Editing Norwegian Sea (section)

=== Sea monsters and maelstroms ===
[[File:Carta Marina.jpeg|thumb|The [[Carta Marina]] (1539) by [[Olaus Magnus]] is the earliest detailed map of the Nordic countries. Note various sea monsters on the map.]]
[[File:Maelstrom-Clarke.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Illustration by [[Harry Clarke]] (1889–1931) for [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s story "Descent into the Maelstrom," published in 1919.]]
For many centuries, the Norwegian Sea was regarded as the edge of the known world. The disappearance of ships there, due to the natural disasters, induced legends of monsters that stopped and sank ships ([[kraken]]). As late as in 1845, the ''[[Encyclopædia metropolitana]]'' contained a multi-page review by [[Erik Pontoppidan]] (1698–1764) on ship-sinking sea monsters half a mile in size.<ref name="Krak">''Octopus'' in:. E. Smedley et al. (Eds): ''Encyclopædia metropolitana; or, universal dictionary of knowledge'' in 1845, pp. 326–330</ref> Many legends might be based on the work ''[[Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus]]'' of 1539 by [[Olaus Magnus]], which described the kraken and maelstroms of the Norwegian Sea.<ref name="Glavin">Terry Glavin ''The Sixth Extinction: Journeys Among the Lost and Left Behind'', Macmillan, 2007 {{ISBN|0-312-36231-5}}, p. 149</ref> The kraken also appears in [[Alfred Tennyson]]'s poem of the same name, in Herman Melville's ''[[Moby Dick]]'', and in ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas]]'' by [[Jules Verne]].

Between the [[Lofoten|Lofoten islands]] of [[Moskenesøya]] and [[Værøya]], at the tiny [[Mosken]] island, lies the [[Moskenstraumen]] – a system of [[tide|tidal]] [[Eddy (fluid dynamics)|eddies]] and a [[whirlpool]] called a maelstrom. With a speed on the order of {{convert|15|km/h|0|abbr=on}} (the value strongly varies between sources), it is one of the strongest maelstroms in the world. It was described in the 13th century in the [[Old Norse]] [[Poetic Edda]] and remained an attractive subject for painters and writers, including [[Edgar Allan Poe]], [[Walter Moers]] and [[Jules Verne]]. The word was introduced into the English language by Poe in his story "[[A Descent into the Maelström]]" (1841) describing the Moskenstraumen.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/merriamwebsterne00merr/page/300 The Merriam-Webster new book of word histories], 1991, {{ISBN|0-87779-603-3}} p. 300</ref> The Moskenstraumen is created as a result of a combination of several factors, including the tides, the position of the Lofoten, and the underwater topography; unlike most other whirlpools, it is located in the open sea rather than in a channel or bay. With a diameter of 40–50 metres, it can be dangerous even in modern times to small fishing vessels that might be attracted by the abundant cod feeding on the microorganisms sucked in by the whirlpool.<ref name="Koppel">Tom Kopel [https://books.google.com/books?id=acqyEz8TViMC&pg=PA76 ''Ebb and Flow: Tides and Life on Our Once and Future Planet''], Dundurn Press, 2007 {{ISBN|1-55002-726-3}}, pp. 76–79</ref>