Hafgufa

Did You Know?

• In the Snorra Edda, hafgufa appears in the list (þulur) of whales, with the spelling hafgúa in some copies.
• An 18th-century source glosses the term margúa 'mermaid' as hafgúa.
• In the 2022 video game God of War Ragnarök, Hafgufas are portrayed as giant flying jellyfish that control sandstorms with whale-like singing.

Norwegian King's Mirror

In the Speculum regale, the King told his son of several whales in Icelandic seas, ending with a large whale he feared but doubted anyone would believe without seeing. He described the hafgufa as a massive fish resembling an island rather than a living thing, rarely seen and always in the same two places. The King concluded there must be only two, infertile, or the seas would be full. Its feeding manner involved belching to expel food, attracting fish into its mouth and belly, then closing its mouth to devour them.

Odd's saga

In the later version of Örvar-Odds saga, hafgufa is described as the largest sea monster, feeding on whales, ships, men, and anything it could catch, according to deck officer Vignir Oddsson. It lived underwater but reared its snout above water until the tide changed. Örvar-Oddr and his crew, sailing from the Greenland Sea toward a fjord called Skuggi on Helluland, encountered two monsters: hafgufa and lyngbakr. They mistook the hafgufa's nostril and lower jaw for two massive rocks rising from the sea.

Original sea monster and analogues

The aspidochelone of the Physiologus is identified as a potential source for the hafgufa lore. In the Icelandic Physiologus, the aspedo was described as a whale mistaken for an island, opening its mouth to issue a perfume to attract prey. Halldór Hermannsson theorized that two distinct illustrations in the Icelandic copy led to the notion of separate creatures called hafgufa and lyngbakr. Thomas Bartholin stated that hafgufa was synonymous with lyngbak, adding that St. Brendan read his Mass on this beast's back. Jón Guðmundsson also equated lyngbakr and hafgufa with the island-like beast in St. Brendan's voyage, though that giant fish is named Jasconius. Hans Egede equated the kraken with hafgufa, and David Crantz treated hafgafa as synonymous with krake. Finnur Jónsson expressed skepticism toward the notion that the krake originated from hafgufa. In 2023, scientists reported whale behavior resembling the hafgufa legend: staying stationary with jaws open, using chewed fish as bait, and proposed this as the myth's origin.