Kraken

Epic card · No. 10413

The kraken (; from Norwegian: kraken, ) is a legendary cryptid of enormous size, per its etymology something akin to a cephalopod, said to appear in the Norwegian Sea off the coast of Norway. It is believed that the legend of the Kraken may have originated from sightings of giant squid, which may grow to 10.5 metres (34 ft) in length. The kraken, as a subject of sailors' superstitions and mythos, was first described in a Norwegian glossary by Christen Jensøn in 1646. Later this creature appears in a travelogue by Francesco Negri in 1700, followed in 1734 by an account from Dano-Norwegian missionary and explorer Hans Egede, who described the kraken in detail and equated it with the hafgufa of medieval lore. However, the first description of the creature is usually credited to the Danish bishop Pontoppidan (1753). He described the kraken as an octopus (polypus) of tremendous size, and wrote that it had a reputation for pulling down ships. The French malacologist Denys-Montfort, of the 19th...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Pierre Denys de Montfort (1766–1820) / Étienne Claude Voysard (1746–1812.), Public domain