Post by The Archivist on Apr 12, 2018 16:40:53 GMT -5
Giant squid and the colossal squid are known to grow to at least 55 feet in length. The giant squid has the longest tentacles and the colossal squid has the longest body. The largest squid can weigh up to 1700 pounds.
Giant octopus grows to at least 20 feet in length, with a total arm spread of 30 feet and can weigh up to 600 pounds.
The Kraken is a legendary sea monster of giant size and there may be two types, one related to the squid and one related to the octopus. Some are known to have a sharp beak capable of piercing the hull of even large ships along with two hunting arms that are much longer than the rest. Others have arms that are all of equal size. Not too much is known since survivors are few and usually too panic stricken to make good observers.
Giant octopus grows to at least 20 feet in length, with a total arm spread of 30 feet and can weigh up to 600 pounds.
The Kraken is a legendary sea monster of giant size and there may be two types, one related to the squid and one related to the octopus. Some are known to have a sharp beak capable of piercing the hull of even large ships along with two hunting arms that are much longer than the rest. Others have arms that are all of equal size. Not too much is known since survivors are few and usually too panic stricken to make good observers.
Bishop Pontoppidan, in his Natural History of Norway, states that the kraken resembles a group of small reefs, covered in something that floats and fluctuates like seaweed, spread over a distance of about 2800 meters. He notes that some say it is larger, but he chooses a conservative estimate. He also points out that this is only the top of the beast emerging above the water, and that he thinks no one has ever seen the full body. Pontoppidan also mentions barbs that rise high above the water that are as high as masts of tall ships, and that when the kraken submerges again, it creates whirlpools that can drown fishing boats who have attempted to take advantage of the schools that follow the beast around. In Pontoppidan's estimation, the kraken is the largest thing living in the sea.
Perhaps the most detailed description of the kraken comes from the Danish historian Erik Pontoppidan in his Natural History of Norway from 1755. He notes that the beast is “round, flat, and full of arms, or branches,” and is “the largest and most surprising of all the animal creation.” He cites various fishermen “who unanimously affirm, and without the least variation in their accounts,” that if you row out several miles into the Norwegian Sea in the summer, you’re in serious danger of falling victim to the kraken.
You’ll know when you start reeling in an inordinate amount of fish. It’s the kraken, you see, that’s scaring them toward the surface. But escaping from its clutches is not impossible. Accomplished rowers can hightail it out of there, and when they “find themselves out of danger, they lie upon their oars,” and after a few minutes “they see this enormous monster come up to the surface of the water.” Its back is a mile and a half in circumference, and “looks at first like a number of small islands.” This is an echo of another mythical sea critter: the island whale, a beast so huge that sailors mistake it for land and anchor to it. Once they build a fire on its back, though, it heaves up and drags them all to their doom.
But the kraken is far more dexterous in its attacks. Pontoppidan describes the emergence of this supposed island in great detail: “Here and there a larger rising is observed like sand-banks, on which various kinds of small Fishes are seen continuously leaping about till they roll off into the water from the sides of it; at last several bright points or horns appear, which grow thicker and thicker the higher they rise above the surface of the water, and sometimes they stand up as high and as large as the masts of middle-siz’d vessels.” These horns are of course its dreaded arms.
If the kraken doesn’t yank you down directly, the whirlpool it forms will finish the task. This, too, is an echo of another mythical sea monster: Charybdis, of The Odyssey fame. As Odysseus sailed through the Strait of Messina between Sicily and mainland Italy, he was warned to avoid the churning whirlpool that is Charybdis, in favor of taking his chances with Scylla at the opposite coast. And Scylla also finds her way into the kraken myth, for she too was tentacled, snatching Odysseus’ men and eating them alive.
Perhaps the most detailed description of the kraken comes from the Danish historian Erik Pontoppidan in his Natural History of Norway from 1755. He notes that the beast is “round, flat, and full of arms, or branches,” and is “the largest and most surprising of all the animal creation.” He cites various fishermen “who unanimously affirm, and without the least variation in their accounts,” that if you row out several miles into the Norwegian Sea in the summer, you’re in serious danger of falling victim to the kraken.
You’ll know when you start reeling in an inordinate amount of fish. It’s the kraken, you see, that’s scaring them toward the surface. But escaping from its clutches is not impossible. Accomplished rowers can hightail it out of there, and when they “find themselves out of danger, they lie upon their oars,” and after a few minutes “they see this enormous monster come up to the surface of the water.” Its back is a mile and a half in circumference, and “looks at first like a number of small islands.” This is an echo of another mythical sea critter: the island whale, a beast so huge that sailors mistake it for land and anchor to it. Once they build a fire on its back, though, it heaves up and drags them all to their doom.
But the kraken is far more dexterous in its attacks. Pontoppidan describes the emergence of this supposed island in great detail: “Here and there a larger rising is observed like sand-banks, on which various kinds of small Fishes are seen continuously leaping about till they roll off into the water from the sides of it; at last several bright points or horns appear, which grow thicker and thicker the higher they rise above the surface of the water, and sometimes they stand up as high and as large as the masts of middle-siz’d vessels.” These horns are of course its dreaded arms.
If the kraken doesn’t yank you down directly, the whirlpool it forms will finish the task. This, too, is an echo of another mythical sea monster: Charybdis, of The Odyssey fame. As Odysseus sailed through the Strait of Messina between Sicily and mainland Italy, he was warned to avoid the churning whirlpool that is Charybdis, in favor of taking his chances with Scylla at the opposite coast. And Scylla also finds her way into the kraken myth, for she too was tentacled, snatching Odysseus’ men and eating them alive.