Jon Solo Sebastian 10/02/2026:

I know we’re dipping into spooky season, and this creature of Norse mythology doesn’t scream Halloween, but according to the old folktales of the sea, this creature made a lot of people scream… among other things. I will be putting out some more Halloween-ish posts in the coming week’s as long as my work load isn’t super crazy like it has been this summer. For now, welcome to the North-Atlantic sea where the large squid or octopus-like creature has held residence for hundreds; maybe even thousands of years—The Kraken.

The Kraken

You’ve more than likely heard the name before or have seen it in movies, or in an advertisement for rum. Kraken rum is actually pretty good; I don’t drink much these days, but I used to enjoy some of that rum occasionally.

Where you might have seen the creature on your televisions or big screens in the theater? Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest starring Johnny Depp is probably top of everyone’s list, but another movie franchise from 1981 also included the Kraken: Clash of the Titans. It is a creature mentioned among pirates and vikings over the ages, and has also appeared in video games like: Sea of Thieves.

So what is the Kraken? According to legend, it is either a giant squid, or giant octopus. Recent scientific studies have actually discovered proof of its existence, and determine the Kraken to be a giant squid; more on that shortly. From the deep abyss comes a creature that for hundreds of years has been said to have the ability to rise to the surface to pull ships of any size under water with its massive and long tentacles. The folktales claim the creature’s tentacles have a reach of over one mile. With a reach like that, why would it dine on small fish when it could eat humans?

Origins of the Myth

Going way back to Scandinavian Folklore, the creature was said to lurk around the coasts of Greenland and Norway. The king of Norway in the 12^th century, King Sverre, reported the first written account of the creature, but it is believed to be more like mythological storytelling than an actual encounter. Sverre describes the Kraken with all the usual reported characteristics, and claims it has the ability to create whirlpools to pull the ships, and its dinner, underwater. I don’t think anyone can pinpoint the exact timeline because it has likely been lurking around the area long before the first documents were written.

While there are large enough creatures, mainly giant squids, capable of causing such havoc in the seas, it is possible the storytellers were blaming the creature for things like missing ships or shipwrecks caused by storms or sailing under the influence. The stories were likely used as cautionary tales to keep sailors from heading out too far into the unknown regions of the water. “Some experts have noted that the isolation early seafarers experienced during their voyages could lead to serious psychological effects. Thus, the Kraken might speak more to man’s fear of the unknown rather than a giant, squid-like creature that supposedly swam below them.

And in a world before modern-day science, the fear of the unknown could be particularly paralyzing to some of the early explorers of the ocean.”

The ‘problem’ with the myth is that scientists have recently found evidence of the Kraken being real. As I had revealed, the first mention of the Kraken dates back to the late 12^th century, but up until 1857, there hadn’t been any confirmation of it being real. Speculations moved from it being a giant octopus over to it being a giant squid. Researchers and scientists wanted to find a way to prove or disprove its existence, but it would take even longer for that to be possible.

“Still, for over a century, the giant squid remained unseen in its natural environment. That changed in 2004, when Japanese researchers captured the first-ever photographs of a live giant squid near Japan’s Ogasawara Islands. The specimen’s 5.5-metre tentacle, later recovered and analysed, matched Architeuthis dux DNA with 99.7% accuracy.

In 2012, the first video footage followed — a haunting sequence showing a glowing, gold-toned creature gliding through the abyss, proving beyond doubt that the Kraken was, in fact, real. But what makes these creatures so massive, and why have they evolved this way? The answers, scientists say, lie in the strange physics and isolation of the deep ocean.”

So, there you have it: the Kraken IS REAL! I do wonder if the tales of the Kraken destroying ships, creating whirlpools, and eating the sailor are true, or if all of that was the fictional end of the stories. I’ll admit that I had no idea the Kraken was real before I started up my research. I figured it was just an oversized octopus that may have caused a ruckus back then, but it turns out the creature really roams the seas. Pretty cool!