THE KRAKEN By Dylan O’Rawe

1. THE KRAKENBy Dylan O’Rawe Sea monsters project

2. FACTS ABOUT THE KRAKENSource: Be Amazed (You Tube) • The first mention of the Kraken was in 1180 by King Sveda of Norway. • Sailors believed that the Kraken was coming when there was underwater volcanic activity because the water would bubble. • They believed there was one original gigantic Kraken and multiple smaller ones. • Fishermen tried to catch more fish by fishing over where the Kraken was thought to be. • For centuries people believed it was a real creature. • The Kraken has been found on Google Earth at 63° 2’56.73″S by 60°57’32.38″W

3. SWEDISH ECCLESIASTIC OLAUS MAGNUS MAP The Carta Marina from 1539 shows a series of sea creatures in the waters between Norway and Iceland.

4. SOURCES • IMAGE Title Squid holding sailor Artist Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou Medium Drawing Date 1870 Notes Original Hetzel edition of 20000 Lieues Sous les Mers (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne) • FILM Title Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest Director Gore Verbinski Date 2006 • LITERATURE Title The Kraken Author Alfred Lord Tennyson Dates 1809 - 1892 Genre Poetry

5. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2:DEAD MAN’S CHESTGore Verbinski 2006

6. FILM ANALYSIS • In the film The Kraken serves Davy Jones and acts as his ship’s anchor. • It is depicted as an evil creature which sinks ships by grabbing them and pulling them under the sea. • The film was made to entertain an audience and to be funny. • The depiction of the Kraken uses multiple dark colours like salmon, black and grey spots, with white suction cups. The darkness of the imagery makes the audience feel it came from the deep. • The animal is huge and is bigger than a ship, with two massive tentacles and lots of mini tentacles. • It seems magical as it can see everyone at the same time and attack them, although we cannot see his eyes in the film. • It can make a whirlpool with its mouth. • Jack Sparrow tells stories abut the Kraken throughout the movie to encourage audience anticipation of the main attack. While it attacks a fishing boat at the start, it attacks a British Navy ship at the end and kills lots of people • It is a funny film, mainly for kids and so the Kraken is not scary. The deaths are not shown. • The depiction of the Kraken is successful because it depicts a cool sea monster, and the audience is rooting for the Navy ship to be sunk because they support the anti-hero Jack Sparrow.

7. SQUID HOLDING SAILORAlphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou 1870

8. IMAGE ANALYSIS • In this picture, The Kraken is killing people and 4 people are trying to kill it. It has caught one man in it’s tentacles. • This image was used as a fiction book illustration for 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. It is one of 111 images in the book • The Kraken is drawn in black and white. It is dark, cloudy and gloomy, adding to the ancient nature of the Kraken. There is more than one Kraken in the picture. Maybe they can never be beaten – is it invincible? • It is smaller than the Kraken in the film -more like a giant squid. It has many tentacles. • We can see his eyes which are large and black – this almost makes it look cute rather than fearsome. However there is no sign of whirlpools. • This is a serious image of the Kraken, however it doesn’t look particularly scary, but scary in 1870 is different to scary in the modern day. • The depiction of the Kraken is successful because it shows the difficulty in killing it, without being too scary for any young readers of the book.

9. THE KRAKENAlfred Lord Tennyson 1830 Below the thunders of the upper deep, Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee About his shadowy sides; above him swell Huge sponges of millennial growth and height; And far away into the sickly light, From many a wondrous grot and secret cell Unnumbered and enormous polypi Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green. There hath he lain for ages, and will lie Battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep, Until the latter fire shall heat the deep; Then once by man and angels to be seen, In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

10. POETRY ANALYSIS • This depiction of The Kraken is very different from the other sources, and he is not scary. • It’s sleeping at the bottom of the deep sea. The poet uses words such as millennial and ancient to show that the Kraken is very, very, old. • He has been asleep for a very long time, and is surrounded by sponges and polypi. He doesn’t even waken to eat - he eats giant worms in his sleep. • Tennyson enjoyed Classical myths so this fits with his interest in mythology however the Kraken is Norwegian. The poem was written in 1830, so it is likely that Tennyson had read Montfort’sHistoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques, written in1802 whichrecognised the existence of the kraken octopus. • This poem is sad as he has slept for so long. He dies at the end and only when the end of the world fires have started on Earth, does he rise to the top and anyone even knows he exists. • The depiction of the Kraken is successful because it depicts an ancient scene, which invokes feeling of a poor Kraken abandoned and forgotten.

11. IS THERE ANY EVIDENCE THAT THE KRAKEN WAS REAL? It is unlikely that anything of the same size exists in the modern day. The stories could have come from: • Giant Squid • Colossal Squid • Giant Humboldt Squid • Prehistoric Squid

12. GIANT SQUID • In 1857 Steenstrup described the first Giant Squid – Architeuthis Dux. • Previous stories said that the Kraken was around 30m long. • Giant squids are the most intelligent creatures in the ocean. • To date 21 species of Giant Squid have been described. • Their depth range is 400m-1000m. They live everywhere except the Arctic. • They can grow to 13-15m, and their eyes are largest of any animal. • They have 2 long tentacles and 8 arms. • Kubodera and Mori photographed the first live Giant Squid in 2004. • In Spain in 2012, a 9m Giant Squid washed up on shore. • In 2013 and 2015 Kubodera videoed live Giant Squids in Japan

13. COLOSSAL SQUID • It was first described in 1925, from tentacles that were found in a whale. • These squids can only live in the Antarctic. • Colossal squids were also found in Antarctica in 1981, 2003 and 2005. • In 2007, a 10m long Colossal Squid was found in Antarctica and studied New Zealand. • In 2014, the same fisherman caught an 8m long squid which was again studied in New Zealand.

14. OTHER GIANT SQUIDS Prehistoric Squid In 2011, McMenamin argued that signs on fossilised ichthyosaurs show that a Kraken over 30m long existed. This has been argued against by other palaeontogists. Giant Humboldt Squid • Very aggressive, red squid which can attack humans. • In 2006 footage from Mexico, it appears to be 10-30m long.

15. SO DID THE KRAKEN EXIST? MY OPINION I believe that the stories came from sightings of Colossal Squid or Giant Humboldt Squid. As the Colossal Squid is not aggressive, I believe that stories and sightings of large squids resulted in the Kraken stories being believed. WHY DID PEOPLE BELIEVE IN THE KRAKEN? • They told and listened to stories and myths • There were missing boats, which couldn’t be explained • They saw giant squids

16. DOES THE KRAKEN EXIST TODAY? Giant squids which were the inspiration for the Kraken do exist and have been found all over the world. Our fascination with stories of the mythical creature continues today in and the Kraken is represented in many forms: • Products e.g. Kraken black spiced rum • Films e.g. Clash of the Titans • Games e.g. Sea Of Thieves • Businesses e.g. Kraken Cryptocurrency Exchange • Books such e.g. The Percy Jackson series • Experiences e.g. Kraken indoor axe throwing