Rans døtre

Jotnene er tett forbundet med naturkrefter og elementene, og jotnene Rån, Æge og deres døtre, som er av jotunslekt, er herskere i havet. In Ran’s case, we give gold (and she does love gold!) for the wrongful death of so many of her creatures. Just based on the association of nine women as a group, that alone is fairly indicative as it seems less likely (though by no means impossible) that a single culture would have two distinct groups nine women — nine sisters no less — important enough to be remembered in mythology.

The main argument against is that the list of names of the Nine Mothers of Heimdallr is completely different than the known names of the Nine Daughters.

Those who were lucky at sea were said to be much loved by Ran, although this was granted to be an ambivalent blessing, as if she liked you enough, then it was only a matter of time before she brought you to be with her.

An altar to Ran can feature any color of the sea, but she is partial to the greener shades.

If you are at the beach, bind a long piece of seaweed around your head and speak Ran’s invocation.

Råns garn omtales i Skaldskaparmål og er også nevnt i heltediktet Reginsmål i den eldre Edda hvor det fortelles at Loke låner Råns garn for å fange dvergen Andvare som har skapt seg om til en gjedde. To speak of “Ægir’s storm-glad daughters” and “Ægir’s dreaded daughters” was talk about the waves, in this case specifically, the enormous, violent, dreaded waves of the stormy seas.

“Helgi had the high sails heightened,
the unfailing crew rallying through
the rollers, Ægir’s dreaded daughters trying
to overthrow their stay-bridled sea-steeds.”

— Helgakviða Hundingsbana I (Norse Poem from the Poetic Eda)

References To The Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán In Myth

In the Skáldskaparmál — ‘The Language of Poetry’, Book II in the Prose Edda — tells the intertwined story of the Aesir gods and the origin of poetry through a dialogue between Bragi, the god of poetry, and Ægir, the god of the sea, the sea personified, and the father of the nine.

Verse XXV of the book collects a number of poetic terms for the sea in the fashion of previous verses.

We could be seeing the possible existence of more than one tradition of Heimdallr, or perhaps another set of names for the Nine Daughters from a tradition within the family of Norse Religion. Hun indfanger druknede søfolk med sit net og fører dem til sit rige på havets bund. Furthermore, if Heimdallr is indeed the son of the Nine Daughters of the sea, this aligns as well, since the great musician of Ancient Greece, Orpheus, was also raised by the Nine Muses.

Imidlertid er ikke havet overlatt helt til jotnene, vane-guden Njord har også havet som domene.

Rån har et garn som hun bruker til å fange de som blir borte på sjøen. Forestillingen om at Rån tar de som drukner til seg, kommer også til syne i diktet Sønnetapet. I Skaldskaparmål i Snorres Edda som har form som en lærebok i skaldskap, ramser Snorres opp navnene på døtrene: Himinglæva, Duva, Blodughadda, Herving, Unn, Ronn, Bylga, Båra og Kolga, De norrøne skaldene brukte gjerne kjenninger, som er poetiske omskrivninger for gjenstander, guder, steder og lignende.

In Fridhjof’s Saga, it is said to have been a lucky thing to have gold on one’s person if lost at sea, and the hero went so far to distribute small pieces of gold among his men when they were caught in a storm, so that they should not go empty-handed into Ran’s hall if they were drowned. The daughter Blóðughadda (“Bloody-hair”) calls to mind a red-haired woman rather than any part of the ocean.

The meanings of the names of the Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán, to the best of our knowledge, are: [1]

• Blóðughadda — “Bloody-hair”
• Bylgja — “Billow”
• Dröfn or Bára — (Dröfn: “comber” or “foaming sea”, Bára: “wave”)
• Dúfa — “Wave”
• Hefring (Hevring) — “Lifting”
• Himinglæva — “Transparent-on-top”
• Hrönn — “Wave”
• Kólga — “Cool-Wave”
• Uðr or Unn — “Wave”

The Nine Daughters and the Nine Mothers of Heirndallr

Many scholars believe that the Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán are the same as the Nine Mothers of Heimdallr.

Within the logic of myth it follows that their nine daughters shared the same association. Her long black hair drags on the ground behind her when she walks through Aegir’s hall; its ends trail off into nothingness, and this is because her hair is magically linked to all the seaweed that grows in all the northern oceans. (I’ve also found that she very much loves Rudyard Kipling’s poem Harp Song of the Dane Women, done to Leslie Fish’s tune, sung to her.) Tell her how much you value the ocean and that you will do what you can to help it, and ask her to aid you in finding the best way to do that.

The Prose Edda.

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