The Kraken’sTrue Form HOW DOES THE SEARCH FOR A MYTHICAL SEA MONSTER END? by Kathryn Hulick illustrations by Gordy Wright

Centuries ago, stories chronicled beasts that could swallow ships. 10

text © 2020 by Ivars Peterson 11

It’s a lovely sight. But the people sight. But the people It’s a lovely same size as Its eyes are each the Inside its body, three hearts beat, inside the bright yellow Triton bright yellow Triton inside the for small are not looking submersible how flashy. They creatures, no matter islands have come to the Ogasawara day in 2012 of Japan on this summer beast. to search for a massive prey using a human head. It grabs two even longer eight long arms and these tentacles feeding tentacles. With reach the height stretched out, it can On each of of a four-story building. its arms and tentacles, hundreds of suction cups with sharp, serrated edges cut into whatever it grabs. It devours each meal with a sharp beak and toothed tongue. pushing blue blood through the creature’s veins. And its skin changes color, shimmering through hues of metallic silver and bronze. Should any other creature try to attack it, the beast sprays out a cloud of jet- black ink. This cloaks its escape. On this dive, the group fails to find what they’re looking for. But they will keep trying. What is this monster they seek? Could it possibly be real? Mythical Monsters Sea monsters have swum through myth and folklore as far back as the thirteenth century, when The Saga of Arrow-Odd, an Icelandic romance, mentioned a beast called Hafgufa that swallowed men and ships. In 1555, Olaus Magnus, an archbishop in Sweden, described and illustrated several sea monsters, writing that one of these beasts could drown many great ships. In 1755, bishop Erik Pontoppidan described the kraken, a beast so large it resembles a string of small islands. He wrote it was “round, flat, and full of arms, or branches.” When a kraken rises to the surface, he writes, smart fishermen “take to their oars and get away as fast as they can.”

he submersible dives he submersible and down, deeper color deeper. The of the surrounding from blue water fades

T dancing lights appears. dancing lights appears. blackness, a jellyfish covered with blackness, a jellyfish gray-black. Suddenly, out of the gray-black. Suddenly, green to rich blue and finally to blue and finally green to rich

The True Form True Kraken’s Scientists used a yellow Triton sub- mersible to seek the giant squid.

In 1874, the London Times The Real Kraken published an account of a huge, Sailors and fishermen are famous squid-like beast attacking a ship for telling tales. Many stories of called the Pearl in the Indian the kraken veer far from reality. Ocean. According to this story, a For example, the existence of the passing vessel rescued the captain, Pearl and its captain has never been James Floyd, and several crew verified. Nickell discovered that the members. Floyd reported that London Times reprinted the story of a “Monstrous arms like trees seized kraken attack on a ship from a British the vessel and she keeled over; paper in India. Most likely, the story is in another second the monster fiction, inspired by author Jules Verne. was aboard . . .” Next, the crew His hugely popular science-fiction apparently fought the beast with book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under axes, but in the end, it pulled the the Sea, published five years before ship under water. the London Times story, described

Q&A with Author Kathryn Hulick Q: What is Strange but True about? A: The book is about the real science and history behind paranor- mal mysteries—including aliens and UFOs, ghosts, zombies, Bigfoot and Yeti, Atlantis, psychics, and more. It’s fine to wonder about these magical ideas. But I also encourage scientific, critical thinking and practicing the art of doubt. That’s the only way to get at the truth behind the strangeness in the world.

Q: When did you know you wanted to be a writer? A: I’ve known I wanted to write books since I was eight years old. In high school, I used to submit stories and drawings to one of Muse’s sister magazines. I was thrilled to get one drawing published. After college, I did an internship with the Cricket magazine group. I’ve been writing for them for over 12 years now. My editor for Strange but True told me she wanted to work with me because she’d read and enjoyed my articles in Muse.

Q: Where did you get the idea for this book? A: I’ve always loved the idea of magic. When I was young, I believed that if I stared into a candle flame long enough, I could learn how to move things with my mind. I never did figure that out. Now, I think finding out how the human brain actually works is even more interesting. But I’ve never lost my fascination with the paranormal. I want to know why people believe in sea mon- 12 sters, psychics, or aliens. What’s going on in their brains? surrounding water. Most deep ocean animals can’t see the deepest shades of red. But they can see the bait, a 3-foot- (1-m-) long squid tied to a string that trails from the sub. It sports a flashing light lure. Two hours pass. Then, out of the blackness, something appears. It reaches for the bait with long, suction-cupped arms. “It’s a giant squid! We’ve done it!” An excited Kubodera says in Japanese. He takes a chance and turns on the sub’s bright white lights, but the creature does not swim away. It feeds for 23 minutes as Kubodera “We’ve done it,” exclaimed and his colleagues watch, in awe. marine biologist Tsunemi They are the first humans to come Kubodera on a 2012 dive. eye to eye with a giant squid in the deep sea. When it finally leaves, Kubodera leans back, staring upwards. All he can say is, “Oh!” There’s no doubt about it. “I was now the possessor of one of the rarest The giant squid is a real sea curiosities in the whole animal kingdom—the monster. And even more amazing, veritable tentacle of the hitherto mythical unknown creatures likely remain hidden in Earth’s oceans. We devilfish, about whose existence naturalists have better maps of the surface have been disputing for centuries.” of Mars and Venus than of the ocean floor. What could be down there? No one knows. Edith an almost identical battle in which A few years later, fishermen in Widder, a marine biologist who a ship’s crew wielded axes against a Newfoundland managed to recover took part in the expedition that huge, many-armed creature. a tentacle and gave it to naturalist filmed the giant squid, says that However, it’s also true that dead Reverand Moses Harvey. In an she welcomes any opportunity bodies of large, many-armed sea 1899 article, he wrote, “I was now to explore the world’s lakes and creatures with toothy suction cups the possessor of one of the rarest oceans. Exploring “opens up and giant eyes have been washing up curiosities in the whole animal possibilities of seeing things we on beaches for hundreds of years. The kingdom—the veritable tentacle of couldn’t have imagined are there.” earliest known record comes from the hitherto mythical devilfish, about Every day, scientists explore Iceland in 1639. The description of whose existence naturalists have been the world, seeking the answers the creature states that it had seven disputing for centuries.” Clearly, the to unsolved mysteries. It took tails densely covered with a type of kraken was not as huge or bloodthirsty centuries of scientific research button. These were likely tentacles as the legends made it out to be. But and experimentation to finally with suction cups. In 1673, another it was real. It was the giant squid. Still, reveal the giant squid hiding one washed ashore in Ireland. Carl the creature remained shrouded in behind the mystery of the kraken. Linnaeus, the scientist who founded the mystery. As of 2012, no one had ever What other mysteries remain to modern method of classifying animals, seen one alive in its natural habitat. be discovered and solved? The described the kraken as a cephalopod That was about to change. only way to find out is to get out mollusk in 1735. And in 1853, after the there and look. body of a huge, dead squid washed An Alien Encounter up on a beach in Denmark, naturalist The Triton descends once more. STRANGE BUT TRUE Copyright © 2019 Japetus Steenstrup recovered the beak This time, marine biologist Tsunemi by Kathryn Hulick and Gordy Wright. and used it to give the species a new Kubodera of the National Museum Reproduced by permission of the name, Architeuthis monachus, the of Nature and Science in Tokyo is on publisher, Frances Lincoln Children’s giant squid. board. Dim red lights peer into the Books, Beverly, MA 13