Preserving the Relationship Between Mythical Creatures and Humanity
The Creature Files – Episode Five: "Release the Kraken!"
SHOW NOTES:
Sightings Desk: Grassman of Salt Fork State Park
Creature Feature: The Kraken
Special Guest: Dr. Vicki Szabo
The kraken is the legendary sea monster from Scandinavian folklore. According to the stories, the kraken lives off the coasts of Norway and Greenland and terrorizes nearby sailors. Over the course of centuries, the kraken has become a part of many of the myths and tales told by sailors of the region.
It is one of the largest cryptids known, and supposedly swallows whole men, ships, whales – pretty much anything it wants to. Some believe the legend may have originated from sightings of giant squid, which grow to 43–100+ ft in length, including tentacles. They live at great depths, but have been sighted at the surface and have reportedly attacked ships. One of the most famous examples of the Kraken in literature comes from Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem aptly titled “The Kraken”:
Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millenial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber’d and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die