Of all mythical sea monsters, the Kraken is perhaps the most terrifying! This giant octopus of Scandinavian folklore will haunt your dreams after you read these cool and creepy kraken facts! Discover where they come from, who's seen them, and even the real life creatures that have inspired the legendary Kraken with these 15 interesting Kraken facts! And if you liked this, check out more myth facts here! How about these mystical dragon facts? Or maybe you're in the mood for these howlingly good werewolf facts? We've also got these magical unicorn facts!

1. The Kraken Is From Scandinavian Mythology

The Kraken is a Scandinavian monster, and appears in myths and stories in the coasts around countries like Sweden and Norway. It's usually depicted as a giant octopus with huge, saucer like eyes and long, winding tentacles. One of the first Scandanavians to describe seeing sea monsters was Hans Egede, a Dano-Norwegian traveller who talked about seeing a huge monster; 'This monster was of so huge a size that, coming out of the water, its head reached as high as the mainmast; its body was as bulky as the ship, and three or four times as long'. Scary!

2. It's Related to the Hafgufa

Hafgufa is the Icelandic name for a similar sea monster that lives in the waters around Iceland and Greenland. It was first mentioned in a 13th century text, and was supposed to consume men, whales and even ships! It was described in various different ways - as like a whale, a giant fish and even a mermaid!

3. The Name Kraken Has Some Interesting Origins

The word 'kraken' has several different meaning that could allude to a sea monster. It could be related to the Norwegian word 'krake' which means 'pole, or stake, or twisted wood', and might refer to tentacles. It could also come from the word 'krake' which can mean anchor. Anchors can look an awful lot like octopuses, so maybe this is the origin! No one quite knows for sure!

4. There Have Been Stories About Kraken-like Monsters for a Long Time

Perhaps the oldest known sea monster myth is that of Leviathan - a terrifying creature from the Bible's Old Testament. Leviathan has been depicted in several different ways, but usually looks like a giant sea serpent. There's also Jörmungandr, from Norse mythology, another giant sea serpent, and Scylla from ancient Greece, who used to be a beautiful nymph.

5. And These Myths Come From All Over the World

It's not just in Europe and the Middle-East that we have ancient stories of sea monsters. In Japan there is the Umibōzu, which can look like anything from a hairy monster to a whale, and it determined to wreak havoc and sink ships. In Native American mythology, there is the Apotamkin, which has fangs and long hair and inhabits the cold waters of the North Atlantic. In the Caribbean, there is the Lusca, who looks a lot like the Kraken, although sometimes it has the features of a shark too!

6. It's Probably Based on an Octopus

The most famous depictions of the Kraken show it with eight giant tentacles and huge eyes, devouring ships. The Kraken was first described as an octopus-like animal in the 18th century, and since then, the idea that the Kraken could be a cephalopod has stuck.

7. It's Always Described as Giant

The scariest thing about the Kraken is how big its supposed to be. Some sailors mistook it for an island, others say it was up to a mile long! Either way, once you encountered one, you'd be very lucky to get away alive!

8. It's Been Listed as a Real Animal by Scientists in the Past

The Kraken is a myth, but that didn't stop several prominent scientists of their day from declaring it a real species in scientific textbooks. This included 18th century French zoologist Pierre Denys de Montfort, who blamed ship sinkings on the Kraken, and Carl Von Linné , who described it as a real animal in his book  Systema Naturae.

9. Jules Verne Made the Kraken Famous

Although the Kraken was well known to sailors, it really took off when French sci-fi author Jules Verne featured a very similar creature in his book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (That's distance, not depth!). In the book, the submarine Nautilus comes into contact with a terrifying giant octopus (simply called a poulpe, French for octopus, in the book), which attacks and nearly crushes Captain Nemo and his passengers.

10. There Are Lots of Different Real Life Explanations for the Kraken

Just as the beautiful mermaids seen by homesick sailors were probably manatees, so the Kraken probably has lots of natural explanations for what witnesses described. These included natural sea animals like wales, sharks and shoals of fish, land masses and rocks, debris floating on the sea surface, and even waves. And of course, there's always the possibility that the sailors sighting the Kraken might have had a little too much rum! Or it could be...a real Kraken!

11. You Really Can Get Giant Octopus

It might seem incredible, but you really CAN get giant octopus and squid! So far, no species have been recorded to be as big as a Kraken, but plenty of giant cephalopods (that's the family octopus and squid belong to) have been found, dead and alive, over the years. They tend to live at greater depths than their smaller relatives, which makes sighting them much rarer, and therefore more extraordinary.

12. The Biggest Recorded Octopus Was Over 30 Feet Long!

The biggest recorded octopus (so far!) is the Giant Pacific Octopus, which lives in the waters around Japan, Mexico and the USA and Canada. It can live at depths of up to 2,000 ft, and can weigh as much as 157lbs! They only live around 3-4 years though, which is long for an octopus but not very long for us!

13. And the Biggest Ever Squid Was Over 40 Feet Long!

Yup, giant squid can get even bigger! The biggest known species of squid is the Giant Squid, although the Colossal Squid is pretty close behind. They also live in the Pacific ocean (not a great place to swim if you don't like giant cephalopods!) and most of the ones observed have been dead, since they tend to live deep in the ocean and rarely come to the surface. They also have eyes the size of dinner plates - the biggest known in the animal kingdom!

14. There May Be Even Bigger Creatures Out There

The ocean is one of the least explored parts of our planet, and scientists are confident that there are still many creatures out there we don't know anything about. Which means there could be even BIGGER octopus out there, in the depths! After all, those sightings had to be based on something, right?

15. The Kraken Appears in Lots of Pop Culture Today

Today, the word Kraken is synonymous with giant octopus and sea monsters. It's also a hugely popular feature of films like Pirates of the Caribbean, 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Clash of the Titans. It's also the name of a rum and a cryptocurrency! It looks like the Kraken is here to stay!