This great sea-goddess was, to the Scandinavians, also the queen of the drowned.Ran was a mighty woman who held a seafaring ship steady with one hand while with the other, sweeping her magical net into the water, she snared the sailors. These captives she took under the waves to her realm, where they lived as if on earth.

Because it was believed they were allowed to return to earth to attend their funerals, anyone seen at his own wake was assumed to be safely in Ran's care. Because she loved gold, Scandinavian sailors kept gold coins in their pockets as tokens of admittance to her domain, in case of death by drowning, called "Faring to Ran" in Eddic poetry.

The sea, called "Ran's Road," had a male form as well, named Aegir. With Ran he had nine giant daughters, the waves, which poets also called the "Claws of Ran." Like their mother, these wave-women could appear to humans as mermaids. Ran was most likely to make herself visible during the cold, dark Scandinavian winter, when she splashed as close as she could to her worshipper's warm campfires.

Back To Previous Goddesses Archives
Back to Goddess of the Week

This page was last updated on - May 1997. "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!"
Copyright © 1997Lia Wolf-Gentry A member of