Release the kraken! 2,000 years of tall tales (and a smattering of truth)

Another giant squid illustration from French illustrator de Montfort.

Wikimedia Commons

This week, Japanese researchers announced that they have at last secured video footage of a giant squid in its natural habitat more than 2,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

News accounts naturally went for the "kraken" headlines. "The Kraken wakes: first images of giant squid filmed in deep ocean," wrote Reuters, while the New York Post adopted the variation "The kraken lives! Giant squid captured on film for first time."

Well—this "kraken" may have been captured on film for the first time, but writers have been writing about it since writers could write, and they have had plenty to say. Some of it has even been accurate.