In his chapter on the superstitions of the Shetland seas, Hibbert mentions in a note that a few years before, an affidavit was taken by a Justice of the Peace in Shetland about a monster seen off the island of Burra at some distance from shore. The men said it appeared like the hull of a large ship, but when they went nearer they saw it was far bigger and resembled the back of a monster.
He adds that it is said part of the remains of a dead kraken were found about seventy years before, driven to the mouth of a large cave in the island of Meikle Roe, that is Muckle Roe.
Hibbert sets these reports in the Shetland belief in the kraken or horven, a creature like a floating island with tentacles as high as a ship's mast, and the great sea snake. Fishermen of the haaf used to turn any unusual large creature at sea into a sea-trow. The report is an early example of a sighting backed by a legal oath. The men and the date are not named.
Comments