Long since these giant animals caused awe in people. In old times whales were called all sea monsters which struck with the huge sizes. In the ancient legends telling about the structure of the world, the leading role is assigned to whales.
Whales — Earth support
Ancient Slavs claimed that our Earth floating among a boundless water smooth surface has the flat form. According to legends, it is held on themselves by three huge whales, and thirty more little fellows help them to bear the hard burden.
According to other, earlier versions, Earth was held at first on the backs by seven whales, but over time their burden became heavy from sinful acts which were made by people. Without having sustained big weight, four whales departured to the bottomless abyss. Three remained animals as tried, but did not manage to prevent flooding of the most part of land grounds. For this reason there was also the known World genesis flood. According to other version, whales initially was only four. After death of one of them, almost all land left under water. It is considered that if the remained whales die, then doomsday will come.
Legends of northern latitudes
As nobody else, peoples of the North, for example Icelanders and Norwegians admired whales. In Norway the Middle Ages even the small book with the name "Royal Mirror" where all whales were divided into kind and angry was released. Kind and peaceful whales always come heavy minutes of a storm or the crash of the ship, saving the sinking team, angry purposely heat vessels and devour people. Angry whales most often become the main characters of the Icelandic epos, for example, there meet dug, a whale horse, a red whale and a whale pig. All angry whales surely were aggressive and greedy. All the life they plow open spaces of oceans in search of the stray ships. At the sight of the victim the angry whale unexpectedly highly jumps out of the sea abyss and falls from above upon the vessel, instantly destroying it on small fragments. Very often huge whales were perceived by seafarers for islands in the ocean. On one of legends, one Irish monk-Benedictine started looking for the Promised Land. Floating on the sailing vessel across the Atlantic Ocean, he suddenly noticed on a board at the left the mysterious island which actually was a back of peacefully sleeping whale. The monk with the team landed on the land. Having rendered a prayer of thanksgiving to God and having a little had a rest, they returned on the ship and continued the travel. But the most interesting is that the sleeping whale at the same time did not even feel the uninvited guests walking on his own back. In Islam this animal lives in Muslim paradise, and at Christians the whale is considered the envoy of the devil.