King Anko is the oldest of the three living Sea Serpents. He is king of the ocean and his brothers, Unko and Inko, each live in their own oceans, though they visit every hundred years.

Description

Anko is thousands of years old. He has a big head that is round as a ball. His ears are sharp-pointed with tassels at the ends. His nose is flat, his mouth very wide, and his eyes are blue and gentle. His face is surrounded by stubby gray whiskers which are scattered and scraggly. His brown body is curved like a sewer pipe and the length of it is seven thousand four hundred eighty-two feet, five inches and a quarter. His brothers are seven inches shorter and several feet shorter, respectively.

King Anko lives in the ocean near the home of the mermaids and, although he is king of the ocean, he does not rule them.

Anko's Palace

King Anko lives in a great circular palace made of solid alabaster polished as smooth as ivory. Its roof is a dome with several round holes for entrance, there being no doors or windows.

The halls are decorated with engravings of scenes from ocean life, carved by walruses with their great tusks.

Anko's servants are beautiful winged fishes with faces like doll babies, long purple hair and eyelashes, and rosy spots on their cheeks.

History

When Anko was young, his measurements were taken by Adam.

During his many long years, Anko studied humans, and encountered such larger-than-life figures as King Nevercouldnever, Julius Sneezer, Captain Kid Glove, the Prince of Whales, and Napoleon with his bones apart.

For centuries, Anko patrolled the ocean in search of the the wicked Zog, who hid himself in an unseen castle within a hidden dome.

When Queen Aquareine was captured by Zog, Anko searched for her. He questioned the Prince of the Sea Devils and killed him, revealing the entrance to Zog's cavern. There he captured Zog in his coils and crushed him to a mass of jelly-like pulp, freeing the Mermaid Queen and her companions. (The Sea Fairies)

Reimaginings

In Amy Chu's Sea Sirens series, the original Anko is long dead, but his soul is carried by a human boy whose ship sank in the 18th century.

In Rowden Dunshie's The King Beneath the Sea (2025), Anko serves as a wise and powerful guiding figure, comparable to Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia, who plays a central role in the story’s emotional and narrative arc. Physically, he is portrayed more like a traditional sea serpent or a Loch Ness Monster type of creature, in contrast to Baum’s original depiction. Captain Bill initially refers to him as a "water kelpie."