Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

, the goddess

Rán In Norse mythology, Rán (Old Norse: ) is a goddess and a personification of the sea. Rán and her husband Ægir, a jötunn who also personifies the sea, have nine daughters, who personify waves. The goddess is frequently associated with a net, ...

and the

jötunn A (also jotun; plural ; in the normalised scholarly spelling of Old Norse, ; or, in Old English, , plural ) is a type of being in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, are often contrasted with gods (the Æsir and Vanir) and with other no ...

Ægir Ægir (anglicised as Aegir; Old Norse 'sea'), Hlér (Old Norse 'sea'), or Gymir (Old Norse less clearly 'sea, engulfer'), is a jötunn and a anthropomorphism, personification of the sea in Norse mythology. In the Old Norse record, Ægir hosts the ...

both personify the sea, and together they have nine daughters who personify

wave In physics, mathematics, engineering, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from List of types of equilibrium, equilibrium) of one or more quantities. ''Periodic waves'' oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium ...

s. Each daughter's name reflects poetic terms for waves. The sisters are attested in the ''

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related ''Prose Edda'', although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse ...

'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; the ''

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some exten ...

'', composed in the 13th century; and in the poetry of

skald A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

s. Scholars have theorized that these daughters may be the same figures as the nine mothers of the god Heimdallr.

Names

The names of Ægir and Rán's daughters occur commonly in Old Norse sources. Lists of their names appear twice in ''Skáldskaparmál'', a section of the ''Prose Edda'' (for detail, see ''Prose Edda'' section below).

Attestations

''Poetic Edda''

References to the waves as 'Ægir's daughters' appear in the ''Poetic Edda''. The poem ''

Helgakviða Hundingsbana I "Völsungakviða" or "Helgakviða Hundingsbana I" ("The First Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane") is an Old Norse poem found in the ''Poetic Edda''. It is only preserved in the Icelandic manuscript Codex Regius (ca. 1270). It constitutes one of the Helgi ...

'' 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 :Kolga's sisters could be heard crashing. :a sound as if swells and bluffs were bursting.Dodds (2014:129).
: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.

''Prose Edda''

The daughters are mentioned several times in the ''Prose Edda''. Section 25 of ''Skáldskaparmál'' ("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, see ''Name'' section above).Faulkes (1995

989 Year 989 ( CMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Emperor Basil II uses his contingent of 6,000 Varangians to help him defeat Bardas Phokas (the Younger), who suffe ...

91). In chapter 61 of the ''

Nafnaþulur ''Nafnaþulur'' (Old Norse: ) is a subsection of the ''Prose Edda'', the last part of the ''Skáldskaparmál''. It is a listing in verse of names that may be used in poetry for various items, such as gods A deity or god is a supernatural bei ...

'' subsection of ''Skáldskaparmál'', the author again recounts the names of the nine daughters with a slight variation (here ''Dröfn'' is replaced with ''Bára'').Faulkes (1995

141).

Scholarly reception and interpretation

Some scholars have linked the Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán with the

Nine Mothers of Heimdallr In Norse mythology, the Nine Mothers of Heimdallr are nine sisters who gave birth to the god Heimdallr. The Nine Mothers of Heimdallr are attested in the ''Prose Edda'', written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson; in the poetry of skalds; and ...

, 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 in ''

Völuspá hin skamma ''Völuspá hin skamma'' (Old Norse: 'The Short Völuspá) is an Old Norse poem which survives as a handful of stanzas in ''Hyndluljóð'', in the ''Poetic Edda'', and as one stanza in the ''Gylfaginning'' section of Snorri Sturluson's ''Prose Edda' ...

'') do not match.Simek (2007:136). 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.Lindow (2002:169).

Notes

References

* Dodds, Jeramy. Trans. 2014. ''The Poetic Edda''.

Coach House Books Coach House Books is an independent book publishing company located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Coach House publishes experimental poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction. The press is particularly interested in writing that pushes at the boundar ...

. * Faulkes, Anthony. Trans. 1995

''Edda''.

Everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin and history The term ''everyman'' was used ...

. * Lindow, John. 2002. ''Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. * Orchard, Andy. 1997. ''Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend''. Cassell. * Simek, Rudolf. 2007

993 Year 993 ( CMXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – The 12-year-old King Otto III gives the Sword of Saints Cosmas and Damian (also known as the Sword of Essen) as ...

Translated by Angela Hall. ''Dictionary of Northern Mythology''. D.S. Brewer. {{DEFAULTSORT:Daughters Of Aegir Female supernatural figures in Norse mythology Fictional nonets Personifications in Norse mythology Water waves in culture