Page:The Prose Edda (1916 translation by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur).pdf/251

Dusky One, as Njáll of the Burning sang:

We sixteen pumped, my Lady,

In four oar-rooms, but the surge waxed:

The Dusky One beat over

The hull of the driven sea-ship.

These are other names for the Sea, such as it is proper to use in periphrasing ships or gold.

"Rán, it is said, was Ægir's wife, even as is written here:

To the sky shot up the Deep's Gledes,

With fearful might the sea surged:

Methinks our stems the clouds cut,—

Rán's Road to the moon soared upward.

The daughters of Ægir and Rán are nine, and their names are recorded before: Himinglæva,^[1] Dúfa,^[2] Blódughadda,^[3] Hefring,^[4] Udr,^[5] Hrönn,^[6] Bylgja,^[7] Dröfn,^[8] Kólga.^[9] Einarr Skúlason recorded the names of six of them in this stanza, beginning:

Himinglæva sternly stirreth,

And fiercely, the sea's wailing.

Welling Wave,^[10] as Valgardr sang:

Foam rested in the Sea's bed:

Swollen with wind, the deep played,

And the Welling Waves were washing

The awful heads of the war-ships.

1. That through which one can see the heaven (Jónsson).
2. The Pitching One (Jónsson).
3. Bloody-Hair.
4. Riser.
5. Frothing Wave.
6. Welling Wave.
7. Billow.
8. Foam-Fleck.
9. Poetical term for Wave. "The Cool One" (Jónsson).
10. In the following stanzas, for the sake of consistency, I have been obliged to translate the names, since they are employed in the stanzas as common nouns, rather than as proper names. It is beyond my ability to translate Himinglæva briefly.