Nine daughters of Aegir

Thu Aug 18 12:47:33 UTC 2005

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "WILHELM OTTO" <wilhelm.otto at s...> 
wrote:

> 
> These are said to be Himingläva, Dufa, Bloughadda, Hefring, Unn, 
Rönn,
> Bylgja, Båra and Kolga

Fishes, eh?  That´s an interesting idea.  Maybe some of them were.  
Here´s the Icelandic spellings with as much as I know:

Himinglæva.  'himinn' "sky, heaven".  The second part, seemingly a 
feminine derivative from the masculine noun 'glær' "shining" (a 
poetic name for the sea, related to words for "glass" and "amber").  
Rudold Simek suggests "the heaven-shining one" (Dictionary of 
Northern Mythology, translated from German by Angela Hall).

Dúfa.  "dove"; also, a term of affection.  I wonder if this was in 
origin a 'noa' name.  NOA is a polynesian word used by scholars to 
mean an alternative name, a euphemism, used in place of the real 
name for some dangerous entity, for example calling the fairies "the 
Good People".  Norse fishermen also used euphemistic names for their 
prey, maybe to placate the fish so that they wouldn't hide.  But 
Simek groups this one as simply one more synonym for "wave".  
Irish 'dubh' is "black, dark".  Don't know if that's relevent.

Blóðughadda.  "bloody-hair".  The masculine noun 'haddr' is a poetic 
word for a lady's hair.  -a is a feminine ending, often used to make 
nicknames.  Alternatively, 'hadda' is a chain to hang a pot on.  But 
Simek goes with the more lyrical "bloody-hair" too.

Hefring.  "the rising one", according to Rudolf Simeck, 
cf. 'hefja' "to raise up, to lift".

Uðr.  "wave", with assimilation of nn > ð before r.  Cognate with 
OE 'ýþ' "wave".

Hrönn.  "wave", also found in prose in set expressions.

Bylgja.  "wave", cf. English 'billow', a poetic word for "wave".

Bára.  "wave".

Kólga.  Poetic word for "wave".  Could it be related 
to 'kólna' "become cold"?  So thinks Simek: "the cold one".

But as Simek notes "the names for Aegir's daughters appear to have 
been indefinite..., and any synonym for wave could appear in poetry 
as a name for one of Aegir's daughters."  Of course, none of this 
disproves that some of them were used as the names of fishes too at 
some time, although Old Norse poetry sees them rather as personified 
waves as far as I know.

Llama Nom

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