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The Krakens are huge sea creatures with numerous tentacles that sunk and devoured ships and sailors, they are described as octopus or giant squid.

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Although the name Kraken never appears in the Norwegian sagas, there are similar sea monsters, the Hafgufa and Lyngbakr, both described in the Örvar-Oddr saga and in the 1250 Norwegian texts, Konungs skuggsjá. Carolus Linnaeus included the Kraken as a cephalopod with the scientific name of Microcosmus in the first edition of his Systema Naturae (1735), a taxonomic classification of living organisms, but excluded the animal in later editions. Kraken is also extensively described by Erik Pontoppidan, Bishop of Bergen, in his Norwegian Natural History (Copenhagen, 1752–3). Ancient tales, including those from Pontoppidan, describe the Kraken as an animal "the size of a floating island" (the back of an adult Kraken was said to be 2.4 kilometers long), the true danger to sailors of which is not the creature itself, but the whirlpool it creates after quickly plunging into the ocean. However, Pontoppidan also describes the destructive potential of the great beast: "It is said that if he clings to the largest warship, he could pull it to the bottom of the ocean" (Sjögren, 1980). The Kraken was always different from sea snakes, also common in the Scandinavian tradition (Jörmungandr for example).

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