A to Z Cephalopods: K for Kraken

© 2013 Sylvia Liu

Kraken Facts:

• For more than 2000 years, sailors have told stories of a giant sea monster that attacked boats. In the 1700s and 1800s, sailors from Norway and Greenland named these monsters kraken.

• Kraken have inspired poets and writers. In 1830, Alfred Tennyson wrote The Kraken, a poem about a massive creature that slept "far far beneath in the abysmal sea." 

• In 1870, Jules Vernes described an attack by a giant sea monster in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The characters debate whether it is a giant whale or a kraken.

• For a good fantasy read, check out China Mieville's KRAKEN

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• G for Giant Pacific Octopus
• H is for Humboldt Squid
• J for Japanese Flying Squid