Chapter LII: Section II: æger and Ran

These do not belong to the vana-divinities, but are given here in order to have the divinities of the sea in one place. As Njord is the mild, beneficent sea near the shore, so Æger is the wild, turbulent, raging sea far from the land, where fishing and navigation cannot well be carried on; the great ocean, and yet bordering on the confines of then asas. Hence Æger’s twofold nature; he is a giant, but still has intercourse with the gods. Thus in Mimer, Æger and Njord, we have the whole ocean represented, from its origin, Mimer, to its last stage of development, to Njord, in whom, as a beneficent divinity, it unites itself with the gods; that is to say, blesses and serves the enterprises of men.

Æger visits the gods, and the latter visit him in return; and it was once when the gods visited him that his brewing-kettle was found too small, so that Thor had to go to the giant Hymer and borrow a larger one. In Æger’s hall the bright gold was used instead of fire, and there the ale passed around spontaneously. Ran is his wife. She has a net, in which she catches those who venture out upon the sea. Æger and Ran have nine daughters, the waves. Loke once borrowed Ran’s net, to catch the dwarf Andvare, who in the guise of a fish dwelt in a waterfall. With her hand she is able to hold the ships fast. It was a prevailing opinion among the ancient Norsemen that they who perished at sea came to Ran; for Fridthjof, who with his companions was in danger of being wrecked, talks about his having to rest on Ran’s couch instead of Ingeborg’s, and as it was not good to come empty-handed to the halls of Ran and Æger, he divided a ring of gold between himself and his men.

Thus Tegner has it in _Fridthjof_ at Sea:

Whirling cold and fast
Snow-wreaths fill the sail;
Over dock and mast
Patters heavy hail.

The very stem they see so more,
So thick is darkness spread,
As gloom and horror hover o’er
The chamber of the dead.

Still to sink the sailor dashes
Implacable each angry wave;
Gray, as if bestrewn with ashes,
Yawns the endless, awful grave.

Then says Fridthjof:

For us in bed of ocean
Azure pillows _Ran_ prepares,
On thy pillow, Ingeborg,
Thou thinkest upon me.
Higher ply, my comrades,
Ellida’s sturdy oars;
Good ship, heaven-fashioned,
Bear us on an hour.

The storm continues:

O’er the side apace
Now a sea hath leapt;
In an instant’s space
Clear the deck is swept.

From his arm now Fridthjof hastens
To draw his ring, three marks in weight;
Like the morning sun it glistens,
The golden gift of Bele great.
With his sword in pieces cutting
The famous work of pigmied art,
Shares he quickly, none forgetting,
Unto every man a part.

Then says Fridthjof again:

Gold is good possession
When one goes a-wooing;
Let none go empty-handed
Down to azure _Ran_.
Icy are her kisses,
Fickle her embraces;
But we’ll charm the sea-bride
With our ruddy gold.

How eager Ran is to capture those who venture out upon her domain is also illustrated in another part of Fridthjof’s Saga, where King Ring and his queen Ingeborg ride over the ice on the lake to a banquet. Fridthjof went along on skates. Thus Tegner again:

They speed as storms over ocean speed;
The queen’s prayers little King Ring doth heed.

Their steel-shod comrade standeth not still,
He flieth past them as swift as he will.

Many a rune on the ice cutteth he;
Fair Ingeborg’s name discovereth she.

So on their glittering course they go,
But _Ran_, the traitress, lurketh below.

A hole in her silver roof she hath reft,
Down sinketh the sleigh in the yawning cleft.

But, fortunately, Fridthjof was not far away. He came to their rescue, and

With a single tug he setteth amain
Both steed and sleigh on the ice again.

Of Æger’s and Ran’s daughters, the waves, it is said that they congregate in large numbers according to the will of their father. They have pale locks and white veils; they are seldom mild in their disposition toward men; they are called billows or surges, and are always awake when the wind blows. They lash the sounding shores, and angrily rage and break around the holms;[74] they have a hard bed (stones and rocks), and seldom play in calm weather. The names of the daughters of Æger and Ran represent the waves in their various magnitudes and appearances. Thus Himinglœfa, the sky-clear; Duva, the diver; Blodughadda, the bloody- or purple-haired; Hefring, the swelling; Bylgja, billow; Kolga, raging sea, etc.

These myths are very simple and need no extended explanations. Æger is the Anglo-Saxon _eagor_, the sea. He is also called Hler, the shelterer (_hlé_, Anglo-Saxon _hleo_, Danish _Læ_, English _lee_), and Gymer, the concealing (_geyma_, Anglo-Saxon _gyman_, Norse _gjemme_, to conceal, to keep). These names express the sea in its uproar, in its calmness, and as the covering of the deep. The name of his wife, Ran (robbery or the robbing; _rœna_, to plunder), denotes the sea as craving its sacrifice of human life and of treasures. It is a common expression in Norseland that the sea brews and seethes, and this at once suggests Æger’s kettles. The foaming ale needs no butler but passes itself around, and there is plenty of it. That Æger, when visited by the gods, illuminated his hall with shining gold, refers of course to the phosphorescent light of the sea (Icelandic _marelldr_, Norse _morild_). Those who are familiar with the sea cannot fail to have seen the sparks of fire that apparently fly from it when its surface is disturbed in the dark. Thus the servants of Æger, Elde and Funfeng (both words meaning fire), are properly called excellent firemen. The relation between Njord and Æger seems to be the same as between Okeanos, the great water encircling the earth, and Pontus, the Mediterranean, within the confines of the earth.

Some of the old Norse heroes are represented as possessing a terrifying helmet, Æger’s helmet (_gishjálmr_); and thus, as Odin’s golden helmet is the beaming sky, and as the dwarfs cover themselves with a helmet of fog, so Æger wears on his brow a helmet made of dense darkness and heaven-reaching, terrifying breakers.

Æger and his family, it is certain, did not belong among the asas, yet they were regarded, like them, as mighty beings, whose friendship was sought by the gods themselves; and England, that proud mistress of the sea, is the reflection of the myth of Æger, showing what grand results are achieved historically, when human enterprise and heroism enter into friendly relations with the sea, making it serve the advancement of civilization,—when the gods go to Æger’s hall to banquet.