Unleash the Kraken! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Northern waters between Norway and Greenland

The Kraken was a creature of Norse mythology and legend. It was believed to live off the coasts of Iceland, Norway and Greenland, and it would generally stay on the sea floor, surrounded by schools of fish.

Answer: "Systema Naturae" by Carolus Linnaeus (1735)

Carolus Linnaeus was a Swedish zoologist, botanist, and physician. His "Systema Naturae" classified living organisms, and gave the Kraken the name 'Microcosmus marinus'. Though subsequent editions excluded the animal, the first edition classified it as a cephalopod. His 1746 work, "Fauna Suecica", called the Kraken 'singulare monstrum', which means 'unique monster'.

Answer: Hafgufa

Hafgufa is an Icelandic word meaning 'sea mist' or 'sea steam', and the monster was likely given this name because it supposedly had a habit of belching. The Orvar-Odds saga described the Hafgufa as "the greatest monster occurring in the water. It is its nature to swallow both men and ships and whales and everything that it can reach."

Answer: Island

Some accounts, like that of the Bishop of Bergen, Erik Ludvigsen Pontoppidan, claimed that the Kraken was as large as a mile and half wide. The Kraken would normally stay at the bottom of the seafloor, but when he surfaced he would look like a "floating island".

Answer: True

The Kraken was said to attract many fish, thus making for a good catch for fishermen. Norwegian fishermen would risk their ships and their lives by fishing over the Kraken just to get a good catch that day. Some accounts also claim that "his excrements nurture in the following an army of lesser fish." (Wallenberg's "My Son on the Galley", 1781)

Answer: Giant squid

Many believe that what the stories actually describe is a giant squid or a colossal octopus. Pierre Denys de Montfort, a French scientist, determined that the mythical creature was actually the 'kraken octopus', and that there was an even larger octopus, known as the 'colossal octopus', which attacked ships. Giant squid can reach lengths of 40 to 50 feet (13 to 15 m).

They fit the description of the Kraken physically, and they also like to stay at the bottom of the ocean and have been known to attack ships.

Answer: The disturbance it created in the water when surfacing and submerging

Pontoppidan said this of the Kraken's arms in his work, "The Natural History of Norway": "It seems these are the creature's arms, and, it is said, if they were to lay hold of the largest man-of-war, they would pull it down to the bottom." Even despite this, he believed that the biggest threat posed by the Kraken was the whirlpool it created in the water.

Answer: Starfish

It wasn't until years after Pontoppidan's account of the Kraken that its likeness to a giant squid came about. Pontoppidan had never actually seen the Kraken, but he described it based on what sailors had told him about the monster. He believed that what were sometimes called the creature's 'horns' were actually its arms, and he compared them to the arms of starfish.

Answer: False

The Kraken was a creature from Norse mythology, not Greek. The movie "Clash of the Titans" had Perseus face the Kraken, but movies aren't always very accurate, as is the case here. Perseus did face the sea monster, Cetus, in order to save Andromeda, his future wife, who was to be sacrificed and eaten by Cetus.

Answer: Ichthyosaur

Remains of ichthyosaurs were found in the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada. There is actually no evidence that a Triassic period Kraken existed, but McMenamin suggested that it explained the deaths of the ichthyosaurs. According to him, the arrangements of the bones found suggested that a giant octopus-like creature could have taken the bones back to his midden, or his lair.

The monster he hypothesized about would have to be enormous, because the ichthyosaurs were the size of school buses.