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Rán

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Rán uses her net to pull a seafarer into the depths.
—Illustration by Johannes Gehrts in Dahn (first pub. 1880) Walhall

In Norse mythology, Rán (in Old Norse: [ˈrɒːn]) is a goddess and personification of the sea.[1] Rán and her husband, Ægir, a jötunn and personification of the sea and together had nine daughters, goddesses and personifications of the sea waves.[2] This goddess is frequently associated with a net, which she uses to capture sea-goers. [4] According to the prose introduction to a poem in the Poetic Edda and in Völsunga saga, Rán once loaned her net to the god Loki.

Rán is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled during the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; the Prose Edda, written during the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson; in both Völsunga saga and Friðþjófs saga hins frœkna; and in the poetry of skalds, such as Sonatorrek, a 10th-century poem by Icelandic skald Egill Skallagrímsson.

Nomenclature

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Etymology

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The Old Norse common noun rán means 'plundering' or 'theft, robbery'.[5][7][8] In turn, scholars view the theonym Rán as meaning, for example, 'theft, robbery'.[1] On the etymology of the theonym, scholar Rudolf Simek says, "although the meaning of the name has not been fully clarified, Rán was probably understood as being 'robber' ... and has nothing to do with [Old Norse] ráða 'rule'.[1][a]

Because Rán is a personification of the sea, skalds employ her name in a variety of kennings to refer to the sea. Examples include Ránar-land ('Rán's land'), -salr ('Rán's hall'), and -vegr ('Rán's way'), and also rán-beðr ('the bed of Rán') meaning 'the bed of the sea'.[9]

Aliases

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Rán is called circumlocutorily in periphrase (kenning) as the "Gymir's völva (spae-woman)"[12] (cf. § Figurative usage) where Gymir is another name for Ægir.[14][16]

Mythology

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Net to trap Andvari

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Rán pulls her net beside her husband Ægir as depicted by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine (1845–1921) after an original by Friedrich Wilhelm Engelhard (1813–1902)

Rán receives three passing mentions in the Poetic Edda; once in the prose introduction to Reginsmál as the lender of the net in the capture of Andvari, as described in the subsection below. Ran is mentioned twice elsewhere in two heroic lays, as kenning for the sea or sea-related peril or death (Cf. § Figurative usage below)

In Poetic Edda, in the prose introduction to Reginsmál, Loki visits Rán (here rendered as Ron) to borrow her net:

[Odin and Hœnir] sent Loki to get the gold; he went to Ron and got her net, and went then to Andvari's fall and cast the net in front of the pike, and the pike leaped into the net.[17][b]

The Völsunga saga of course also has something to say about the history of Andvari's gold and his magic ring (the Ring of the Nibelungs), thus, just as the Reginsmál's prose introduction, the saga describes how the gods "sent Loki to obtain the gold. He went to Ran and got her net".[18]

Classification

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Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, Nafnaþulur section of Skáldskaparmál, Rán appears in a list of goddesses (Old Norse ásynjur).[19]

Ægir's banquet

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Skáldskaparmál 33 states that the various phrases such as "fire or light or brightness of Ægir, Rán, or Ægir's daughters" (eldr eðaeða ljós birty Ægis, Ránar eða Ægis dœtra) are synonymous with "Ægir's fire" (Ægis eldr) for "gold". This comment entails the explanation for this kenning, by relating the story of Ægir's banquet when he hosted the æsir gods. The jötunn employs "glowing gold" in the center of his hall to light it "like fire" (which the narrator compares to flaming swords in Valhalla).[20][21][22][c][23]

Swedish archaeologist Oskar Lundberg [sv] (1949) summarizes that "hall of the sea god Ægir and his wife Ran" where the drowned dead arrive, is beyond the reach of sunlight, and must illuminated with gold rather than the sun.[24]

Friðþjófs saga

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The mentions in the legendary saga Friðþjófs saga hins frœkna are figurative as well, but also sheds light on the beliefs of Norse seafarers.

Friðþjófr aboard ship threatened by violent storm says he faces "Rán's [dangerous] bed" ([raun]beðr Ránar),[27] which is double entendre for both drowning, and going to bed with the goddess,[29][30] which is made quite clear when he continues declaiming in verse that another man can now crawl into the bed of his surviving wife, Ingiborg.[31]

The doomed protagonist expresses the sentiment that each man better make sure he has enough gold when they drown and "go to Rán" (at til Ránar skal fara),[25] or as he puts it in verse, reach "Rán's hall" (Ránar salr):

Þann skal hring of höggva,
en Hálfdanar átti,
áðr oss tapi Ægir,
auðigr faðir, rauðan.
Sjá skal gull á gestum,
ef vér gistingar þurfum.
Þat dugir rausnar rekkum
í Ránar sal miðjum.[25][32]

Translation:

The red ring here I hew me
Once owned of Halfdan's father,
The wealthy lord of erewhile,
Or the sea waves undo us,
So on the guests shall gold be,
If we have need of guesting;
Meet so for mighty men-folk
Amid Ran's hall to hold them"

— Translated by Eiríkr Magnússon and Morris (1875)[33]

There is another verse like it occurring earlier in the (untranslated) shorter version of Friðþjófs saga that talks about Ran offering the brave warriors seats and benches (in her hall):

Nú hefir fjórum
of farit várum
lögr lagsmönnum,
þeim er lifa skyldu,
en Rán gætir
röskum drengjum,
siðlaus kona,
sess ok rekkju.[25][34]

Translation:

Now has the sea
destroyed the lives
of our comrades,
who should have lived;
but Rán,
that ill-bred woman,
offers brave warriors
seats and benches

— Translated in H.R.E. Davidson Road to Hell (1943)[35]

thus contributing a slight bit of additional information on the mythology.[35]

Figurative usage

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In figurative speech, "to give someone to the sea-goddess is to drown them".[36] An example of usage occurs in the Poetic Edda lay Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, where the hero Atli references Rán while flyting with Hrímgerðr, a "ogress"/giantess (female jötunn).[39][41] One commentator infers a possible mythical element in that the accusation may reflect the hero's belief that Rán is operating in concert with the giantess.[37]

Although "Rán's hand" (Rán or hendi[43]) is mentioned in the lay Helgakviða Hundingsbana I this is again just a literary personification of the perilous sea or waves.[44][42] The verse describes the valkyrie Sigrún saving the ship of the hero Helgi Hundingsbane from ferocious waters.[46][48] But the mention of Rán is cut out by the compiler of the Völusunga saga when requoting this poem.[42]

Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda (Skáldskaparmál and Háttatal) contain several references to Rán. Chapter 25 of Skáldskaparmál ("How shall sea be referred to?") lists periphrases (kennings) 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".[11][d] Skáldskaparmál 33 Quoted in Skáldskaparmál, the poem (entitled Ferðavísur[49][50] ("Wayfaring verses") by 11th century Icelandic skald Hofgarða-Refr Gestsson [sv] contains a stanza where Rán is referred to as "spray-cold völva (spae-woman) of Gymir"[54] which is just one of many sea kennings devised by skaldic poets[55] (here a frothing or foaming sea). Snorri appends his opinion that Ægir and Hler and Gymir are all one and the same.[56]

The subsequent stanza of the same Ferðavísur poem[49] quoted afterwards in Skáldskaparmál uses "white Rán's mouth" as another periphrase for the sea, from which a ship makes a narrow escape. "But sea-crest-Sleipnir [ship], spray-driven, tears his breast, covered with red paint, out of white Ran's mouth [the sea's grasp]".[57][58]

In the poem Sonatorrek ("Hard Loss of Sons"), Egill Skallagrímsson laments the drowning of his son Böðvar while invoking name of Rán (in stanza 7),[61] but here she is little more than an allegory for the destructive sea.[62] The subsequent stanza 8, mentions Ægis mani ("Ægir's bride/sweetheart") i.e., Rán, but again only in the sense of the sea in general.[63][66]

Scholarly reception and interpretation

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As earlier suggested by Jacob Grimm (1854),[5] Felix Dahn (1880) explained that Rán dwelling in water was "similar to Hel but limited to inflicting death by drowning".[6][67] Rudolf Simek's dictionary (Lexikon, 1983 in German) similarly states: "... Rán is the ruler of the realm of the dead at the bottom of the sea to which people who have drowned go." Simek says that "while Ægir personifies the sea as a friendly power, Rán embodies the sinister side of the sea, at least in the eyes of the late Viking Age Icelandic seafarers".[1] Hilda Ellis Davidson refers to three goddesses of the world of the dead, namely, Hel, Gefjon, and Rán.[68]

Modern iconography

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Faroese stamp of 2004
—Designed by Anker Eli Petersen

In Dahn Walhall (1880), Johannes Gehrts's illustration of Rán depicts her seated on a throne of skulls and coral, while tugging on a net ensnaring a castaway clinging to flotsam (cf. top image) [6][67] The net she holds is an insignia of her power and authority, able to reach above the waves while sitting in the ocean depths.[67]

In the Rán postage stamp for the Faroes designed by Anker Eli Petersen, the goddess is depicted erotically, practically in nude, except the net reconfigured as her garment (cf. image right).[67][f][g]

Joana Vasconcelos's Valkyrie Rán (2016) is a three dimensional installation of inflatables covered in colorful fabric,[70] which dispenses with using the net as an associated visual element.[71] The Portuguese artist has created a whole Valkyrie series, some reminiscent of marine organisms, including the Ran which resembles the Portuguese man o' war according to art historian Johannes von Müller.[72]

See also

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  • Sessrúmnir, the hall of the goddess Freyja, which may have been conceived of as a ship

Explanatory notes

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  1. ↑ Grimm attempted to reconstruct an Old High German name Rahana for the goddess, from words he deemed were cognate.[5]
  2. ↑ Translator Henry Adams Bellows notes how this version of the narrative differs from how it appears in other sources, where Loki catches the pike with his own hands.[17]
  3. ↑ Chapter 41 in the edition Kvilhaug quotes from.
  4. ↑ Anthony Faulkes renders her name Ran in his translation.
  5. ↑ = Finnur's Danish ed. (1900),Skáldsk. 23(25), #87[52] = Finnur's Icelandic ed. (1907), Skáldsk. 25, #126 [10]
  6. ↑ Cf. the fish-net Kraka wears when told to appear "neither naked nor clad"—Ragnars saga Loðbrókar: Margaraet Schlauch tr. (1930), pp. 200–201.
  7. ↑ The green serpent tail is not part of Rán, but that of the Midgard serpent, whose fight with Tór (Þórr) is also featured in the mini-sheet set of stamps.[69]

References

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Citations

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Simek, Rudolf (1993). "Rán". Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-85-991369-0. (Repr. 2007 ISBN 0-85991-513-1)
  2. ↑ Simek (1993), s.v. "Ægir's Daughters", p. 2.
  3. ↑ Larrington (1999), p. 279; Larrington (2014), p. 298.
  4. ↑ Larrington: Rán "seeks to catch and drown men in her net".[3]
  5. 1 2 3 Grimm, Jacob (1854). "XIII. Göttinen. Rahana Hellia". Deutsche Mythologie (in German). Vol. 1 (3 ed.). Göttingen: Dieterich. p. 288. Grimm, Jacob (1880). "XIII. Godesses". Teutonic Mythology. Vol. 1. Translated by James Steven Stallybrass. W. Swan Sonnenschein & Allen. pp. 311–312. and to pp. 311, 312.
  6. 1 2 3 Dahn, Felix; Dahn, Therese (von Droste-Hülshoff) [in German] (1884) [1880]. Walhall: Germanische Götter- und Heldensagen. Für Alt und Jung am deutschen Herd (in German) (4 ed.). Kreuznach: R. Voigtländer. p. 288. (Note: F. Dahn wrote the first part, Göttersagen, first published 1880).
  7. ↑ "ihr Name, der „Raub", rapina, bedeutet".[6]
  8. ↑ Faulkes (1998), p. 250 and discussion in Simek (1993), p. 260.[1]
  9. ↑ Gudbrandur Vigfusson. 1874. Trans. An Icelandic-English Dictionary: Based on the Ms. Collections of the Late Richard Cleasby. Clarendon Press, pp. 487–488
  10. 1 2 Finnur Jónsson (1907), p. 161.
  11. 1 2 Faulkes (1995), p. 91.
  12. ↑ Snorra Edda,Skaldkaparmál 25[10][11]
  13. ↑ Kvilhaug, Maria (2023). The Maiden With The Mead. Three Little Sisters. pp. 110–111. ISBN 9781959350064.
  14. ↑ Prose introduction to Lokasenna.[13]
  15. ↑ Faulkes (1995), p. 92.
  16. ↑ Snorri at Skaldkaparmál 25.[15]
  17. 1 2 Bellows (1923), pp. 358–359.
  18. ↑ Byock, Jesse. 1990. Trans. The Saga of the Volsungs. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-27299-6, p. 58
  19. ↑ Faulkes (1998), p. 157.
  20. ↑ Finnur Jónsson (1900), pp. 96–97.
  21. ↑ Finnur Jónsson (1907), pp. 166–167.
  22. ↑ Faulkes (1998), p. 95.
  23. ↑ Kvilhaug (2023), pp. 100–101.
  24. ↑ Lundberg, Oskar [in Swedish] (1949). "Chap. 4. The 'seið' in Valhall". Runristningen från Eggjum och forntro om havet [with a summary in English: The runic inscription of Eggjum and old traditions of the sea]. Arctos_Svecica 3. Stockholm: H. Geber. p. 44. <!==The words 'ni [i]s solu sot' express that there is no sunshine (there). I then presume that these words refer to a dark kingdom of death, viz. the dwelling of Hel, the goddess of death, or the abode or hall of the sea god Ægir and his wife Ran. The spirits of drowned men were believed to stay in the sea. Especially, I suppose that this latter hall is alluded to, as it is said to have been lighted not by the sun, but by gold.-->
  25. 1 2 3 4 Friðþjófs saga ins frækna at Norrøne Tekster og Kvad, Norway.
  26. ↑ Eiríkr Magnússon; Morris, William. trr. (1875). "The Story of Frithiof the Bold". Three Northern Love Stories and Other Tales. Kreuznach: R. Voigtländer. p. 84.
  27. ↑

    Sat ek á bólstri
    í Baldrshaga,
    kvað, hvat ek kunna,
    fyr konungs dóttur.
    Nú skal ek Ránar
    raunbeð troða,
    en annar mun
    Ingibjargar.[25]

    Translation:

    On bolster I sat
    In Baldur's Mead erst,
    And all songs that I could
    To the king's daughter sang;
    Now on Ran's bed belike
    Must I soon be a-lying,
    And another shall be
    By Ingibiorg's side".

    — Translated by Eiríkr Magnússon and Morris (1875)[26]
  28. ↑ Sveinbjörn Egilsson; Finnur Jónsson edd. (1916) Ordbog over norsk-islandske skjaldesprog, s.v. "raunbeðr"
  29. ↑ raunbeðr glossed as 'bed of (hard) trials', dangerous bed, but in this instance of "raunbeðr Ránar" is an "allusion to the marriage bed" with the raun asserted to be an emendation.[28]
  30. ↑ Kvilhaug (2023), p. 211.
  31. ↑ "And another shall be / By Ingibiorg's side", translated above.
  32. ↑ Friðþjófssaga, verse #14 in: Finnur Jónsson (1912), p. 295
  33. ↑ Eiríkr Magnússon & Morris tr. (1875), p. 86.
  34. ↑ Friðþjófssaga, verse #13b in: Finnur Jónsson (1912), pp. 294–295
  35. 1 2 Davidson (1943), p. 76.
  36. ↑ Larrington (1999), p. 280; Larrington (2014), p. 300.
  37. 1 2 Quinn (2014), p. 88.
  38. ↑ Larrington (1999), p. 127.
  39. ↑

    Þú vart, hála, fyr hildings skipum
    ok látt í fjarðar mynni fyrir;
    ræsis rekka er þú vildir Rán gefa,
    ef þér kœmið í þverst þvari.[37]

    Translation:

    Ogress, you stood before the prince's ships
    and blocked the fjord mouth;
    the king's men you were going to give to Ran,
    if a spear hadn't lodged in your flesh.

    — Translated by Carolyne Larrington[38]
  40. ↑ Bellows (1923), p. 280.
  41. ↑ Translation by Henry Adams Bellows: "Witch, in front of the ship thou wast, / And lay before the fjord; / To Ron wouldst have given the ruler's men,/ If a spear had not stuck in thy flesh".[40]
  42. 1 2 3 4 Finch, R. G. (1962–1965). "Treatment of Poetic Sources by the Compiler of Vǫlsunga Saga". Saga-Book [of the Viking Club]. 16. Viking Society for Northern Research: 315–316. doi:10.2307/48612288. JSTOR 10.2307/48612288.
  43. ↑ G. Neckel ed. (1927) apud Finch,[42] quoted in footnote below.
  44. ↑ Bugge, Sophus (1899). The home of the Eddic poems. Translated by William Henry Schofield. London: David Nutt. pp. 33–34.
  45. ↑ Larrington (1999), p. 118.
  46. ↑
    Old Norse

    En þeim siálfom
    Sigrun ofan,
    fólkdiǫrf, um barg
    ok fari þeira:
    snøriz ramliga
    Rán ór hendi
    giálfrdýr konungs
    at Gnipalundi.

    — Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, str. 30, Neckel ed. (1927) apud Finch (1962–1965)[42]
    Translation:
    English

    And Sigrun above, brave in battle,
    protected them and their vessel;
    the king's sea-beasts twisted powerfully,
    out of Ran's hand toward Gnipalund.

    — Translated by Carolyne Larrington[45]
  47. ↑ Bellows (1923), pp. 299–300.
  48. ↑ Translation by Henry Adams Bellows (1923): "But from above did Sigrun brave Aid the men and all their faring; Mightily came from the claws of Ron The leader's sea-beast off Gnipalund" (Bellows renders Old Norse Rán as Ron throughout his translation.[47]
  49. 1 2 Hofgarða-Refr Gestsson. 4. rejsedigt (Ferðavísur). Str. 2 and 3 in: Finnur Jónsson (1912), pp. 296–297
  50. ↑ Quinn (2014), pp. 79–80.
  51. ↑ Faulkes (1998), p. 37.
  52. ↑ Finnur Jónsson (1900), p. 93.
  53. ↑ Faulkes (1995), Skáldskaparmál 25, p. 91. This stanza appears quoted a second time later in Skáldskaparmál, for which see Faulkes (1995), p. 140.
  54. ↑
    Old Norse

    Ok sem kvað Refr:
    Fœrir bjǫrn, þar er bára
    brestr, undinna festa
    opt í Ægis kjǫpta
    *ursǫl Gymis vǫlva.

    — Faulkes ed., Skáldskaparmál [25][51][e]
    Translation:
    English

    And as Ref said:
    Gymir's spray-cold spæ-wife often brings
    the twisted-rope-bear [ship] into Ægir's jaws
    [under the waves]
    where the wave breaks.

    — Translated by Anthony Faulkes[53]
  55. ↑ Quinn (2014), pp. 78–79.
  56. ↑ Faulkes (1998), p. 92.
  57. ↑ Faulkes (1998), Skáldskaparmál 25, p. 92 = Finnur Jónsson (1900), p. 93, Kap. 23(25)
  58. ↑ Quinn (2014), p. 80.
  59. ↑ Kershaw, Nora ed. tr. (1922). "Sonatorrek, str. 7". Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse Poems (in Old Norse and English). Cambridge at the University Press. p. 134.
  60. 1 2 North, Richard; Allard, Joe; Gillies, Patricia, eds. (2014). "Egill's Hard Loss of Sons Sonatorrek". Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic, and Anglo-Norman Literatures. Copenhagen: Taylor & Francis. p. 179, text; p. 184, notes to str. 6 (to 8). ISBN 9781317861621.
  61. ↑
    Normalized Old Norse

    Mjök hefr Rán ryskt um mik;
    emk ofsnauðr at ástvinum.
    Sleit marr bönd mínnar áttar,
    snaran þátt af sjalfum mér.[59]

    Translation:
    English

    Goddess Robbery [Ran] has shaken me hugely,
    I am too much deprived of loving friends;
    Ocean cut the bonds of my family,
    The strong strand of me myself

    — Longman's Anthology translation.[60]
  62. ↑ Davidson (1943), p. 76: "personification of the destroying sea".
  63. ↑ Kershaw (1922) Norse text, p. 136 and notes, p. 197. Kershaw omits translating the half-stanza containing the phrase (marked by ellipses).
  64. 1 2 Einarsson, Bjarni, ed. (2003). Egils saga (PDF). London: Viking Society for Northern Research. p. 149. ISBN 9780903521543.
  65. ↑ Bjarni Einarsson's translation silently replaces kenning for a simpler result:"You know, /if I took revenge with the sword /for that offence, /Ægir would be dead;/if I could kill them, /I would fight Ægir and Rán"[64]
  66. ↑
    Old Norse

    Veiztu um ϸá sǫk sverði of rækak,
    var ǫlsmið[r] allra tíma;
    hroða vágs brœðr ef vega mættak;
    fœra ek andvígr Ægis mani.[64]

    Translation:
    English

    You know that if I might avenge this crime with a sword,
    Ale-brewer[*Ægir]'s time would be over;
    If I could fight Wave-Pusher's[*Ægir's] brothers[*waves],
    I would go against them and Ægir's mistress[*Rán] too

    — Longman Anthology translation[60]
    [65]
  67. 1 2 3 4 Müller, Johannes von (2024). "2. Disaster of the Sea: The Dual Motif of Drowning and Fishing". In Wolf, Burkhardt [in German]; Trüper, Henning; Stafford, Jonathan (eds.). Moral Seascapes: On the Ethics and Aesthetics of Maritime Emergency. Leuven University Press. pp. 34–35. ISBN 9789462704404.
  68. ↑ Davidson, Hilda Ellis Davidson (1943). The Road to Hell. Cambridge at the University Press. pp. 75–77. (Repr. First Paperback edition 2013 ISBN 978-1-107-63234-9)
  69. ↑ anker eli (2003-03-26). "Tór and Rán - Minisheet mint". Posta Faroe Islands. Retrieved 2026-10-11. (issue date given)
  70. ↑ Müller (2024), p. 33.
  71. ↑ Müller (2024), p. 36.
  72. ↑ Müller (2024), p. 37.

Bibliography

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(Primary sources)
(Secondary sources)

Quinn, Judy (2014). "Mythologizing the Sea: The Nordic Sea-Deity Rán". In Tangherlini, Timothy R. (ed.). Nordic Mythologies: Interpretations, Intersections, and Institutions. Berkeley: North Pinehurst Press. pp. 71–97. ISBN 9780692328866.

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