Whispers and tales of the “kraken” could be heard around the campfires of Scandinavian sailors and Vikings as early as the 12th century. Derived from Old Norse, the root word “krake” roughly translates to a "malformed or overgrown, crooked tree” and was originally used in reference to wooden Scandinavian boat hooks, drags, or anchors. The image of these twisted anchors was the closest resemblance sailors of the time had to the sea monster of enormous, ship-devouring, cephalopod-like proportions they claim haunted the ocean on their voyages. A monster they claimed conjured whirlpools and dragged boats down into the abyss.

These legends were largely discounted as Scandinavian mythology and folklore in the mid-1800s, when discoveries of kraken-like creatures now known as Architeuthis, or giant squids, began on land and in water. However, giant squids appear to be just as shrouded in mystery as the legendary kraken.

The giant squid is a massive, deep-sea cephalopod that is estimated to grow up to 60 feet long and weigh close to 500 pounds. With eight arms and two long tentacles used for hunting, giant squids also have three hearts, a beak, and the largest eyes in the animal kingdom. Their eyes measure 10-12 inches in diameter , roughly the size of a beach ball, and allow them to see bioluminescent light. These cephalopods live worldwide in the mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones of the ocean, as deep as 3,300 feet . It is primarily due to this depth that so much remains unknown about giant squids, and most research relies on their corpses being found in the stomach of sperm whales or washed up on beaches.

In fact, the first photo of a giant squid was taken in Newfoundland in 1874, when a Reverend paid $10 for the dead creature after it was caught accidentally by a local fisherman. It took another 130 years before a live giant squid was photographed by Japanese zoologist Tsunemi Kudobera in 2004. Finally, only in 2012 did researchers capture the first video of the animal in its deep-water habitat, after Dr. Edith Widder and her team of researchers engineered sphere-shaped lures that mimicked the bioluminescent pattern of panicked jellyfish to attract hungry giant squids.

Despite the giant squids’ fervent paparazzi and population estimates over 100 million , sightings of these beautiful beasts are rare. And perhaps it should stay that way.

The allure of debunking ancient legends is strong, but it is critical that human contact with these giant squids is limited… and quiet. In 2011, Professor Michel André and his research team found that sound from industrial human activities, such as ocean exploration, causes lesions in the statocysts of cephalopods. Statocysts are fluid-filled organs that allow giant squids to maintain balance and orientation and are crucial to their survival. Consistent with these findings, the statocysts of nine giant squids discovered dead off the coast of Spain between 2001 and 2003 were severely damaged. Their deaths were later linked to seismic surveys and Spanish Navy sonar tests.

Luckily, giant squids are safe from becoming human prey, unlike their smaller cephalopod counterparts in shallower water. Giant squids contain a high concentration of ammonium chloride that helps them be neutrally buoyant in sodium chloride-rich deep seawater. This ammonium has led unfortunate taste-testers to describe raw giant squid as “rotten, salty licorice” that smells like cat pee. Therefore, giant squids are both difficult to study and unappealing appetizers, factors that may protect them from excessive human contact and allow many of their secrets to remain hidden.

As researchers learn more about giant squids, it is fair to say that myth has slowly become reality. The terrifying creature of folklore may actually not be as ship-wrecking and man-eating as previously thought by Norse sailors, but rather, a fragile inhabitant of a largely untouched home.