Case file · Cryptid
The Kraken
A gigantic sea monster of Norwegian sailors' lore, first named in a 1646 glossary and later described by the Danish bishop Pontoppidan (1753).
1753 CE · 68.67, 2.00 · status: legend
The account
Missionary Hans Egede described it in 1734 and linked it to the hafgufa of medieval lore. It became a fixture of sea-monster legend.
The sceptical view
The legend probably comes from sightings of giant squid, which can grow to about 10.5 metres.
Connections in the atlas
- The hafgufa of the King's Mirror
- Kraken
- The Case for the Sea Serpent
- The kraken and the hafgufa
- The schooner Pearl 'sunk by a squid'
- Hans Egede's sea serpent
- Ålbæk giant squid stranding
- The Pauline's serpent and the whale
- A colossal squid hauled up in the Ross Sea
- The sea bishop
- First photographs of a live giant squid
- Jonah in the belly of the great fish