Only in the 21st century did it become clear that ancient monsters exist, and the legends about the kraken are, of course, an exaggeration, but not a complete invention.
… On July 23, 2002, on the island of Tasmania (located slightly south of Australia), the sea washed ashore the corpse of a huge monster. A springy white-purple body, an elongated disgusting head with a sharp beak, and eight tentacles - each 15 (!) Meters long. As it turned out after laboratory studies, the creepy creature weighed 250 kilograms. Soon, scientists said that the sea animal found in Tasmania hunted very large opponents during its lifetime: by capturing them with tentacles with strong suction cups, it pulled the victim to its beak and literally crushed it into minced meat with a radula - a tongue similar to a saw. The monster turned out to be a giant deep-sea squid, about the existence of which chilling legends circulated in Europe since the 4th century BC. e. It was then that the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (and then - the Roman historian Pliny the Elder) first spoke about the "sea reptile":the head is about the size of a barrel and "arms" are "five cubits" long. In the XIII century, the Icelandic saga "Arrowhead" told about a certain creature capable of swallowing an entire Viking fleet. The monster was called hafgufa - "sea haze", but then the word from the Norwegian language - "kraken" - meaning a sick animal, or (depending on the dialect) something perverted, took root.
Grabs and drags to the bottom
… Tales about the kraken were in circulation in more enlightened times. For example, the Danish naturalist bishop Erik Pontoppidan in his History of Nature in Norway (published in 1752) argued that there are many witnesses to the nightmarish attacks of the kraken. This creature was lightly dragging to the bottom even a warship with cannons, braiding the masts with tentacles. After the sinking of the ship, the kraken ate people - and after the "feast" it digested the food for three months. The monster always moved, accompanied by a myriad of fish, feeding on the remains of its terrible "dinner" - therefore, fishermen, rejoicing in a rich catch, should be more careful. In 1774, the English captain Robert Jameson testified under oath at the trial that he saw with his own eyes a huge monster - almost 2.5 kilometers in length and 9 meters in height, which either sank or looked out of the sea:soon at this place the water simply swarmed with cod. In 1802, the French zoologist Pierre-Denis de Montfort confirmed that both the kraken and a giant octopus that lives in the waters of the southern hemisphere are drowning ships. Shortly before this, a merchant ship from the city of Saint-Malo sank off the coast of Angola after being attacked by a powerful tentacled creature. The surviving sailors swore that they saw an octopus.
… Surprisingly - although in 1857 scientists proved the existence of giant squids ("architeutis") living at a depth of one to several kilometers, in the enlightened 20th century, stories about the kraken were still considered the inventions of ignorant cowardly sailors with poor eyesight. Only in 2004, Japanese ichthyologists managed to take photographs and video of a living underwater monster. Individuals were striking in their size - up to 26.5 meters (!) In length, weight - about 450 kilograms. With such a body weight, it is no longer so difficult to imagine how the monster braids a sailboat with tentacles and drags along with people into the depths of the ocean. There was also another evidence in favor of the legends about the kraken - in addition to squid, they confirmed the existence of giant deep-sea octopuses: however, not that size, "only" 8 meters in length. The octopus ship will not sink,however, a fishing boat or even a schooner is easy. Both those and other creatures during the hunt are distinguished by extremely aggressive behavior and like to attack with a whole flock of objects unknown to them. Even a two-meter (weighing half a centner) individual of the so-called "Humboldt squid" often attacks people: the attack of a huge squid on a scuba diver in 2009 is known, which almost led to the death of a person. The beak of the monsters is capable of inflicting severe wounds, and the swimmer runs the risk of death from blood loss or pain shock. In 1971, not far from the shores of New Zealand, a flock of giant squids that had come out of nowhere tore a couple traveling on a yacht to pieces and decided to swim in the sea. Only a young man survived, endlessly repeating then to the rescuers - "They took and ate my girlfriend!"and other creatures during the hunt are distinguished by extremely aggressive behavior and like to attack with a whole flock of objects unknown to them. Even a two-meter (weighing half a centner) individual of the so-called "Humboldt squid" often attacks people: the attack of a huge squid on a scuba diver in 2009 is known, which almost led to the death of a person. The beak of the monsters is capable of inflicting severe wounds, and the swimmer runs the risk of death from blood loss or pain shock. In 1971, not far from the shores of New Zealand, a flock of giant squids that had come out of nowhere tore a couple traveling on a yacht to pieces and decided to swim in the sea. Only a young man survived, endlessly repeating then to the rescuers - "They took and ate my girlfriend!"and other creatures during the hunt are distinguished by extremely aggressive behavior and like to attack with a whole flock of objects unknown to them. Even a two-meter (weighing half a centner) individual of the so-called "Humboldt squid" often attacks people: the attack of a huge squid on a scuba diver in 2009 is known, which almost led to the death of a person. The beak of the monsters can inflict severe wounds, and the swimmer runs the risk of dying from blood loss or pain shock. In 1971, not far from the shores of New Zealand, a flock of giant squids that had come out of nowhere tore a couple traveling on a yacht, who decided to swim in the sea. Only a young man survived, endlessly repeating then to the rescuers - "They took and ate my girlfriend!"Even a two-meter (weighing half a centner) individual of the so-called "Humboldt squid" often attacks people: the attack of a huge squid on a scuba diver in 2009 is known, which almost led to the death of a person. The beak of the monsters can inflict severe wounds, and the swimmer runs the risk of dying from blood loss or pain shock. In 1971, not far from the shores of New Zealand, a flock of giant squids that had come out of nowhere tore a couple traveling on a yacht, who decided to swim in the sea. Only a young man survived, endlessly repeating then to the rescuers - "They took and ate my girlfriend!"Even a two-meter (weighing half a centner) individual of the so-called "Humboldt squid" often attacks people: the attack of a huge squid on a scuba diver in 2009 is known, which almost led to the death of a person. The beak of the monsters is capable of inflicting severe wounds, and the swimmer runs the risk of death from blood loss or pain shock. In 1971, not far from the shores of New Zealand, a flock of giant squids that had come out of nowhere tore a couple traveling on a yacht to pieces and decided to swim in the sea. Only a young man survived, endlessly repeating then to the rescuers - "They took and ate my girlfriend!"In 1971, not far from the shores of New Zealand, a flock of giant squids that had come out of nowhere tore a couple traveling on a yacht to pieces and decided to swim in the sea. Only a young man survived, endlessly repeating then to the rescuers - "They took and ate my girlfriend!"In 1971, not far from the shores of New Zealand, a flock of giant squids that had come out of nowhere tore a couple traveling on a yacht to pieces and decided to swim in the sea. Only a young man survived, endlessly repeating then to the rescuers - "They took and ate my girlfriend!"
Promotional video:
Scary sea spider
… So, the kraken really existed in reality? Yes. And moreover, there are certainly more and more terrible individuals on our planet. In the famous Challenger Abyss, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench (500 km from Guam), the distance from the surface of the water to the bottom is 11 kilometers. To the very bottom of the "abyss" in 2012, the director of "Titanic" and "Avatar" James Cameron descended in a bathyscaphe. It is in such places that sinister creatures are found, about which modern science practically does not know anything, and their bodies can be obtained for study only during rare incidents, when the corpse of a monster floats to the surface. Scientists assure that this is part of the system of "deep-sea gigantism", when marine animals living at a depth of 1-7 kilometers reach much larger sizes than their brethren floating above. There is a terrible sea spider with its long legs, and huge crayfish - amphipod and isopod (76 centimeters and 1.7 kg in weight), and a fish “herring king”, reaching 11 meters and resembling a long ribbon. Only a miserable percentage of creatures living in the darkness at the bottom of the ocean are known to science.
Sabretooth floating in the dark
… By the way, many medieval legends described the spectacle of an epic battle in the sea of a sperm whale and a kraken. It turns out that this is also true! The first "hands" of deep-sea squid came to researchers in the 19th century - they were removed from the stomachs of sperm whales killed by whalers. In addition, heads with a hefty beak were found there. In a fight with a whale, the poor squid is doomed - the battle ends in 99% of cases in favor of a cunning sperm whale who knows how to tear the enemy apart and swallow like a sandwich for breakfast. It is interesting that monsters with tentacles (in particular, those aggressive Humboldt squids) can "talk" with each other, changing colors: however, their "language" could not be deciphered. As a rule, all deep-sea animals are vicious - well, there's nothing you can do about it, a harmful habitat. They live in darkness, at a water temperature of minus 2-4 degrees:of course, one cannot become anything other than a predator in such conditions. Take, for example, the long-horned saber-toothed - an eerie fish that lives in the darkness at a depth of five kilometers: with spikes on its head, fangs and weighing 120 kilograms. Or Johnson's melanocet - a monster with a mouth full of shark teeth, with a "flashlight" on its head. If you meet, you won't sleep for a week.
… Yes, but why then, in the Middle Ages, giant squids and octopuses actively attacked ships, and now it has completely stopped? Scientists and historians give a simple answer - earlier in the areas where the monsters live (in the north around Iceland and in the south, closer to New Zealand) there was underwater volcanic activity, which made the monsters appear on the surface. Since the end of the 18th century, underwater eruptions at great depths have become a rarity. Well, the ecology has not gone anywhere - the population of rare fish and animals is rapidly decreasing in the ocean. Previously, the kraken ate people, but now, one might say, people ate the marine fauna without a trace. Even whales rarely sink small ships, and even in the 19th century, the attack of giant fish was considered the norm. It remains only to say - cynical modern people in vain did not believe the stories of gray-haired sailors of the past centuries about giant creatures inhabiting the dark depths of the sea. Maybe the messages of the Phoenician seafarers about the mysterious sea dragons who burned ships with their fiery breath are also true? Who knows. Humanity is not aware of the life of our gloomy neighbors at the bottom of the oceans.
Georgy Zotov
