The terrible kraken!
For thousands of years, sailors of many European lands told tales of
giant octopuses —octopuses so enormous they could wrap their arms
about a ship and drag it beneath the water! These giants were horrible
to see, so it was said. Their great, staring eyes were the size of
dinner plates. Their arms were twenty feet (6 meters) or more in length,
thick as tree trunks. And their bodies were dark green or bright red.
This creature became known as a kraken. The name comes from a Norwegian
word meaning \”twisted.” Perhaps it got this name because sailors who
claimed to have seen it thought that its many wiggling, writhing arms
give it a twisted look.
But had anyone really seen it? For a long time, many learned men doubted
that such a
creature existed. They felt it was just another
\”sea monster” story, such as sailors tell.
But as more and more ships sailed the seas, people learned that the
tales of the kraken were at least partly true! There were giant
octopuses and squids living in the sea.
In the year 1861, a French warship fought a battle against a giant squid
that may have been as much as sixty feet (18 meters) long. The squid was
finally killed with a cannonball.
Other ships also had encounters with these
giant creatures. And several dead \”krakens” were found washed ashore.
One giant squid, washed ashore in New Zealand, was nearly seventy-four
feet (22 meters) long! And parts of huge arms found in the stomachs of
whales are evidence that there may be bigger squids and octopuses.
So, the old legends of the kraken, that many people thought were fables,
are based on fact!
