MARINE MONSTERS. 271 



iiuiilicit belief in its existence. All Scandinavian writers have lionored it 

 witii a notice, among whom we mention Olaus, Wormiiis, and Ponto[ijiidon. 

 The first two of these authors speak somewhat vaguely of the animal, and 

 seem to regard it as a species of whale. But the most wonderful peculiarity 

 of the krakcn is its enormous size; tiie distance across its back, according to 

 Pontoppidon's account, appearing to be about half a mile ! But we will let 

 the learned autlior speak for himself. 



"Our fishermen usually affirm," says he, "that when tliey row out a few 

 miles to sea, particularly in hot summer days, they are informed by various 

 circumstances that the krakcn is at the bottom of the sea. Sometimes 

 twenty boats get together over him ; and when, from well-known indica- 

 tions, they perceive it is rising, tliey get away as fast as they can. AMien 

 they find themselves out of danger, they lie upon their oars, and in a few 

 minutes they see the monster come to the surface. 



"He there shows himself sufficiently, though only a small part of his 

 body appears. Its back, which ajipears to be a mile and a half in circum- 

 ference, looks at first like a number of small islands, suiTounded with some- 

 thing which floats like sea-weeds ; here and there a larger rising is observed, 

 like sandy banks ; at last sever.al bright points or horns appear, which grow 

 thicker the higher they rise, and sometimes they stand up as high and as 

 large as the masts of middle-sized vessels. It seems these are the creature's 

 arms, and it is said that if they were to lay hold of the largest man-of-war, 

 they would pull it down to the bottom. After the monster has been a short 

 time on the surface of the water, he begins slowly to sink again ; and then 

 the danger is as ffreat as before, because the motion of" the sinkina: causes 

 such a swell, and such an eddy and whirljiool, that he carries everything 

 down with it." 



On the above, Mr. Robert Hamilton remarks, "It is a favorite notion of 

 Pontoppidon, that from the ap|iearance of the kraken originate those tra- 

 ditions of floating islands being so frequently observed in the North Sea. 

 Thus Debcs, in his Feroa Eeserata, alludes to certain islands which suddenly 

 appeared, and as suddenly vanished." 



Similar accounts may be found in Ilarpelius and Torfa?us. These islands 

 are looked upon by the common people as the habitation of evil spirits, but 

 arc more probably occasioned by the appearance of this great sea animal. 

 "We ought not," says Pontoppidon, "to charge the evil spirit without a 

 cause. I think the making and unmaking of these floating islands is nothing 

 else but the kraken, which some seafaring people call Soe-troldcn, i. e., 

 sea mischief. What confirms me in this opinion is tlie following occurrence, 

 quoted by the worthy Swedish physician Urban Ilierne, from Baron Grip- 

 peaheim : ' Among the rocks about Stockholm there is sometimes seen a 



