Min son på galejan, eller en ostindisk resa innehållande allehanda bläckhornskram, samlade på skeppet Finland, som afseglade ifrån Götheborg i Dec. The other monsters included the Aspidochelone (or Fastitocalon), a creature also similar to an island possibly the bishop-fish (also known as the sea bishop, sea monk or monk-fish), a sea monster whose legend might also have originated from encounters with seals, sharks or walruses and, finally, even the biblical Leviathan ( Wallenberg, 1835 WALLENBERG, Jacob. Their features only reflected the fears of the first navigators, and the Kraken proved to be the strongest figure in their folklore, dragging every other sea monster under its shadow. However, nearly all sea monsters had some (or all) of these traits, and as such many of them were linked to or confused with (or, to borrow the lexicon of taxonomy, “placed in synonymy with”) the Kraken over the centuries. Therefore, these monsters have been considered as references to the Kraken and are treated as the same monster. They shared many features with the Kraken, namely their gigantic size (as big as an island or mountain) and their inclination to attack ships and their crews. The habits of theses monsters were later described in the Norwegian encyclopedia Konungs Skuggsjá (from circa 1250, also by an anonymous author). Two other Nordic sea monsters have records almost as old as the Kraken, appearing in the “Saga of Örvar-Oddr” (an Icelandic story from the thirteenth century by an anonymous author) their names are Hafgufa (“sea-mist”) and Lyngbakr (“heather-back”). Still, it had its own peculiarities: it was colossal in size, as large as an island, and capable of sinking ships it haunted the seas between Norway and Iceland, and between Iceland and Greenland ( Lee, 1883 LEE, Henry. According to an obscure, ancient manuscript of circa 1180 by King Sverre of Norway, the Kraken was just one of many sea monsters ( Lee, 1883 LEE, Henry. Amphibious Carnivora, including the walrus and seals, also of the herbivorous Cetacea, &c.
Right from the start, the Kraken was universally incorporated into Nordic mythology and folklore ( Hamilton, 1839 HAMILTON, Robert.
Its legend was also born from seamen’s stories, but it was much modified and strengthened over the years. The Kraken, one of these “survivors,” is perhaps the largest monster ever imagined by mankind. Over the centuries, many sea monster legends were born and forgotten only a few have reached our days. For a monster worthy of its tales, gigantic size was not enough it should also have some means to attack a ship and kill its crew. Even the bravest seafarers showed a respectful dread of the sea, and the stories they told gradually became legends, for, as the saying goes, “the tale grows in the telling.” An encounter with any unknown animal in the open sea had the potential to gain a mythological edge. For these men, the sea seemed to hide in its inconceivable depths a horde of lurking monsters. 1830.)įor the first navigators, the sea was a great unknown, treacherous, unstable, and above all, dangerous yet, it was the only way to reach certain places.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. (Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1830 TENNYSON, Alfred Lord.