The Kraken is a legendary sea monster of enormous size that is said to appear in the sea between Norway and Iceland. It is usually depicted as an aggressive cephalopod-like creature capable of destroying entire ships and dragging sailors to their doom. The Kraken was first described in the modern era in a travelogue by Erik Pontoppidan in 1752. According to Pontoppidan, the Kraken was "round, flat, and full of arms… the largest and most surprising of all the animal creation". The Kraken was one among a pantheon of sea monsters and was said to be the size of an island and patrol the waters between Norway, Iceland, and Greenland.

The Kraken is often depicted as a large creature with many arms, and in many cases, the arms reach as high as the top of a ship’s main mast. Legends hold that no ship could stand up to the Kraken, and the creature could easily sink ships by wrapping its many arms around them. The ship’s crew would either drown or be eaten by the monster.

The Kraken myth grew in Norway, and partially digested or rotted remains of giant squid and large octopus were interpreted as messages from God or the Devil, sometimes called sea angels, sea devils, or sea monks. Giant squid have long tentacles and can grow up to 40-50 feet in length, and they usually live deep in the sea. But they’ve been known to surface and attack ships from time to time.

In more recent times, the Kraken directly inspired novelists, like Jules Verne in his classic tale 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and likely influenced the works of H.P. Lovecraft, albeit a little more abstractly. Today, the Kraken has a more impressive filmography than most living movie stars.