Realms of Fantasy and Myth: Week 35 - Kraken

Sep 10, 201020 min read

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Published: Sep 10, 2010

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Realms of Fantasy and Myth: Week 35 - Kraken

Welcome to the thirty-fifth issue of my fantasy features news article! I hope you enjoy it, and please, show the featured artists some love and recognition through pageviews,

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This week's creature feature is: Kraken

From Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraken :

Kraken are mythical sea monsters of gargantuan size, said to have dwelt off the coasts of Norway and Iceland. The sheer size and fearsome appearance attributed to the beasts have made them common ocean-dwelling monsters in various fictional works. The legend may actually have originated from sightings of real giant squid that are variously estimated to grow to 13–15 m (40–50 ft) in length, including the tentacles. These creatures normally live at great depths, but have been sighted at the surface and have reportedly attacked ships.
Kraken is the definite article form of krake, a Scandinavian word designating an unhealthy animal, or something twisted.
Early accounts, including Pontoppidan's, describe the kraken as an animal "the size of a floating island" whose real danger for sailors was not the creature itself, but the whirlpool it created after quickly descending back into the ocean. However, Pontoppidan also described the destructive potential of the giant beast: "It is said that if it grabbed the largest warship, it could manage to pull it down to the bottom of the ocean". Kraken were always distinct from sea serpents, also common in Scandinavian lore.
According to Pontoppidan, Norwegian fishermen often took the risk of trying to fish over kraken, since the catch was so good. If a fisherman had an unusually good catch, they used to say to each other, "You must have fished on Kraken." Pontoppidan also claimed that the monster was sometimes mistaken for an island, and that some maps that included islands that were only sometimes visible were actually indicating kraken.

~The Kraken by Alfred Tennyson~
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 millennial 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 seaworms 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.

Now, for the features! Works are featured from various categories, in no particular order:

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Kraken - Beast of the Seas by Rosaka-Chan

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Thank you so much for viewing, and come back next time for a different inhabitant of the Realms of Fantasy and Myth!