Hafgufa
The hafgufa is mentioned in the mid-13th century Norwegian tract called the "Konungs skuggsjá" ("King's Mirror"). Later recensions of "Örvar-Odds" saga feature "hafgufa" and "lyngbakr" as similar but distinct creatures. According to the Norwegian didactic work, this creature uses its own vomit like chumming bait to gather prey fish. In the "Fornaldarsaga", the hafgufa is reputed to consume even whales or ships and men, though Oddr's ship merely sailed through its jaws above water, which appeared to be nothing more than rocks. Nomenclature. This creature's name appears as in Old Norse in the 13th century  Norwegian work. In the "Snorra Edda", the "hafgufa" ("sea-steamer") appears in the list ("þulur") of whales. The spelling is also in some copies. An 18th century source glosses the term 'mermaid' as . This was rendered ""hafgufa" ('[mermaid]')" in a recent excerpt of this work, but has been translated 'kraken' in the past. It was translated as "sea-reek" in the saga. Norwegian "King's Mirror". In the "Speculum regale" (aka "Konungs skuggsjá", the "King's Mirror"), an Old Norwegian philosophical didactic work written in the mid-13th century, the King told his son of several whales that inhabit the Icelandic  seas, concluding with a description of a large whale that he himself feared, but he doubted anyone would believe him about without seeing it. He described the "hafgufa" as a massive fish that looked more like an island than like a living thing. The King noted that "hafgufa" was rarely seen, but always seen in the same two places. He concluded there must be only two of them and that they must be infertile, otherwise the seas would be full of them. The King described the feeding manner of "hafgufa": The fish would belch, which would expel so much food  that it would attract all the nearby fish. Once a large number had crowded into its mouth and belly, it would close its mouth and devour them all at once. Its mention in the "Speculum regale" was noted by Olaus Wormiaus (Ole Worm) in his posthumous "Museum Wormianum" (1654) and by another Dane, Thomas Bartholin the senior (1657). Ole Worm classed it as the 22nd type of "Cetus", as did Bartholin, but one difference was that Ole Worm's book printed the entry with the skewed spelling hafgufe. Odd's saga. In the later version of Örvar-Odds saga dating  to the late 14th century, "hafgufa" is described as the largest sea monster () of all, which fed on whales, ships, men, and anything it could catch, according to the deck officer Vignir Oddsson who knew the lore. He said it lived underwater, but reared its snout ("mouth and nostrils") above water for a duration until the tide changed, and the that it was the nostril and lower jaw which they had sailed in-between, although they mistook these for two massive rocks rising from the sea. Örvar-Oddr and his crew, who started from the Greenland Sea were sailing along  the coast south and westward, towards a fjord called Skuggi on Helluland (also given by the English-translated name of "Slabland"), and it is on the way there that they encountered two monsters, the "hafgufa" ('sea-reek') and "lyngbakr" ('heather-back'). Original sea monster and analogues. The aspidochelone of the "Physiologus" is identified as the potential source for the "hafgufa" lore. Although the original aspidochelone was a turtle-island of warmer waters, this was reinvented as a type of whale named "aspedo" in the Icelandic "Physiologus" (fragment B, No. 8). In the Icelandic "aspedo" was described as a whale () being  mistaken for an island, and as opening its mouth to issue a perfume of sorts to attract prey. observed that these were represented as two distinct illustrations in the Icelandic copy; he further theorized that this led to the mistaken notion of separate creatures called "hafgufa" and "lyngbakr" in existence, as occurs in the saga. Contrary to the saga, Danish physician Thomas Bartholin in his "Historiarum anatomicarum" IV (1657) stated that the "hafgufa" ('sea vapor') was synonymous with 'lyngbak' ([sic.], 'back like "Erica" plants'). He added that it was on the back of this beast that St. Brendan read his  Mass, causing the island to sink after their departure. The Icelander Jón Guðmundsson (d. 1658)'s "Natural History of Iceland" also equated the "lyngbakr" and "hafgufa" with the beast mistaken for an island in St. Brendan's voyage. The island-like creature is indeed told of in the legend of Brendan's voyage, though the giant fish is named Jasconius/Jaskonius. Hans Egede writing on the kracken (kraken) of Norway equates it with the Icelandic "hafgufa", though has heard little on the latter. and later, the non-native Moravian cleric 's "History of Greenland" (1765, in German) treated "hafgafa" as  synonymous with the "krake"["n"] in the Norwegian tongue. However, Finnur Jónsson for instance has expressed skepticism towards the notion which developed that the "krake" had its origins in the "hafgufa".