HOME | DD

Description
The kraken. Among one of the most famous sea monsters, up there with the Leviathan. However, it's often given the shaft, reducing it down to a pretty big squid or (in my case) a pretty large barnacle. Time to rectify that! The first paragraph is mostly the restating of prior information from my sources, the second is analysis and world-building-y stuff)
The name kraken comes from the Old Norse kraki, meaning a sick or pallid animal. It is also called (or at least it was, in the 1700s) the Krabben, Horven, and Anker-Trold or Anchor-Troll. In Erik Pontoppidan's The natural history of Norway, he groups them among the sea monsters. According to him, the kraken is so large it can be mistaken for an island and is so incredibly bad-smelling it attracts schools of fish. Once the kraken begins eating the fish, they flee from it, trying desperately to escape its sticky, grabbing arms and the immense currents of water which swirl around it, dragging everything towards its massive body. Fishermen could use this fact to get scores of fish, but had to be wary. If they got too greedy, their boats would too be driven towards the kraken. It also has two horns which peek out of the water. For some reason.
Taking all of this into account, the kraken is no ordinary living island. It is a horrible, anemic sort of creature. It rarely kills intentionally, but its great size is the cause of most deaths. It constantly eats and so is constantly surrounded by a cloud of disgusting, polluted water. Its presence brings fish to feed on its excrement, only to then consume them en masse and drive the rest away. Its names kraki and anchor-troll show its malevolence; it's a troll, in the sense that it is a vile creature. It sinks ships like an anchor, and is also a sick pale color. Its arms may seem reminiscent of tentacles, but the kraken is a monster, no earthly animal can compare. It owes its origins, like many other sea monsters of Scandinavia, to the seas of Jotunheim and Niflheim, which are populated with enormous eels and other sorts of monstrous fish.
Sources:
Pontoppidan, Erik; "The natural history of Norway..."
Sigurthsson, Arngrimur; "Museum of Hidden Beings"

Description
The kraken. Among one of the most famous sea monsters, up there with the Leviathan. However, it's often given the shaft, reducing it down to a pretty big squid or (in my case) a pretty large barnacle. Time to rectify that! The first paragraph is mostly the restating of prior information from my sources, the second is analysis and world-building-y stuff)
The name kraken comes from the Old Norse kraki, meaning a sick or pallid animal. It is also called (or at least it was, in the 1700s) the Krabben, Horven, and Anker-Trold or Anchor-Troll. In Erik Pontoppidan's The natural history of Norway, he groups them among the sea monsters. According to him, the kraken is so large it can be mistaken for an island and is so incredibly bad-smelling it attracts schools of fish. Once the kraken begins eating the fish, they flee from it, trying desperately to escape its sticky, grabbing arms and the immense currents of water which swirl around it, dragging everything towards its massive body. Fishermen could use this fact to get scores of fish, but had to be wary. If they got too greedy, their boats would too be driven towards the kraken. It also has two horns which peek out of the water. For some reason.
Taking all of this into account, the kraken is no ordinary living island. It is a horrible, anemic sort of creature. It rarely kills intentionally, but its great size is the cause of most deaths. It constantly eats and so is constantly surrounded by a cloud of disgusting, polluted water. Its presence brings fish to feed on its excrement, only to then consume them en masse and drive the rest away. Its names kraki and anchor-troll show its malevolence; it's a troll, in the sense that it is a vile creature. It sinks ships like an anchor, and is also a sick pale color. Its arms may seem reminiscent of tentacles, but the kraken is a monster, no earthly animal can compare. It owes its origins, like many other sea monsters of Scandinavia, to the seas of Jotunheim and Niflheim, which are populated with enormous eels and other sorts of monstrous fish.
Sources:
Pontoppidan, Erik; "The natural history of Norway..."
Sigurthsson, Arngrimur; "Museum of Hidden Beings"