Editing Rán

{{short description|Norse deity}}
[[Image:Ran by Johannes Gehrts.jpg|thumb|right|Rán uses her net to pull a seafarer into the depths in an illustration by [[Johannes Gehrts]], 1901]]
In [[Norse mythology]], '''Rán''' ([[Old Norse]]: {{IPA|non|ˈrɒːn|}}) is a goddess and a personification of the [[sea]]. Rán and her husband [[Ægir]], a [[jötunn]] who also personifies the sea, have [[Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán|nine daughters, who personify waves]]. The goddess is frequently associated with a net, which she uses to capture sea-goers. 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 [[skald]]s, such as ''[[Sonatorrek]]'', a 10th-century poem by Icelandic skald [[Egill Skallagrímsson]].

==Etymology==
The [[Old Norse]] [[common noun]] ''rán'' means 'plundering' or 'theft, robbery'.<ref name="FAULKES-1998-250-SIMEK-2007">Faulkes (1998: 250) and discussion in Simek (2007 [1993]: 260).</ref> In turn, scholars view the [[theonym]] ''Rán'' as meaning, for example, 'theft, robbery'.<ref name="SIMEK-2007-260">Simek (2007 [1993]: 260).</ref> 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'.<ref name="SIMEK-2007-260"/>

Because Rán is a personification of the sea, skalds employ her name in a variety of [[kenning]]s to refer to the sea. Examples include ''Ránar-land'' ('Ran's land'), ''-salr'' ('Rán's hall'), and ''-vegr'' ('Rán's way'), and ''rán-beðr'' ('the bed of Rán') and meaning 'the bed of the sea'.<ref name="GUDBRUND-1874-487-488">Gudbrund Vigfusson (1874: 487–488).</ref>

==Attestations==
===''Sonatorrek''===
Rán and Ægir receive mention in the poem ''[[Sonatorrek]]'' attributed to 10th century Icelandic [[skald]] [[Egill Skallagrímsson]]. In the poem, Egill laments the death of his son Böðvar, who drowned at sea during a storm:

<blockquote>
{|
|
:<small>Old Norse:</small>
:Mjök hefr Rán rykst um mik;
:emk ofsnauðr at ástvinum.
:Sleit marr bönd mínnar áttar,
:snaran þátt af sjalfum mér.<ref name="KERSHAW-134">Kershaw (1922:134).</ref>
|
:<small>[[Nora K. Chadwick]] translation:</small>
:Greatly has Rán afflicted me.
:I have been despoiled of a great friend.
:Empty and unoccupied, I see the place
:which the sea has torn my son.<ref name="KERSHAW-135">Kershaw (1922:135). Formatted for display.</ref>
|
|}
</blockquote>

In one difficult stanza later in the poem, the skald expresses the pain of losing his son by invoking the image of slaying the personified sea, personified as Ægir (Old Norse ''ǫlsmið[r]'' 'ale-smith') and Rán (''Ægis man'' 'Ægir's wife'):
{|
|
:<small>Old Norse:</small>
:Veiztu um ϸá sǫk
:sverði of rækak,
:var ǫlsmið[r]
:allra tíma;
:hroða vágs brœðr
:ef vega mættak;
:fœra ek andvígr
:Ægis mani.{{Sfn|Einarsson|2003|p=149}}
|
:<small>Bjarni Einarsson translation:</small>
: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.<ref name="EINARSSON-2003">Einarsson (2003:149). Formatted for display.</ref>
|
|}

===''Poetic Edda''===
[[File:Ögir und Ran by F. W. Heine.jpg|thumb|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 mentions in the ''Poetic Edda''; twice in poetry and once in prose. The first mention occurs in a stanza in ''[[Helgakviða Hundingsbana I]]'', when the [[valkyrie]] [[Sigrún]] assists the ship of the hero [[Helgi Hundingsbane]] as it encounters ferocious waters:
<blockquote>
{|
|
<small>[[Henry Adams Bellows (businessman)|Henry Adams Bellows]] translation</small>
: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.<ref name="BELLOWS-1936-299-300">Bellows (1936: 299–300). Bellows renders Old Norse ''Rán'' as ''Ron'' throughout his translation.</ref>
|
<small>Carolyne Larrington translation</small>
: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.<ref name="LARRINGTON-1999-118">Larrington (1999 [1996]: 118).</ref>
|
|}
</blockquote>
In the notes for her translation, Larrington says that Rán "seeks to catch and drown men in her net" and that "to give someone to the sea-goddess is to drown them."<ref name="LARRINGTON-1999-280">Davidson (1999 [1996]: 279, 280).</ref>

The second instance occurs in a stanza found in ''[[Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar]]''. In this stanza, the hero Atli references Rán while [[flyting]] with [[Hrímgerðr]], a female [[jötunn]]:
<blockquote>
{|
|
<small>[[Henry Adams Bellows (businessman)|Henry Adams Bellows]] translation:</small>
:"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."<ref name-"BELLOWS-1936-281">Bellows (1936: 281).</ref>
|
<small>Carolyne Larrington translation:</small>
:'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.'<ref name="DAVIDSON-1999-127">Davidson (1999 [1996]: 127).</ref>
|
|}
</blockquote>
Finally, 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.<ref name="BELLOWS-1936-358-359">Bellows (1936: 358–359).</ref>

Translator [[Henry Adams Bellows (businessman)|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.<ref name="BELLOWS-1936-358-359"/>

===''Prose Edda''===

The ''Prose Edda'' sections ''[[Skáldskaparmál]]'' and ''[[Háttatal]]'' contain several references to Rán. Section 25 of ''Skáldskaparmál'' ("How shall sea be referred to?") 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".<ref name="FAULKES-1995-91">Faulkes (1995 [1989]: 91).</ref>

In the same section, the author cites a fragment of a work by the 11th century Icelandic skald [[Hofgarða-Refr Gestsson]], where Rán is referred to as '[[Gymir (father of Gerðr)|Gymir]]'s ... [[völva]]':
{|
|
<small>Standardized [[Old Norse]]</small>
:''Ok sem kvað Refr'':
::''Fœrir bjǫrn, þar er bára''
::''brestr, undinna festa''
::''opt í Ægis kjǫpta''
::<nowiki>*</nowiki>''ursǫl Gymis vǫlva''.<ref name="FAULKES-1998-37">Faulkes (1998: 37).</ref> 
|
<small>Anthony Faulkes translation</small>
: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.<ref name="FAULKES-1995-91-140">Faulkes (1995 [1989]: 91). Formatted for display. This stanza appears quoted a second time later in ''Skáldskaparmál'', for which see Faulkes (1995 [1989]: 140).</ref>
|
|}

The section's author comments that the stanza "[implies] that they are all the same, Ægir and Hler and Gymir.<ref name="FAULKES-1998-92">Faulkes (1998: 92).</ref> The author follows with a quote from another stanza by the skald that references Rán:
<blockquote>
:But sea-crest-[[Sleipnir]] [ship], spray-driven, tears his breast, covered with red paint, out of white Ran's mouth [the sea's grasp].<ref name="FAULKES-1998-92"/>
</blockquote>

Chapter 33 of ''Skáldskaparmál'' discusses why skalds may refer to gold as "Ægir's fire". The section traces the kenning to a narrative surrounding Ægir, in which 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]]). The section explains that "Ran is the name of Ægir's wife, and the names of their nine daughters are as was written above ... Then the Æsir discovered that Ran had a net in which she caught everyone that went to sea ... so this is the story of the origin of gold being called fire or light or brightness of Ægir, Ran or Ægir's daughters, and from such kennings the practice has now developed of calling gold fire of the sea and of all terms for it, since Ægir and Ran's names are also terms for the sea, and hence gold is now called fire of lakes or rivers and of all river-names."<ref name="FAULKES-1998-95">Faulkes (1998:95). The chapter continues with discussion regarding the development of these kennings and the concept of allegory.</ref>

In the ''[[Nafnaþulur]]'' section of ''Skáldskaparmál'', Rán appears in a list of goddesses (Old Norse ''ásynjur'').<ref name="FAULKES-1998-157">Faulkes (1998: 157).</ref>

===''Völsunga saga'' and ''Friðþjófs saga hins frœkna''===
Rán receives a single mention in ''[[Völsunga saga]]''. Like in the prose introduction to the eddic poem ''Reginsmál'' (discussed above), "they sent Loki to obtain the gold. He went to Ran and got her net."<ref name="BYOCK-1990-58">Byock (1990: 58).</ref>

In the [[legendary saga]] ''[[Friðþjófs saga hins frœkna]]'', Friðþjófr and his men find themselves in a violent storm, and the protagonist mourns that he will soon rest in Rán's bed:

{|
|
<small>Old Norse</small>
:''Sat ek á bólstri''
:''í Baldrshaga,''
:''kvað, hvat ek kunna,''
:''fyr konungs dóttur.''
:''Nú skal ek Ránar''
:''raunbeð troða,''
:''en annar mun''
:''Ingibjargar''."<ref name="norr">[http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Fri%C3%B0%C3%BEj%C3%B3fs_saga_ins_fr%C3%A6kna ''Friðþjófs saga ins frækna''] at Norrøne Tekster og Kvad, Norway.</ref>
|
<small>[[Eiríkr Magnússon]] and [[William Morris]] translation (1875):</small>
:"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."<ref name="EM-M-1875-84">Eiríkr Magnússon and Morris (1875: 84).</ref>
|
|}

The protagonist then decides that as they are to "go to Rán" (''at til Ránar skal fara'') they would better do so in style with gold on each man. He divides the gold and talks of her again:
{|
|
:''Nú hefir fjórum''
:''of farit várum''
:''lögr lagsmönnum'',
:''þeim er lifa skyldu'',
:''en Rán gætir''
:''röskum drengjum'',
:''siðlaus kona'',
:''sess ok rekkju''.<ref name="norr"/>
|
:"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."<ref name="EM-M-1875-86">Eiríkr Magnússon and Morris (1875: 86).</ref>
|
|}

==Scholarly reception and interpretation==
According to Rudolf Simek, "... Rán is the ruler of the [[Death in Norse paganism#Afterlives and rebirth|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."<ref name="SIMEK-2007-260">Simek (2007 [1993]: 260).</ref>

==See also==
*[[Sessrúmnir]], the hall of the goddess Freyja, which may have been conceived of as a ship

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
* [[Jesse Byock|Byock, Jesse]]. 1990. Trans. ''The Saga of the Volsungs''. [[University of California Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-520-27299-6}}
* {{cite book |editor-first=Bjarni |editor-last=Einarsson |url=https://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Egla/Egils_saga.pdf |title=Egils saga |location=London |publisher=Viking Society for Northern Research |date=2003 |isbn=9780903521543}}
* [[Nora K. Chadwick|Kershaw, Nora]]. 1922. Trans. ''Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse Poems''. [[Cambridge University Press|Cambridge at the University Press]].
* [[Eiríkr Magnússon]] and [[William Morris|Morris, William]]. Trans. 1875. ''Three Northern Love Stories and Other Tales''. Ellis & White.
* Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.). 1995 [1989]. Trans. ''Edda''. [[Everyman's Library|Everyman]]. {{ISBN|0-460-87616-3}}
* Faulkes, Anthony. (Editor). 1998. Trans. ''Edda: Skáldskaparmál''. I. [[Viking Society for Northern Research]].
* [[Guðbrandur Vigfússon|Gudbrandur Vigfusson]]. 1874. Trans. ''An Icelandic-English Dictionary: Based on the Ms. Collections of the Late Richard Cleasby''. [[Oxford University Press|Clarendon Press]].
* [[Henry Adams Bellows (businessman)|Bellows, Henry Adams]]. 1936. Trans. ''The Poetic Edda''. [[Princeton University Press]]. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
* Larrington, Carolyne (Trans.). 1999 [1996]. Trans. ''The Poetic Edda''. [[Oxford World's Classics]]. {{ISBN|0-19-283946-2}}
* [[Rudolf Simek|Simek, Rudolf]]. 2007 [1993]. Translated by Angela Hall. ''Dictionary of Northern Mythology''. [[Boydell & Brewer|D.S. Brewer]]. {{ISBN|0-85991-513-1}}
{{refend}}

{{commons category}}
{{Norse cosmology}}
{{Death in Germanic mythology}}
{{Norse mythology}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ran}}
[[Category:Norse underworld]]
[[Category:Ásynjur]]
[[Category:Sea and river goddesses]]
[[Category:Personifications in Norse mythology]]
[[el:Ραν]]