Norse mythology; or, The religion of our forefathers, containing all the myths of the Eddas, systematized and interpretedAnderson, Rasmus Björn
Religion
Norse mythology; or, The religion of our forefathers, containing all the myths of the Eddas, systematized and interpreted
Anderson, Rasmus Björn
Mythology, Norse; Northmen -- Religion; Old Norse literature; Tales, Medieval
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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