A Global History of Sea Monsters | Human Voiced, No Ads

Описание: 00:00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:02:58 Monsters of the Classical Mediterranean
00:16:07 Medieval Monsters
00:27:27 Renaissance Encounters
00:41:39 Enlightenment Skepticism and 19th-Century Sightings
00:53:09 Thoughts and Conclusions

Sources and Further Reading

Pliny the Elder, Natural History (1st century AD) – Encyclopedic work describing monstrous whales (e.g., Physeter spouting water like a pillar) and mermaids (Nereids) as real marine creaturespenelope.uchicago.edupenelope.uchicago.edu.

Navigatio Sancti Brendani (c. 9th century) – Medieval voyage tale of Saint Brendan, which includes the famous incident of landing on a giant fish mistaken for an island (Jasconius)en.wikipedia.org.

Buzurg ibn Shahriyar’s Wonders of India (AD 953) – A Persian sailor’s collection of maritime lore, reporting giant lobsters dragging ships, mermaids born of fish and human parents, and other fantastical sea creatures told by Indian Ocean marinersmoonworldhistory.weebly.com.

Konungs skuggsjá (King’s Mirror, 13th-century Norway) – Didactic text describing the hafgufa, a colossal whale-like monster that could appear as an island and swallow ships whole by luring fish into its gaping mouthen.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org.

Olaus Magnus, Carta Marina (1539) and History of the Northern Peoples (1555) – Renaissance map and book detailing Scandinavian sea monsters, notably the 200-foot “Sea Orm” serpent of Norway and the fierce Prister whale, based on sailors’ testimonies and folklorenationalgeographic.comnationalgeographic.com.

Christopher Columbus’s Journal (1493) – Log entry from Columbus’s return voyage noting the sighting of three “mermaids” near Hispaniola, which he remarked were “not half as beautiful as they are said to be” (an early description of manatees by a European observer)grunge.com.

Henry Hudson’s Log (1608) – Journal of Arctic explorer Henry Hudson in which crew members off Novaya Zemlya saw a mermaid “from the navel upward, a woman” with a porpoise-like tail, one of the few mermaid sightings recorded in an explorer’s official logpointseast.com.

Hans Egede, Missionary Report (Greenland, 1734) – Account by the Danish-Norwegian missionary describing a “most dreadful” sea serpent off the coast of Greenland, with a long snout blowing water, broad flippers, and a snake-like tail that rose out of the sea – a seminal sea-monster sighting in early modern times history.co.uk.

Gloucester Sea Serpent Witness Accounts (USA, 1817) – Collection of sworn statements by New England residents (e.g., fisherman Matthew Gaffney) describing a 40+ foot serpentine creature with a keg-sized head in the waters of Gloucester, Massachusetts, which prompted one of the first scientific inquiries into a sea monster in the New World history.co.uk.

Captain Peter McQuhae’s Report of HMS Daedalus (1848) – Official British Admiralty report in which the captain and crew of the Daedalus detail a 60-foot “enormous serpent” encountered in the South Atlantic, keeping pace with the ship for 20 minutes – a highly publicized 19th-century sea serpent sighting by experienced naval officers history.co.uk.


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Dive into the deep and discover the global history of sea monsters—from the Kraken and Leviathan to the giant serpents of Asia and the terrifying creatures of ancient myth. This video explores how sailors, explorers, and storytellers across cultures explained the mysteries of the ocean. Learn how ancient maps, folklore, and real-life encounters shaped legends that still haunt our imagination today. Perfect for history lovers, mythology fans, and anyone fascinated by the mysteries of the sea.

Information sourced from Wiki, Gutenburg, JSTOR, primary and secondary sources. All information is congruent with archaeological and history evidence at the time of recording.