Island Whales
A cetacean column on using folklore in tabletop RPGs
You’ve been adrift at sea for days now, your ship destroyed by a malevolent kraken. All hope seems lost, until you spot a speck on the horizon. You drift closer and see it’s an island! It has rocky crevices, sand dunes, and valleys with trees. It’s not home, but after days of harsh sun and caustic, salty water, it might as well be a paradise.
You make landfall, find fresh water, and gather fruit from trees. You even take out an unwary seabird. All you have to do now is start a small fire to warm yourself, boil your water, and cook your food. But, as the flames spring to life, the entire island shakes. The sea begins to flood around you, the land itself sinking into the brine. You realise all too late that you didn’t find an island after all—you’re on the back of a giant sea beast!
I. Aspidochelone
The aspidochelone (Greek, “asp” or “shield” plus “turtle”) is a fabled sea beast, one so large that it is often mistaken for an island. Making frequent appearances in medieval bestiaries, the first recorded version of the legend can be found in the 2nd-century CE text Physiologus:
“There is a monster in the sea which in Greek is called aspidochelone, in Latin "asp-turtle"; it is a great whale, that has what appear to be beaches on its hide, like those from the sea-shore. […] Believing it to be an island, [sailors] beach their ship alongside it, and disembarking, they plant stakes and tie up the ships. Then, in order to cook a meal after this work, they make fires on the sand as if on land. But when the monster feels the heat of these fires, it immediately submerges into the water, and pulls the ship into the depths of the sea.”1
Many famous characters, real and fictional, have had encounters with such creatures, including Sinbad the Sailor, Jewish Talmudist Rabbah bar bar Hana, and even Alexander the Great. All initially mistake it for an island, and, in Sinbad and Rabbah’s case, it’s unlucky seamen starting fires—as per the Physiologus—that rouse the sleeping beast to dive.
These tales are not alone either, with folklore and mythologies from all over the world having examples of sea creatures so enormous they’re mistaken as islands. If we expand our search into pop culture, everything from Middle-Earth to Zelda has a monster inspired by creatures like the aspidochelone.
So, let’s look at one Norse example in particular—an example with more truth to it than you might think!
II. Hafgufa
The hafgufa (translated from Old Norse as “sea-reek” or “sea-steamer”) is a massive sea monster, an enormous fish or whale often mistaken for an island. Appearing in Norse texts such as Konungs skuggsjá and Örvar-Odds saga, it eats whales, ships, and just about everything else, and it does so by using an unusual method to capture its prey2.
To feed, the hafgufa lifts its snout above the water’s surface so that its open mouth resembles two enormous rocks emerging from the sea. Then, when something sails or swims between them, it slams its jaws shut. Some tales also mention it expelling food from its stomach, attracting nearby fish to swim between its jaws.
It’s this highly unusual feeding method that serves to remind us that there’s often at least a kernel of truth in any folklore:
III. Trap-Feeding Whales
Although thought of as a myth for centuries, it’s only this year—2023—that we’ve discovered the hafgufa may not be as mythical as it seems. Island-sized whales haven’t been found, tragically, but there’s now evidence the hafgufa really was observed by Norse sailors back in the day. Except this hafgufa wasn’t a sea monster—it’s actually a very clever whale3.
Over the last decade, scientists have observed whales engaging in trap feeding and tread-water feeding. In both feeding methods, whales sit motionless at the surface with their mouths open, waiting for fish to swim inside. It’s even been speculated that the chum from this eating method might attract more fish, ala the hafgufa’s barfing trick, but that remains to be seen.
So, the feeding style matches, but how do we square the hafgufa’s enormous size with that of an ordinary whale? Well, you could argue that proportions can become distorted when an object is viewed underwater, but there might be a simpler explanation—the halfuga’s size just grew in the telling.
Using Island Whales in Your Game
So, now you know the story, how can you use it in your game?
I. Include an Island Whale!
If you’re running a nautical game, or a game that’s taken a nautical turn, an island whale can make for a classic inclusion. It can be a notable event to make a voyage feel longer, a (brief!) respite if supplies or morale is low, and/or a fantastical break from more mundane oceanic problems.
Alternatively, for a faster, more action-packed encounter, a hafgufa might function as an aquatic trap for your party’s ship! Sailing between those two rocky outcroppings might not have been so wise a move after all…
II. X Marks the Spot That Moves
For a more elaborate inclusion of an island whale, perhaps a magical artefact or MacGuffin the PCs need has been safely hidden atop an aspidochelone. The party will need to track down the island whale (not an easy task when it moves!), then race against time to find the artefact before the creature dives back into the ocean depths. If there’s a whole dungeon atop the whale, this is the perfect excuse to create tension through time pressure.
Feel free to let the PCs know how much time they have too, as long as it isn’t too much. If you do, the diving island becomes the RPG equivalent of Hitchcock’s bomb under the table. The party has to treat time as a resource, which makes spending it turn every action and diversion have real weight!
III. Aspidochelone Park
In a modern or near-future game, perhaps an aspidochelone has been found to exist after all. With this new wonder of science discovered, what’s the next logical next step? Building a luxury resort on top of it, of course!
The PCs are guests of this resort for one reason or another on the night when things, predictably, go horribly wrong. The island whale has been physically restrained to stop it from diving, but now it’s gotten free, or partially free, and is trying to escape. Perhaps some horrifying parasites have simultaneously emerged from its carapace to menace fleeing vacationers as well. Either way, the PCs need to get to the boats, or scale the flooding hotel to reach the helicopter pads, before they drown!
And that’s it for aspidochelone and hafgufa!
Mythoi will be back again soon with another piece of fantastical folklore!
Penny for your thoughts: Have you ever run or played a sailing adventure in a role-playing game?
~ A.C. Luke
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Konstantakos, Ioannis M. “The Island that was a Fish: An Ancient Folktale in the Alexander Romance and in Other Texts of Late Antiquity.” Aspects of Orality and Greek Literature in the Roman Empire, edited by Consuelo Ruiz-Montero, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019, pp. 281-301.
Somerville, Angus A.; McDonald, R. Andrew, eds. The Viking Age: A Reader. University of Toronto Press, 2020.
McCarthy, John, Sebo, Erin, & Matthew Firth. 2023. “Parallels for cetacean trap feeding and tread-water feeding in the historical record across two millennia.” Marine Mammal Science 39.3, pp. 830–841.