Jul 2015
The ship moans
in the fog
like a Kraken
that has lost its way
leaving its myth
in the mist
stumbling into
fact
only to find
it doesn't exist
Time calls it
by its childhood names:
"Hafgufa...Lyngbakr!"
"Sea Mist...Heather-Back!"
The Kraken moans
in the fog
like words
that have lost
their way.
in the fog
like a Kraken
that has lost its way
leaving its myth
in the mist
stumbling into
fact
only to find
it doesn't exist
Time calls it
by its childhood names:
"Hafgufa...Lyngbakr!"
"Sea Mist...Heather-Back!"
The Kraken moans
in the fog
like words
that have lost
their way.
***
Having lost the belief that humans once had in it...the Kraken dies from modern human understanding that kills the myth with knowing.
The Kraken is a legendary sea monster of large proportions that is said to dwell off the coasts of Norway and Greenland. The legend may have originated from sightings of giant squid that are estimated to grow to 40–50 ft in length, including the tentacles. The sheer size and fearsome appearance attributed to the kraken have made it a common ocean-dwelling monster in various fictional works.
In the late-13th-century version of the Old Icelandic saga Örvar-Oddr is an inserted episode of a journey bound for Helluland (Baffin Island) which takes the protagonists through the Greenland Sea, and here they spot two massive sea-monsters called Hafgufa ("sea mist") and Lyngbakr ("heather-back"). The hafgufa is believed to be a reference to the kraken:
The English word kraken is taken from Norwegian. In Norwegian and Swedish, Kraken is the definite form of krake, a word designating an unhealthy animal or something twisted (cognate with the English crook and crank). In modern German, Krake (plural and declined singular: Kraken) means octopus, but can also refer to the legendary Kraken. In Dutch, the verb Kraken means breaking or the sound of cracking.
Having lost the belief that humans once had in it...the Kraken dies from modern human understanding that kills the myth with knowing.
The Kraken is a legendary sea monster of large proportions that is said to dwell off the coasts of Norway and Greenland. The legend may have originated from sightings of giant squid that are estimated to grow to 40–50 ft in length, including the tentacles. The sheer size and fearsome appearance attributed to the kraken have made it a common ocean-dwelling monster in various fictional works.
In the late-13th-century version of the Old Icelandic saga Örvar-Oddr is an inserted episode of a journey bound for Helluland (Baffin Island) which takes the protagonists through the Greenland Sea, and here they spot two massive sea-monsters called Hafgufa ("sea mist") and Lyngbakr ("heather-back"). The hafgufa is believed to be a reference to the kraken:
The English word kraken is taken from Norwegian. In Norwegian and Swedish, Kraken is the definite form of krake, a word designating an unhealthy animal or something twisted (cognate with the English crook and crank). In modern German, Krake (plural and declined singular: Kraken) means octopus, but can also refer to the legendary Kraken. In Dutch, the verb Kraken means breaking or the sound of cracking.
