The Kraken
Norwegian sailors told of a sea monster so vast it could be mistaken for a group of islands.
What was reported
In 1752–53 Erik Pontoppidan, bishop of Bergen, published a natural history of Norway describing the kraken, a creature fishermen said was more than a mile and a half around, which rose beneath their boats and could be mistaken for islands. Fishing was said to be especially good above it.
Older Norse writings mention similar monsters, and the kraken later appeared in literature from Tennyson's poem to Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.
Explanations offered
Most think the legend grew from sightings of giant squid, which can reach over 12 metres including tentacles and sometimes float at the surface when dying, combined with sailors' exaggeration. The Danish zoologist Japetus Steenstrup established the giant squid as real in the 1850s, and it was first photographed alive in its habitat in 2004.
- When
- Described in 1752
- Where
- Norwegian Sea, off Norway
- Witnesses
- Norwegian fishermen, as told to a bishop
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.