen Pontoppidan published his “Natural History of Norway”. This published work retold the tales of a sea monster that was of extreme danger to the health of seamen, attacking ships and devouring their crew.

The earliest written accounts would describe the Kraken as the size of a small island, often a mile and half in diameter. The earliest stories would describe it has a cross between an octopus and a crab, with tentacles that could reach to the top of the highest masts of the largest warships afloat. The attack of the Kraken would involve the capsizing of the vessel by use of its tentacles, or else would make use of the whirlpool it created as it dived to suck down the vessel. The attack of the Kraken is visibly displayed in the last two parts of the Pirates of the Caribbean, and are actually fairly close depictions of the old stories.

The Kraken, although often mistaken for an island was also fairly easy to locate, as there was said to be bubbles, as well as shoals of fish that would surround it as it lurked on the sea floor. These fish although many would be devoured by the monster, were also kept well fed by the excrement of the Kraken. Scandinavian fishermen then would take the risk of disturbing the monster in order to fill their fishing nets. The bubbles and abundance of life can today be linked to underwater volcanic activity but this was unknown at the time.

Over time though stories evolved so that the Kraken was more like a squid than a crab/octopus, a development that occurred with the discovery of the giant squid in the early part of the nineteenth century.

The stories and descriptions are now normally most closely associated with real giant squid. Recent examples of giant squid caught in nets have shown that they can easily grow to fifty feet in length, and although inhabiting the ocean’s depths do come to the surface on occasion. These of course do not compare in size with the Kraken of the Scandinavian stories but even in the last hundred years there have been a number of occasions when squid have attacked ships mistaking them for sperm whales, although these squid were killed by the propellers of the ships. This though does highlight the fact that squid do on occasion mistake ships for whales and will attack them.

Depite the recent film releases, the Pirates of the Caribbean though was not the first time that the Kraken has appeared on the big screen, and famously appeared in the Harryhausen film “Clash of the Titans”. In this film though the Kraken has replaced the Greek monster Ceto in the storyline, and was not depicted as the traditional Kraken, being as it was a monster with legs and four arms. The Kraken has also made an appearance in a diverse range of literature from the likes of Alfred Lord Tennyson to Jules Verne.

The legend of the Kraken is not likely to disappear any time soon, and with so much of the ocean’s still to be explored who is to say what wonders and monsters exist in the depths.