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1821, “The Kraken or Great Sea Serpent”, in Curiosities for the Ingenious: Selected from the Most Authentic Treasures of Nature, Science and Art, Biography, History, and General Literature, London: Thomas Boys,, page 137:
But the most horrible and hideous monster, that the fables of the Norway fishers have invented, is the krake, sea-horse, or hafgufu, which nobody ever pretends to have seen entire; yet the fishers give out, that when they find a place which is usually 80 or 100 fathoms deep, to be at certain times only 20 or 30, and see also a multitude of fishes allured to the spot, by a delicious exhalation which this creature emits, they conclude that they are over a krake; then they make haste to secure a good draught of fishes, but take care to observe when the soundings grow shallower, for then the monster is rising.
1864, Charles Elton, Norway: The Road and the Fell, London and Oxford: John Henry and James Parker, pages 111 (“Bergen”), 188 (“Up the Dale Fjord”), and 209 (“The Jotun Fjeld”):
This story is a fit pendant to those of the krake and sea-snake, which likewise rest on the authority of Norwegian fishermen, and which we will mention at another time.[…]For those who are unconvinced by the voluminous but vague proofs of the existence of the sea-serpent, the stories of the krake will have no more weight than those of the mermaid who appeared to Queen Dagmar, and those which the Norse fishers profess to catch, and after giving them milk at their huts, to restore to the same place in the fjord. / The krake, or krabben, the ‘crab’ par excellence, is supposed to be an enormous polypus or medusa infesting the North Sea.[…]He went as far as the polar ice-fields, till they “heard the krake snort in the water,” and there Thor, with a bull’s head for bait, hooked Jormun-gandur, the original sea-serpent, which held the world together in its coils.
1985, William J. Kelly, “The Kraken Mystery”, in The Explorer, pages 27–31:
Magnus called it “kraken,” the name it bears in Norwegian literature (“krake” means “uprooted tree”). Like earlier writers, Magnus represents the krake (or simply kraken, the “n” meaning “the”) as some kind of colossal cephalopod (squid, cuttlefish, octopus) powerful enough to “drown easily many great ships provided with many strong mariners.” Later writers such as Pierre Denys de Montfort enlarged the powers of the krake to more awesome proportions.[…]Even more startling evidence was to confront doubters not long after, in 1861. On November 30th of that year the French warship Alecton encountered a krake near the Canary Islands.[…]The years between 1870 and 1880 produced krakes in numbers unparalleled since that time.[…]With its huge baleful eye fixed on them, the krake struck the gunwale of the small craft with its horny beak while at the same time securing its grip on the boat with a shorter, thicker arm. The krake then began to sink below the surface, dragging the boat down with it.[…]And so fishermen’s luck and a clergyman’s appeal to patriotic sentiment established at last the existence of the krake and its identity. Krakes are giant squids.[…]The Newfoundland clergyman had sent the “sponge-bath” photograph of his specimen to the Governor of Newfoundland, who in turn passed it on to the Colonial Office, but Harvey had sent the krake itself to an eminent American zoologist, Professor Addison Emery Verrill of Yale University.[…]It is even possible, some researchers now say, that the legendary krake of ship-sinking size may not be a giant squid at all, but a giant octopus.[…]And so kraken exists.[…]It may be the largest and most terrible krakes are a species of gigantic squid or octopus which thus far has remained hidden in the deep, its haunts known only to the sperm whale.
En route they were attacked by a fearsome creature called the Krake – one of ‘the Lords of the Deep’ – and the ship was sunk.[…]‘And against the Krake?’ / ‘A creature like that operates on pure instinct. We need a more physical method of hampering it. Perhaps your band can come up with ideas.’[…]‘So how do we get clear of the Krake?’ Stryke wanted to know. ‘Any ideas?’[…]Though I guess we’d need quite a quantity for something the size of the Krake.[…]And what happens if the Krake pops up before we’re finished?[…]The Krake was still rising, water cascading from its coarse hide. The ship rocked in the swell.[…]The Krake was still ahead and a lot nearer.[…]As the ship swerved to its new course, away from the creature, the Krake surged forward, as though to cut them off.[…]The Krake was a writhing mountain now, blocking out the light.[…]To the Krake, it was no more than a tap, like a hatchling’s gentle nudging of a toy boat.[…]The main bulk of the Krake, its ravenous eyes and gaping maw, could be seen clearly now beyond a growing forest of waving limbs.[…]Once the tentacles were running with flame they fell back, but the Krake was only slowed, not deterred.[…]His dilemma was that the Krake was still too far away for the bombards or spears to reach it.[…]She applied flame, aimed and sent it winging to the Krake.[…]Stryke judged the time right to strengthen the assault; the Krake seemed near enough.[…]On contact with the Krake they exploded with much greater force than the arrows.
