Kraken in popular culture

The mythological sea monster referred to as the Kraken appears frequently in popular culture, including literature, feature films, television and video games.

Literature

In 1830 Alfred Tennyson published the sonnet The Kraken, which described a massive creature that dwelled at the bottom of the sea. The theme was continued in Jules Verne's 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, in which a group of giant squid attack the submarine the Nautilus.



John Wyndham's 1953 novel The Kraken Wakes features Tennyson's poem in the preface, the story itself referring to an invasion by sea-dwelling aliens. China Miéville's 2010 novel Kraken features a cult devoted to the worship of the creature.

Comics

Film

A version of the Kraken (a giant, four-armed scaled humanoid with scales and a fishtail) appears in the 1981 film Clash of the Titans and the 2010 version of the film as a servant of the Olympian Gods. In 2006 a telemovie called Tentacles of the Deep featured a different variation (an atypical mouth and fangs), while the film Dead Man's Chest featured a more typical version of the creature that followed the commands of the equally mythical Davy Jones.

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