Rán
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The Rán is in Norse mythology , from the written sources of the Edda , the wife of the sea god or giant Aegir . She is the mother of the Aegir daughters , the waves.
Rán hardly appears in mythological poetry. In the skaldic poems and in the sagas drowning is more or less paraphrased as Der Rán falling into one's hands .
The meaning of the goddess Rán
The mighty Rán, half man, half fish, commands the sea, which is also known as the "Strait of the Rán". It rules over all life in the sea and especially over the realm of the dead at the bottom of the sea, where the drowned get. She has a magical web that pulls her through the waters. This is so tightly woven that nobody can escape it. In this way, all drowned people can safely enter their realm of the dead. Rán once lent Loki her net so that he could catch the dwarf Andvare. In the Fritiofs saga, it is also referred to as Rana . She embodies the dark side, while her husband Aegir represents more of the friendly aspects of the sea.
etymology
The etymology of Rán probably goes back to the Icelandic word for robbery , which means that Rán means the robber .
The nine daughters of Rán
Rán and her husband, the giant Aegir, have nine daughters who represent different types of waves. They are listed in two places in Snorri's Prose Edda in the book Skáldskaparmál. They are all Heimdall's mothers :
- Himinglæva (Himinglæva), which means "the sky clear" (the one through which one can see the sky clearly - reference to the transparency of the water).
- Dufa (Dúfa), which means "dove" and expresses "the high" (reference is the high flight of the dove).
- Blodughadda (Blóðughadda), which means "those with the bloody hair" (reference to the red-colored foam of the waves).
- Hefring, what the rising means.
- Unn (Uðr or Unnr), which means the foaming.
- Kólga, which means the cooling one.
- Hrönn, what the flowing means (reference to flowing lava).
- Bylgja, which means “wave” in Icelandic.
- Båra (Bára), can mean “tsunami” or “wave peak”.
Individual evidence
- ^ Tegnér, E. (1847). Esaias Tegnérs Samlade skrifter. Vol. 1. Fritiof's saga. Stockholm: Norstedt.
- ↑ Britt-Mari Näsström, Fornskandinavisk religion - en grundbok ISBN 91-44-02223-9
- ↑ Skáldskaparmál, pages 33 and 76.
literature
- Rudolf Simek : Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , p. 333.
