The kraken (/ˈkrækən/; from Norwegian: kraken, /ˈkrɑː.kən/) is a legendary sea monster of very large size, as suggested by the word's origin, which is similar to "cephalopod." It is said to appear in the Norwegian Sea near the coast of Norway. People think the kraken legend may have come from sightings of giant squids, which can grow up to 10.5 meters (34 feet) long.
The kraken, as part of sailors' myths and stories, was first described in a Norwegian glossary by Christen Jensøn in 1646. Later, it appeared in a travelogue by Francesco Negri in 1700. In 1734, Dano-Norwegian missionary and explorer Hans Egede described the kraken and connected it to the hafgufa, a creature from medieval stories. However, the first detailed description of the kraken is usually credited to Danish bishop Pontoppidan in 1753. He described the kraken as a very large octopus (polypus) and wrote that it was known for dragging ships underwater. In the 19th century, French scientist Denys-Montfort studied the possibility of giant octopuses existing.
The idea of a large, man-hunting octopus appeared in French fiction when novelist Victor Hugo (1866) wrote about the pieuvre octopus from Guernsey legends, which he linked to the kraken. This influenced Jules Verne’s portrayal of the kraken, though Verne did not clearly separate octopuses from squids.
Carl Linnaeus may have indirectly mentioned the kraken. He wrote about the Microcosmus genus, a type of animal that has other organisms growing on it. Later writers connected Linnaeus’s writings, along with those of Thomas Bartholin’s cetus called hafgufa and Christian Franz Paullini’s monstrum marinum, to the term "kraken." However, there is no confirmed evidence that Linnaeus used the word "kraken" in the margin of a later edition of Systema Naturae.
Etymology
The word "kraken" in English, meaning a sea monster, comes from the Norwegian words "kraken" or "krakjen," which are the specific forms of the word "krake," meaning "the krake." According to a Norwegian dictionary, the root meaning of "krake" is "malformed or overgrown, crooked tree." This word comes from Old Norse "kraki," which is connected to Old Norse "krókr," meaning "hook," and is related to the word "crook." This connection is supported by the Swedish dictionary SAOB, which describes the word similarly in Swedish, confirming that "krak" is a small form of "krok," meaning "hook" or "crook" in both Norwegian and Swedish. Over time, "krake" came to describe any broken tree trunk or stem with crooked growths, leading to the creation of objects and tools, such as simple anchors and drags (grapnel anchors) made from broken spruce tops or branchy tree trunks with stones attached, called "krake" in Norwegian or "krabba" in Swedish (meaning "crab"). In Old Norse, "kraki" mostly matches these meanings in modern Icelandic, where it can mean "twig," "drag," "pile barrage pole," or "boat hook." The Swedish SAOB translates Icelandic "kraki" as "thin rod with a hook," "wooden drag with a stone sinker," and "dry spruce trunk with crooked, stripped branches still attached."
The word "kraken" is thought to have been named after the meaning "crooked tree" or its related meaning "drag," as trunks with crooked branches or drags, wooden or not, can resemble a cephalopod or similar creature. This idea was first noted by Icelandic philologist Finnur Jónsson in 1920. Another name for "kraken" was "krabbe," which also suggests a connection to "drag."
Early on, the monster was also called "horven" ("the horv"). Finnur Jónsson explained this name in 1920 as an alternative form of "harv," meaning "harrow," and suggested the name came from the inkfish's movement, which seems to plough the sea.
Erik Pontoppidan listed several synonyms for "krake" in Danish.
Since the 19th century, the word "krake" has also been used to describe the cephalopod order Octopoda in Swedish ("krakar") and German ("Kraken"), leading to some octopus species being named after it. For example, the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) is called "jättekrake" ("giant kraken") in Swedish and "Gewöhnlicher Krake" ("common kraken") in German. The family Octopodidae is also called "Echte Kraken" ("true krakens") in German. In Icelandic, octopods are called "kolkrabbar" ("coal crabs") because of the "crab" nickname, and the common octopus is called "kolkrabbi."
The Swedish word "kräkel," meaning a branchy or spiny piece of wood, has also been used to name certain sea plants, like the red algae species "furcellaria lumbricalis." Another term, "kräkla" (or "krekle" in dialectal Norwegian), meaning "crooked piece of wood," has been used to describe early tools like whisks and beaters made from tree tops, which resemble cephalopods. These tools are also similar to crosiers and shepherd's crooks.
The Shetlandic word "krekin," meaning "whale," is also considered related in origin.
General description
The kraken was described as a creature with many heads and claws by Hans Egede in 1741. He said the kraken was similar to the Icelanders' hafgufa, which is often considered a mythical whale (the name means "sea reeker," like a whale blowing water). Erik Pontoppidan, who wrote about the kraken in 1753, described it as having many arms and suggested it might be a giant sea crab, starfish, or octopus. Pontoppidan is known for sharing the kraken's story with people who speak English and for being an expert on sea serpents and krakens.
In 1801, Denys-Montfort wrote about two large creatures: the "colossal octopus," which is often shown attacking a ship, and the "kraken octopod," which was thought to be the largest living thing in the study of animals. Denys-Montfort compared his "colossal octopus" to a story by Pliny about a giant octopus that attacked shipwrecked people. He also linked his kraken to Pliny's description of a sea monster called the arbor marina. Finnur Jónsson, in 1920, believed the kraken was a type of squid or octopus based on the study of word origins.
The Swedish encyclopedia Nordisk familjebok summarized the kraken myth in 1884:
The kraken, also called "the crookie" or "the harrow," is a mythical sea creature from stories. Erik Pontoppidan, with help from Norwegian fishermen, wrote about it in "Norges natuurlijke historie" (1752–53).
Fishermen sometimes notice strange things when they row a few miles from the shore on a calm summer day. If they expect to find water 80–100 fathoms (140–180 meters) deep, they might instead find water only 20–30 fathoms (35–50 meters) deep. This area often has large groups of cod and ling fish. Some believe the kraken lives there, creating a raised area on the ocean floor and attracting fish with its secretions. If fishermen see the kraken rising, they must row away quickly. After a few minutes, the kraken may lift part of its body above the water, appearing as a group of rocky islands covered in swaying, seaweed-like growths. Tentacles may rise above the water, growing thicker at the bottom and reaching as high as ship masts. Eventually, the kraken sinks again, and fishermen must avoid the strong suction vortex it creates.
Historical descriptions
One of the earliest known descriptions of the kraken appears in the 1539 map of Scandinavia, called the Carta marina, created by Swedish writer Olaus Magnus. This map includes drawings of sea monsters. Magnus did not use the word kraken, but he illustrated a creature in the Norwegian Sea between Norway and Iceland. This creature looked like a fish with tentacles growing from its head, and another nearby sea monster had a fish-like body with tusks.
The Carta marina describes the two creatures as:
"Two enormous sea monsters, one with sharp teeth, the other with horns and a terrifying, glowing gaze. The eyes of this creature are as wide as 16 to 20 feet."
The exact meaning of the measurement is unclear. It might refer to old Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish units of length. If we use a general estimate of 300 millimeters (about 12 inches) for a foot, the eye size would be roughly 1.5 to 1.9 meters (about 4.9 to 6.2 feet) in diameter.
Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner gave the tusked creature the name swine whale (in German: Schweinwal) and the horned creature the name bearded whale (in German: Bart-wal).
In 1555, Magnus published a larger work called Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (A Description of the Northern Peoples), which included detailed descriptions of Scandinavian life. In one section, he described the creature from the Carta marina as part of a group of unnamed monster fish near Norway. He compared it to whales but also noted features like spiny parts, long horns, and large, glowing eyes. He described the eyes as having a circumference of 8 to 10 cubits (about 1.5 to 1.9 meters in diameter) and a flaming red color. These glowing eyes might have been inspired by bioluminescent organs found on squids. Magnus also mentioned the creature had a beard made of thick, feather-like hairs, which could be barnacles attached to whales.
Since sperm whales hunt giant squids, and the descriptions mention glowing eyes seen at night, it is possible that these accounts describe sperm whales hunting squids. If we compare the eye size described by Magnus to modern giant squids, the kraken he described might have been extremely large—possibly over 70 meters (about 230 feet) long.
The first known use of the word kraken appears in a Norwegian glossary published in 1646 by Christen Jensøn. He described the kraken as a sea monster with many arms that could pull boats into the ocean.
An Italian writer named Francesco Negri mentioned a creature called sciu-crak (similar to the Norwegian sjø-krake, meaning "sea-kraken") in his 1700 travel book about Scandinavia. He described it as a large "fish" with many horns or arms and said it was different from a sea serpent.
The first written description of the kraken in the German language is attributed to Erik Pontoppidan, a bishop from Norway, in his 1752–53 work The First Attempt at a Natural History of Norway. However, a Norwegian writer named Hans Egede may have described the kraken earlier, based on stories from his homeland in Norway. Egede wrote that the kraken was said to be many miles long, with many heads and claws. It could trap ships, people, and animals, dragging them into the sea. He compared it to a creature called hafgufa from Iceland but could not confirm details about it.
According to Norwegian fishing stories, the kraken could be mistaken for a sandbank where fish gather. If fishermen accidentally caught it, they had to say its name to make it return to the ocean. Egede also grouped the kraken with other mythical sea creatures, like the Drauen, a type of sea spirit.
Pontoppidan described the kraken as sometimes appearing like a group of small islands with fish swimming between them. Fishermen risked fishing over the kraken because of the abundance of fish, which led to the saying "You must have fished on Kraken." However, the kraken was also dangerous, as its movements could create whirlpools similar to Norway’s famous Moskstraumen (the Maelstrom). Pontoppidan wrote that the kraken’s arms could pull even the largest ships to the ocean floor.
Some sources claimed the kraken ate for months and then released thick, cloudy waste that attracted fish. Later, Henry Lee suggested this waste might have been ink from a squid.
An anonymous description from around 1770 in Surnadal, likely written by Søren Richart Hagerup, described the kraken as a giant fish with tree-like fins capable of sinking entire boats.
Mythical identifications
Hans Egede connected krake with the hafgufa, a creature described by Icelanders, though he learned this indirectly from an old Norwegian text called the Speculum Regale (or King's Mirror, around 1250). Later, David Crantz in his book History of Greenland (1765) also said kraken and hafgufa were the same. An English translator of the King's Mirror in 1917 chose to translate hafgufa as kraken.
The hafgufa, described in the King's Mirror as the largest sea monster in the Greenland Sea, is still linked to kraken in some scholarly works. If this connection is accepted, the kraken-hafgufa’s legendary range would include areas near Helluland (Baffin Island, Canada), as mentioned in the story Örvar-Odds saga.
The anonymous text Historia Norwegiæ also mentions the hafgufa living in a deep fjord with other sea creatures, such as the hafstramb, a giant creature without a head or tail; the hrosshvalr, a creature resembling a horse and fish; and mythical beings like Charybdis and Scylla.
The King's Mirror’s description of the hafgufa suggests it may be based on a confused eyewitness account of a whale. This idea is supported by Grönlands historiske Mindesmaerker and Halldór Hermannsson, who both suggest the hafgufa was a type of whale. The name "hafgufa," meaning "sea reeker," might come from a whale blowing water.
The King's Mirror includes many details about sea life, such as 21 whale species, six types of seals, descriptions of walruses, "sea-hedges," and mythical creatures like mermaids and kraken. While whales in Icelandic waters are described in detail—such as the "blubber-cutters," which are the most common and harmless to ships; the porpoise, which grows up to five ells long; and the "caaing whale," which reaches seven ells—the descriptions of other dangerous or mythical sea creatures are less clear and more open to interpretation.
Finnur Jónsson (1920) believed the kraken likely represented an inkfish (such as a squid or octopus), as discussed earlier. He doubted the common belief that the kraken originated from the hafgufa.
Taxonomic identifications
Erik Pontoppidan wrote about a possible kraken specimen that washed ashore and died in 1680 near Alstahaug Church on the island of Alsta, Norway. He described the creature as having long "arms" and guessed it might have moved like a snail or slug using these arms. However, it became stuck in the landscape during its movement. In the 20th century, scientist Paul Bartsch and literary scholar Finnur Jónsson suggested the creature might have been a giant squid.
Pontoppidan’s descriptions of what he believed the kraken to be are complicated. He first thought the kraken might be a type of giant crab, as the word "krabben" in Norwegian describes a crab-like creature. Later, he compared the kraken to creatures described by the ancient Roman writer Pliny, including a sea monster called "arbor" with tree-branch-like arms and another creature called "rota" with eight arms. Pontoppidan combined these two descriptions into one organism, suggesting it was an ancient example of the kraken.
Pontoppidan also considered the kraken to be a type of polypus (octopus) or "starfish," specifically a kind called Stella Arborescens by a scientist named Gessner. This starfish is now classified as part of the ophiurid group or the Gorgonocephalid family. Local legends in Norway describe "Medusa's heads" (a type of starfish) as the young of the kraken. Pontoppidan suggested these might actually be the eggs of starfish. However, others, like von Bergen, doubted this, arguing that if "Medusa's heads" were kraken young, the seas would be full of adult krakens.
Pontoppidan remained uncertain, stating the kraken might belong to the "Polypus" family, which includes octopuses. He referenced a giant octopus described by Pliny, though he only used the general term "stinkard" for octopuses.
In 1802, French scientist Pierre Denys de Montfort described two types of giant octopuses in his book Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques. One, called the "colossal giant," was said to attack ships and people. Montfort included an engraving of a giant octopus attacking a three-masted ship. Another, called the "kraken octopus," was described as the largest animal on Earth, larger than Pliny’s "monstrous polypus."
Montfort also linked the kraken to other sea creatures, such as a giant crab described by Christian Franz Paullini and a creature called the "trolwal" or "devil whale." He claimed that colossal octopuses might have caused the sinking of ten British warships in 1782, though others later argued that a storm, not octopuses, was responsible.
In 1813, the ship Niagara reported seeing a marine creature 60 meters (200 feet) long, covered in shells, with birds resting on it. This was later linked to Montfort’s kraken.
A giant squid was discovered in 1861 by the French ship Alecton and later identified as Architeuthis by scientist A. E. Verrill. Another discovery in 1873 by Theophilus Piccot and his assistant in Newfoundland revealed a creature with a large beak, massive tentacles, and the ability to release ink when threatened. Though the creature escaped, they managed to cut off two of its tentacles.
These discoveries led scientists to suggest that the kraken legend might be based on sightings of giant squid or octopuses.
Iconography
Denys-Montfort's engraving of the "colossal octopus" is often shown. However, a French scientist who studies shellfish says this is different from the kraken. Some people describe the ship attack in the image as the "kraken octopod."
After Denys-Montfort's illustration, other publishers made similar pictures showing the kraken attacking a ship.
Egede described the kraken as having many heads and many claws. Some illustrations show the creature with spikes or horns. A creature called the "bearded whale" on an early map is thought to be a kraken. Also, a two-headed and horned monster was reported to have washed ashore in Dingle, Ireland. It was believed to be a giant cephalopod, and the person who found it painted it. He later displayed his painting in a traveling show, as described in a book about the kraken.
Olaus Magnus, a Swedish writer, did not use the word "kraken," but his famous map, the Carta marina (1539), includes drawings of various sea monsters. Later writers have tried to explain these creatures as representations of the kraken.
Ashton's Curious Creatures (1890) used much information from Olaus's work and quoted his description of the horned whale. He identified the kraken as a cephalopod and wrote about Pliny and Olaus's descriptions of the giant "polypus." Olaus illustrated the kraken-polypus as a crayfish or lobster, and Ashton included images from both Olaus's book and map. In Olaus's book, an illustration of a giant lobster is shown above the heading "De Polypis (on the octopus)." Henry Lee believed that the image of a multi-legged lobster was a mistaken representation of a reported cephalopod attack on a ship.
Olaus's map does not clearly explain the lobster-like monster labeled "M" near the island of Iona. However, a text called the Auslegung explains that this part of the map shows an area from Ireland to the "Insula Fortunata." This "Fortunate Island" was a destination in St. Brendan's Voyage, where the crew is said to have landed on an island-sized fish. A 17th-century engraving shows this event. Bartholin said this fish was the hafgufa, a creature already discussed as being linked to the kraken.
Taxonomical influences
Carl Linnaeus, a famous Swedish naturalist from the 18th century, described a group of creatures called Microcosmus in his work Systema Naturae (1735). He called this group "a body covered with various different parts" (Latin: Corpus variis heterogeneis tectum).
Linnaeus listed four sources for Microcosmus, including Thomas Bartholin’s description of a whale-like creature called hafgufa, Christian Franz Paullini’s account of a sea monster, and Francesco Redi’s description of a large tunicate (Ascidia) in Italian and Latin.
The Swedish zoologist Lovén noted that the common name kraken was added to the 6th edition of Systema Naturae (1748), which included a Latin version and Swedish names written in blackletter script. However, the Swedish text for this entry is missing in some copies, such as the one held by NCSU. In the 7th edition of 1748, which added German names, Microcosmus was called "sea-grape" (German: Meertrauben), referring to a cluster of cephalopod eggs.
In 1860, Louis Figuier incorrectly claimed that Linnaeus included a cephalopod named Sepia microcosmus in the first edition of Systema Naturae (1735). This error has been corrected, as Linnaeus never classified the kraken as a cephalopod. Despite this, the mistake has been repeated by some modern writers.
Thomas Pennant, an English naturalist, described Sepia octopodia as an "eight-armed cuttlefish," which is now called an octopus. He reported sightings of large specimens in the Indian isles, measuring up to 2 fathoms (3.7 meters; 12 feet) wide, with arms 9 fathoms (16 meters; 54 feet) long. William Turton later added this as Sepia octopusa [sic.] in his English version of Linnaeus’ System of Nature, including the account of the 9-fathom-long octopuses.
The idea of the kraken, first mentioned by Linnaeus, later influenced writings by the naturalist James Wilson, who described the creature in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine in 1818. This helped spread awareness of the kraken among 19th-century English readers, inspiring Alfred Tennyson’s poem "The Kraken."
Paleontologist Mark McMenamin and his wife Dianna Schulte McMenamin suggested that a giant, ancient cephalopod similar to the kraken may have caused the deaths of ichthyosaurs during the Triassic period. However, this theory has been criticized by other researchers.
In 2026, an international team of scientists studied 27 fossilized octopod jaws from Japan and Vancouver Island. They concluded that giant finned octopuses of the genus Nanaimoteuthis were highly intelligent apex predators and possibly the largest animals in the Late Cretaceous seas. The researchers estimated Nanaimoteuthis jeletzkyi and N. haggarti to be 3–8 meters and 7–19 meters long, respectively. Based on jaw wear patterns, these creatures likely fed on vertebrates with hard internal skeletons. The scientists noted that both cephalopods and vertebrates evolved similar traits independently, such as powerful jaws and the loss of external skeletons, through convergent evolution.
Literary influences
The French writer Victor Hugo's book Les Travailleurs de la mer (1866, "Toilers of the Sea") describes a giant octopus, known as the kraken in legends, called pieuvre by people in the Channel Islands, such as in the Guernsey dialect. Hugo's description of the octopus later inspired Jules Verne's portrayal of the kraken in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. However, Verne also used details from a real event when the French ship Alecton encountered what was likely a giant squid. It has been observed that Verne sometimes used the words kraken, calmar (squid), and poulpe (octopus) without clear distinction.
In English literature, examples include Alfred Tennyson's 1830 poem The Kraken, an irregular sonnet, and references to the kraken in Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick (Chapter 59, "Squid").
Modern use
The legend of the Kraken, though fictional and based on myths, is still widely known today. It appears in many forms of media, including books, movies, television shows, and video games.
Examples include the novel The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham (1953), the Kraken from Marvel Comics, the 1981 film Clash of the Titans and its 2010 remake, and the Seattle Kraken, a professional ice hockey team. The Kraken also appears in video games such as Sea of Thieves, God of War II, Return of the Obra Dinn, and Dredge. The creature is shown in two Pirates of the Caribbean movies as the pet of Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and in its sequel, At World's End. In George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire and its TV adaptations, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, the Kraken is the symbol of House Greyjoy from the Iron Islands.
The character Cthulhu, created by H.P. Lovecraft in 1928, is another modern version of the Kraken. This giant, squid-like creature represents fear and horror, often linked to ideas of destruction, death, or sin, as well as modern themes of physical horror.
Two features on other celestial objects are named after the Kraken. Kraken Mare is a large sea of liquid ethane and methane on Saturn’s moon Titan, the largest known body of liquid on that moon. Kraken Catena is a chain of craters and a possible tectonic fault on Neptune’s moon Triton.