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Modern Appearances
At the turn of the eighteenth century, the Kraken began to be relegated to works of fiction. It found a place in poems by Alfred Tennyson and in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Jules Vernes’ Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and HP Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulu.
Today, it remains one of fictions most popular sea monsters, appearing in movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, Clash of the Titans, and Game of Thrones.
Explanation
While science has discarded the idea of a mile-long monster lurking at the bottom of the ocean, it has discovered a sensational, Kraken-like creature: the giant squid.
The giant squid, which does live in the waters off the coast of Norway, might have been encountered by early sailors. Giant squids can grow up to forty-two feet, the length of seven or eight men. Like the Kraken, they are bottom-dwellers who feed mostly on fish—although sperm whales often bare scars from their toothy tentacles. They are also capable of spewing dark ink, similar to the “muddy” substance that the Kraken was said to use to attract fish.