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;[1] 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
- ↑ Rocky islands.
