The Kraken

de Montfort 1801

Ah, the Kraken.  Our t-shirts featuring an image inspired by the pen and wash work of Pierre Denys de Montfort  (above, "Colossal Octopus" based on accounts of an attack on a French ship off the coast of Angola) are favored by Heiresses and  guests alike.  Just in time for Father's Day, we have these awesome shirts available in men's sizes. A gift without a story is just a shirt in a box, so here is the scoop on the Kraken:

What was Liam thinking?

 In Clash of the Titans  chief of the Greek gods, Zeus, utters one of the most spoofed lines of dialog in movie history.  Melodramatic, yes, also ridiculous because the Kraken is a Scandinavian myth.  Dating back to the 13th century, the Kraken is first mentioned in a charmingly bizarre  text called the Konungs Skuggsja (circa 1250, "The King's Mirror,"), and again in an Icelandic Saga, the Orvar-Oddr (circa 1270, then called the Hafgufa, or Sea Mist).  It was thought to be so huge it could be mistaken for an island.  It could bring down full sized ships by grabbing hold with a tentacle, or  by sucking them down in the enormous whirlpool it could create.  In Norwegian/Dutch the word means "unhealthy animal," or, "something twisted."

Erik Pontoppidan- Bishop of Bergen, Cryptozoologist

Early on, the Kraken was thought to be sort of crab-like in appearance, based mostly on guess work (like the blind men and the elephant). In 1735 Carolus Linnaeus ("father of modern taxonomy") classified the Kraken as a cephalopod in the first edition of his Systema Naturae.  In 1752 Erik Pontoppidan, a man of varied interests, published his "Natural History of Norway," in which he wrote extensively about the Kraken.  He described it as  round and flat, full of branches, and as large as an island.  The ability to attract fish with its own excrement, a penchant for coloring surrounding waters, and turning them thick and turbid, are among the attributes he ascribed to it.  Some of his assertions may have seemed a wee bit fanciful, but he may not have been all that far off.

Our prime suspect

In Mari Multa Latent, "In the ocean, many thing are hidden."  Today, we believe the Kraken myth is based on encounters with real Giant Squid (a cephalopod, hooray Linnaeus!).  Living specimens are rarely observed, so we know little about them.  The largest modern specimen found measured over 59 feet long and weighed over a ton. We know they have  viscous serrated suction cups and virtually indestructible beaks for tearing apart prey (many many giant squid beaks have been found in sperm whale stomachs completely undigested). 

Apparently, this happens a lot!

In 1965 a Soviet whaler witnessed an epic battle between a giant squid and a sperm whale that ended in a fatal draw.  In the 1930's  one reportedly stalked and repeatedly attacked a Norwegian Naval vessel.  We don't know for sure what the giant squid is capable of,  but some of its cephalopod relatives can propel themselves up to 50 meters in the air, and some can form  psuedomorphs (a type of decoy body) by releasing ink and mucus (thickening and discoloring the water around them, hooray Pontoppidan!).  Oh, and the colossal octopus I mentioned above?  That wasn't just a great adjective, that is a different and larger and more armored species  (fortunately, thought to be quite lazy).  All very scary, all very sea monster-y, and maybe not just a myth after all.  

Available at Ocean Heir!