InNorse mythology, the Æsir goddessRán and the jötunnÆgir both personify the sea, and together they have nine daughters who personify thewaves. Each daughter's name reflects poetic terms for waves. The sisters are attested in thePoetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; theProse Edda, composed in the 13th century; and in the poetry ofskalds. Scholars have theorized that these daughters may be the same figures as thenine mothers of the god Heimdallr.
The names of Ægir and Rán's daughters occur commonly in Old Norse sources. Lists of their names appear twice inSkáldskaparmál, a section of theProse Edda (for detail, seeProse Edda section below).
| Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Blóðughadda | "Bloodstained hair"[1] | According to scholarJohn Lindow this name "[refers] to reddish foam atop a wave".[1] ScholarRudolf Simek says that "the name does not appear to be too appropriate for a wave, but perhaps it was supposed to convey the wispy, thread-like appearance of the water streaming from the crest of the wave."[2] |
| Bylgja | "Pressure"[3] | Employed as a common noun[3] |
| Dröfn or Bára | According toAnthony Faulkes,Dröfn means "turbulent", whileBára means "watercourse".[4] According toAndy Orchard,Dröfn means "breaking".[5] | Bára replacesDröfn in a list of the daughter inSkáldskaparmál.[6]Dröfn also appears as a common noun.[7] |
| Dúfa | "Addressed"[1] | |
| Hefring or Reisavatn | "Lifting"[1] | |
| Himinglæva | "Transparent"[1] | |
| Hrönn | "Fleed"[8] | Employed as a common noun[8] |
| Kólga | "Cold"[1] | |
| Uðr or Unnr | "Foaming"[9] | Employed as a common noun, also appears as aname for Odin and as the name of a river[9] |
References to the waves as "Ægir's daughters" appear in thePoetic Edda. The poemHelgakviða Hundingsbana I describes how the hero Helgi's boat crashes through intense seas, in doing so referencing Rán, Ægir, and their daughters as personifications of the sea. For example, two sequential stanzas reference the wave daughters:
- Once the longships regrouped, only
- Kólga's sisters could be heard crashing.
- a sound as if swells and bluffs were bursting.
- 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.[10]
The daughters are mentioned several times in theProse Edda. Section 25 ofSkáldskaparmál ("How shall sea be referred to?") collects manners in which poets may refer to the sea, including "husband of Ran" and "land of Ran and of Ægir's daughters", but also "father of Ægir's daughters". The section contains the first of two instances of a list of the wave daughters (for discussion regarding their names, seeName section above).[11]
In chapter 61 of theNafnaþulur subsection ofSkáldskaparmál, the author again recounts the names of the nine daughters with a slight variation (hereDröfn is replaced withBára).[12]
Some scholars have linked the Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán with theNine Mothers of Heimdallr, an identification that would mean that Heimdallr was thus born from the waves of the sea. However, this connection has been questioned on the grounds that the names presented for the Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán and the Nine Mothers of Heimdallr (as listed inVöluspá hin skamma) do not match.[13] Scholar John Lindow comments that the identification of Heimdallr's mothers as Ægir and Rán's daughters do, however, match on the grounds that Ægir and Rán's daughters, like Heimdallr's mothers, are sisters, and that two separate traditions about Heimdallr's mothers may explain the differences between the two.[14]