Kraken

The Kraken is invoked during the storms that scattered the ships on Elissa Farman’s westward voyage, but the account does not establish that one was actually present. The Autumn Moon was swallowed by a wave; the Kraken entered the story through the frightened sailors’ interpretation of what they had seen and lost.

The Storm and the Lost Ship

After the Sun Chaser and its companions reached the Summer Islands, the ships’ fortunes turned. The wind failed, provisions aboard the Autumn Moon spoiled, and a succession of storms grew worse. In the third storm, lightning split the Autumn Moon’s mast, the waves swept men overboard, and the sea repeatedly washed across the decks. By then, the Sun Chaser had disappeared from sight, leaving the Autumn Moon and Lady Meredith together in the tempest.

A Wave Named as a Monster

Amid the chaos, one of Ser Eustace Hightower’s men screamed that he had seen arms rising from the water. The Autumn Moon was broken and burning when a huge wave rose and swallowed her. Ser Eustace’s account supplies a natural explanation for the loss: it was a wave, however monstrous in size. His crew instead shouted that a Kraken had taken the ship, and would not be persuaded otherwise. The creature is thus never shown or confirmed; it is the name the sailors give to an overwhelming event they cannot master.

Fear and Its Consequences

The belief outlasted the storm. After the ships were separated, Lady Alys Westhill found islands farther west, but Ser Eustace’s crew would not let him continue the voyage. He later told Lord Donnel that the men were convinced a giant Kraken had pulled the Autumn Moon beneath the sea; if he had ordered them onward, they would have fed him to the waves and chosen another captain. Their conviction changed the expedition’s course: Lady Meredith turned east for home while the Sun Chaser pressed west. In the voyage’s account, the Kraken’s power lies not in a confirmed appearance but in the fear attached to the missing ship—and in the crew’s refusal to risk meeting the same supposed monster again.