You’re Kraken Me Up

A recent thread at Indieclub.com got me thinking about the origins of the Kraken. The most famous (Release the Kraken!) reference would be as the giant Harryhausen-animated monster from Clash of the Titans. Now that Pirates of the Carribean (plus a SciFi Channel low budget flick) has summoned the leviathan, I wondered which was more true to legend.

And of course, that sent clicking through the Wikipedia.

In Clash, the Kraken is called the last of the Titans, but this was probably made up for the movie. I don’t believe there was a Titan called the Kraken in Greek myth. According to Wikipedia:

The sea monster sent to kill Andromeda is called the Kraken, a Scandinavian name. The Greeks called it “Ketos”.

And another reference:

In fact this monster, slain by Perseus, was typically referred to as a “ketos” by the ancient Greeks, a word that is best translated by the English phrase “sea monster”, and in fact gave its name to ‘cetacean’. The ketos has no historic connection with Kraken.

Meanwhile, the Kraken of Pirates 2 is more in line with Scandanavian stories of sea monsters.

Kraken is the definite article form of krake, a Scandinavian word designating an unhealthy animal, or something twisted.[1] In modern German, Krake (plural: Kraken) means octopus, but can also refer to the legendary Kraken.

My understanding is that, in Titans, the Greek idea of a sea monster was given the more Scandanavian name because it sounded cool. To give it a more ominous backstory, they called it an ancient Titan. Meanwhile, the Pirates version is more true to the true Kraken.

To button this up, I may as well plug the semi-related Lake Monster Mysteries book, co-written by an associate of mine. The authors approach the investigation of underwater monsters with the scientific method, treating stories and evidence with fairness. It makes for a fascinating read.