8 Crazy Cryptids That Could Exist

The Kraken is a legendary sea monster that occupies the waters between Norway and Greenland. The beast is often depicted as taking down ships and terrorising sailors that unfortunately cross its path. Its name is derived from old Norse for octopus or squid and is still considered by many sailors to be taboo. In these superstitions, the sheer mentioning of its name will summon it.

Most descriptions of the cryptid suggest that it is an enormous squid-like monster, capable of bringing down large ships and crushing them with its huge tentacles.

Stories began in around 1250 CE when first described in an old Norwegian natural history book, that described two of these creatures feeding in the seas around Greenland. This evolved into the stories of the Kraken in another book published a few decades later that described two sea monsters, one of which being the eponymous creature. Tales of this beast were told the world over, being merged with other tales from ancient sources, and has since never left popular culture.

Anecdotes of similar creatures in modern times were often immediately dismissed by the scientific community as silly sailor superstitions and exaggerations of the size of squids. Despite numerous reports by very credible sources. It wasn’t until the late 1900s and early 2000s that live specimens were collected and caught on camera that scientists began to believe in such creatures.

It has since been suggested that these tales of the Kraken simply stemmed from sightings of colossal squid, now known to be real, that would have easily been able to destroy ships of the era and were likely found in the waters surrounding Greenland. Some believe that even larger species could exist, meaning that the stories could in fact be real.