Erik Pontoppidan (kraken's young) Erik Pontoppidan wrote of a possible specimen of the krake, "perhaps a young and careless one", which washed ashore and died in 1680 near
Alstahaug Church on the island of
Alsta, Norway. 20th-century malacologist
Paul Bartsch conjectured this to have been a
giant squid, However, what Pontoppidan actually stated regarding what creatures he regarded as candidates for the kraken is quite complicated. Pontoppidan did tentatively identify the kraken to be a sort of giant crab, stating that the alias
krabben best describes its characteristics. Pontoppidan is suggesting this is an ancient example of
kraken, as a modern commentator analyzes. Pontoppidan then declared the kraken to be a type of
polypus (octopus) or "starfish", particularly the kind
Gessner called
Stella Arborescens, later identifiable as one of the northerly
ophiurids or possibly more specifically as one of the
Gorgonocephalids or even the genus
Gorgonocephalus (though no longer regarded as family/genus under order
Ophiurida, but under
Phrynophiurida in current taxonomy). This ancient
arbor (admixed
rota and thus made eight-armed) seems like an octopus at first blush but with additional data, the ophiurid starfish now appears Pontoppidan's preferential choice. The ophiurid starfish seems further fortified when he notes that "starfish" called "Medusa's heads" (
caput medusæ; pl.
capita medusæ) are considered to be "the young of the great sea-krake" by local lore. Pontoppidan ventured the 'young krakens' may rather be the eggs (
ova) of the starfish. Pontopiddan was satisfied that "Medusa's heads" was the same as the foregoing starfish (
Stella arborensis of old), but "Medusa's heads" were something found ashore aplenty across Norway according to
von Bergen, who thought it absurd these could be young "Kraken" since that would mean the seas would be full of (the adults). The "Medusa's heads" appear to be a Gorgonocephalid, with
Gorgonocephalus spp. being tentatively suggested. By "this Krake" here, he apparently meant in particular the giant
polypus octopus of
Carteia from Pliny, Book IX, Ch. 30 (though he only used the general nickname "
ozaena" 'stinkard' for the octopus kind). which was a man-killer which ripped apart () shipwrecked people and divers. Montfort accompanied his publication with an
engraving representing the giant octopus poised to destroy a
three-masted ship. Montfort also listed additional wondrous fauna as identifiable with the kraken. There was
Christian Franz Paullini's
monstrum marinum glossed as a sea crab (), Based on that picture, Montfort drew a "colossal octopus" attacking a ship, and included the engraving in his book. However, an English author recapitulating Montfort's account of it attaches an illustration of it, which was captioned: "The Kraken supposed a sepia or cuttlefish", while attributing Montfort. Hamilton's book was not alone in recontextualizing Montfort's ship-assaulting colossal octopus as a kraken; for instance, the piece on the "kraken" by American zoologist
Packard. The Frenchman Montfort used the obsolete scientific name
Sepia octopodia but called it a
poulpe, which means "octopus" to this day; meanwhile the English-speaking naturalists had developed the convention of calling the octopus "eight-armed cuttle-fish", as did Packard But it has been pointed out the sinkings have simply been explained by the presence of a storm,
Giant squid (Architeuthis) A common conception of the kraken has been that it originates from sightings of
giant squid. The piece of squid recovered by the French ship
Alecton in 1861, discussed by
Henry Lee in his chapter on the "Kraken", would later be identified as a
giant squid,
Architeuthis by
A. E. Verrill. After a specimen of the giant squid,
Architeuthis, was discovered by Rev.
Moses Harvey and published in science by Professor A. E. Verrill, commentators have remarked on this cephalopod as possibly explaining the legendary kraken. == Iconography ==