Ægir

Summary

Ægir is the sea-giant of the Scandinavian myths, and in the poets' language his name is the sea itself. Snorri also calls him Hlér, says he lived on an island named after him and was deeply skilled in magic. His wife is Rán, and they have nine daughters, most of whose names are words for waves: among them Bylgja, "billow", and Hrönn, Bára and Kólga, all words for a wave.

His is the story of two feasts. Ægir visited the gods in Asgard; Odin had swords carried into the hall, so bright that no other light was needed, and Bragi sat beside him at the drinking and told him the gods' stories, among them the abduction of Iðunn and the mead of poetry made from the blood of Kvasir. When Ægir made ready to go home, he invited the gods to his own hall in three months. Skáldskaparmál 1 and 41. Hymiskviða tells how the invitation came about. The gods came back from hunting eager to drink; they shook the divining twigs and looked at the sacrificial blood, and found that Ægir had many cauldrons. The giant sat as cheerful as a child, and Odin's son Thor looked him in the eyes and said: you shall often make feasts for the Æsir. The giant, troubled by the sharp-tongued man, thought of vengeance, and told Thor to bring him a cauldron in which to brew ale for them all. The gods could find none, until Týr said that his father Hymir, who lives east of the rivers Élivágar at the edge of heaven, owns a kettle a league deep. Thor and Týr went to him; on that journey Thor fished for the world serpent, then carried the cauldron off on his head with its rings clanging at his heels, and the gods drink ale at Ægir's every flax-harvest.

Then came the feast. The prose introduction to Lokasenna says that Ægir, who was also called Gymir, brewed ale for the Æsir once he had the great kettle, and that Odin came with his wife Frigg, with Sif, Bragi and Iðunn, Týr, Njörðr and his wife Skaði, Freyr and Freyja, Víðarr and Loki. Ægir had two servants, Fimafengr and Eldir; shining gold served as firelight in his hall, the ale carried itself to the drinkers, and the house was a great place of peace. When the guests praised his servants, Loki could not bear it and killed Fimafengr; then he came back and railed at the gods one by one until Thor arrived. Loki's last words as he left were for the host: "Ale you brewed, Ægir, but never again shall you make a feast; may flame play over all you own in here and burn your back." Lokasenna, prose introduction; Lokasenna 65. Snorri adds that at that feast the gods learned that Rán had a net in which she caught everyone who went out on the sea.

The idea the story turns on is that the sea is both host and taker. Ægir brews ale for the gods and lights his hall with gold, so that the poets call gold "Ægir's fire"; his wife Rán casts her net and takes those who sail; their daughters are the waves that carry ships and overturn them. The gods can hold their feast only in the sea's house and with a kettle brought from the far side of the giants' world, and in that same house, a place of peace, Loki breaks the peace, first by killing the servant and then with words.

We read the name in the Arabic tongue like this, as a reading proposed on the method, since the essay does not read it. The final r of Ægir is the Old Norse nominative ending; it drops in the genitive, Ægis, leaving Ægi-: a vowel at the start, then hard g. That is Arabic ujāj: the glottal stop becomes a vowel, j becomes hard g regularly, and the doubled j counts as one. In Lane ujāj is salt, bitter water that burns by its saltness, "like the water of the sea", as in the Qur'an, "and this is salt and bitter (milḥun ujāj)". The same root gives ajjat al-nār, the fire blazed and flamed and was heard to roar, and ajīj, the sound of water pouring forth. On this reading Ægir is the bitter salt sea, and the root holds all that his story holds: salt water, the fire with which his gold lights his hall, and the sound of pouring waves.

Linguistic Root

Ægir and ujāj

Cleasby–Vigfusson calls ægir "an old mythical word, the root of which is not to be sought for in the Norse languages, for it is much older", perhaps akin to Greek Ōkeanos, with Old English ēagor, the sea, which survives in provincial English for the tidal wave or bore on rivers. It means the sea: in Völuspá the earth rises out of ægir a second time, and the sun is said to set in it. Gold is called Ægir's flame and fire, the waves are Ægir's daughters, and his brothers are wind and fire, sons of the giant Fornjótr. Orel derives the word from Germanic *ǣwjaz, "water, island", a derivative of *axwō, water.

Lane, under ʾ-j-j: ajjat al-nār, "the fire burned, burned brightly, or fiercely, blazed, or flamed; or made a sound by its blazing"; ajja of an ostrich, "he ran, making a rustling sound", and of a man, "he hastened in his pace"; ajīj, "the sounding of water in pouring forth"; ajūj, "giving light, shining"; ajja, "intenseness of heat" and the confused noise of a crowd. And māʾ ujāj, "water that burns by its saltness; or salt, bitter water; or very salt and bitter water, like the water of the sea".

The comparison turns the glottal stop of ujāj into the vowel that begins the name, as the glottal stop drops or becomes a vowel in most correspondences; it turns j into hard g, a regular correspondence in the Juthoor sound laws; and it counts the doubled j as one letter, since in those laws gemination becomes a single consonant or a long vowel. One thing remains: if Orel is right, the Norse g arose after the Germanic stage, and is not an old letter answering j.

Rán and rāna

Rán, Ægir's wife, is in Cleasby–Vigfusson the giant queen of the sea, with whom all who perished in the sea came and abode; the dictionary reports from Eyrbyggja saga the belief that drowned men were well received at Rán's if they visited their own funeral feast. It separates her name from the common noun rán, unlawful seizure of property. Lane, under r-y-n: rāna ʿalayhi, "it covered it; or it overcame him"; rīna bihi, "he fell into that from which he could not escape, and with which he had not power to cope", and "he died"; rāna ʿalayhi al-mawt, "death took him away". On this reading, also proposed on the method, Rán is the one who overcomes a man at sea so that he falls into her net and does not come out. The long á of the Norse name answers the long ā of rāna, and n is n.

Key Mythic Narratives

Ægir's daughters

Snorri lists Ægir's nine daughters by name: Himinglæva, Dúfa, Blóðughadda, Hefring, Uðr, Hrönn, Bylgja, Bára and Kólga. In the Norse dictionary bylgja is a billow, and hrönn, bára and kólga are each a wave, bára being especially the smaller wave the wind raises on the back of a billow. Skaldic verse says that "Ægir's daughters" weave the storms and that a ship tears its breast "out of Rán's mouth"; and in Helgakviða Hundingsbana I "Ægir's dreadful daughter" wants to overturn Helgi's ships, and the valkyrie Sigrún wrests them "out of Rán's hand".

Rán's net

In the prose of Reginsmál the gods send Loki to get the gold with which to ransom themselves; he goes to Rán, takes her net, and casts it into the waterfall over the dwarf Andvari, who is there in the shape of a fish, and catches him. The sea's net that catches the drowned catches the dwarf who owns the cursed gold.

Ægir, Gymir and Hlér

Snorri says that Ægir, Hlér and Gymir are all one, and the prose introduction to Lokasenna says that Ægir was also called Gymir. In Gylfaginning Gymir is the father of Gerðr, whom Skírnir wooed for Freyr; the texts do not say whether the two are one Gymir.

Symbolic Reading

The Norse rereading essay reads the sea as both road and danger: it makes Thor's fishing for the serpent an attempt to understand and master the ocean, and lists the sea among the four dangers of the environment, with hunger, cold and darkness. It does not read Ægir himself, but his house in the story holds both faces: a feast at which the gods drink every flax-harvest, and a net that takes those who sail. His daughters' names in the text are sailors' words for waves: the high billow, and the small wave the wind raises on its back.

Cross-Cultural Parallels

In the Iliad Poseidon has a palace in the depths of the sea at Aegae, golden, gleaming and imperishable, and Ægir has a hall where gold serves as firelight. Hesiod's Nereus has fifty daughters of the sea, some of them named for waves, one of them the calmer of waves; Ægir has nine daughters who are the waves. In the Rigveda Varuṇa holds fetters the singer begs him to loosen, and later books make him lord of the waters; Rán has a net in which she catches those at sea. In the Abzu, the waters below, Enki drinks beer with Inanna until he gives her the divine powers and wakes to find them gone; Ægir's feast also ends in the host's loss, when Loki curses him never to hold a feast again.

Thor's journey to Hymir to fetch the kettle is the one on which he fishes for the world serpent, a case of divine combat with sea and serpent, and Loki's words at Ægir's feast are a case of the trickster. Ægir differs from Njörðr: Njörðr is one of the Vanir who lives at the ship-haven and calms the sea, while Ægir is a giant and the sea itself.