The Norse sagas and chronicles of the Middle Ages speak of a terrifying marine creature the size of an island, which moved in the seas between Norway and Iceland. The saga of Oddr the Archer, a 13th century Icelandic legend, tells of a "huge sea monster", capable of swallowing "men, ships and even whales".In the 18th century these stories were still around, and at that time the monster began to be called "kraken", a name from a Norse term that originally meant a twisted tree.