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Concept
Kraken
Summary
The kraken (ˈkrɑːkən) is a legendary sea monster of enormous size said to appear in the sea between Norway and Iceland.
Kraken, the subject of sailors' superstitions and mythos, was first described in the modern era in a travelogue by Francesco Negri in 1700. This description was 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 Norwegian bishop Pontoppidan (1753). Pontoppidan was the first to describe 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 century, is also known for his pioneering inquiries into the existence of gigantic octopuses.
The great man-killing octopus entered French fiction when novelist Victor Hugo (1866) introduced the octopus of Guernsey lore, which he identified with the kraken of legend. This led to Jules Verne's depiction of the kraken, although Verne did not distinguish between squid and octopus.
The legend of the Kraken may have originated from sightings of giant squid, which may grow to in length.
Linnaeus may have indirectly written about the kraken. Linnaeus wrote about the Microcosmus genus (an animal with various other organisms or growths attached to it, comprising a colony). Subsequent authors have referred to Linnaeus's writing, and the writings of Bartholin's cetus called hafgufa, and Paullini's monstrous marinum as "krakens".
That said, the claim that Linnaeus used the word "kraken" in the margin of a later edition of Systema Naturae has not been confirmed.
The English word kraken (in the sense of sea monster) derives from Norwegian kraken or krakjen, which are the definite forms of krake ("the krake").
According to a Norwegian dictionary, the root meaning of krake is "malformed or overgrown, crooked tree". It originates from Old Norse kraki, which is etymologically related to Old Norse krókr, crook, but also meaning "hook".
Official source
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