Kraken

Kraken, a fabulous animal, first described by the Norwegian bishop Pontoppidan in 1750, and from time to time said to have been seen in the Norwegian seas. Its back is described as about a mile and a half in circumference; it rises from the sea like an island, stretches out mast-like arms, capable of dragging down the largest ships, and when it sinks again into the deep causes a whirlpool in which large vessels are involved to their destruction. It makes the waters round it thick and turbid, and thus is able to devour the shoals of fishes that swim to the place attracted by the musky scent. This fact, together with its numerous arms, point to one or other of the large class of cuttle-fishes as the true original of the Scandinavian kraken. The fable of the kraken has considerable analogy to the more recent stories of the great sea-serpent. See John Gibson's Monsters of the Sea (1887).