The Bestiary

A Compendium of Creatures Real and Imagined

🦑

KRAKEN

Kraken

The Kraken sleeps in the deepest waters, rising only to feed or when disturbed by ships. Its body is so vast that it has been mistaken for an island - fishermen have landed upon it, built fires, and drowned when it awoke and submerged. The Kraken's arms are long enough to pull down the mightiest warships. When it surfaces, the sea boils with the fish that flee its rising. The Kraken represents the unknown depths - what we cannot see or understand, yet which may at any moment rise to engulf us. Some say the Kraken is simply a giant squid or octopus, grown to impossible size in the lightless depths.

Habitat The deepest waters of the northern seas
Sustenance Ships, whales, and whatever it can seize
Symbolism The terror of the depths, the unknown that waits below