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Rán

Ægir's wife, the sea as a taker of lives: she owns a net in which she catches everyone who goes to sea, and the drowned are said to go to her.

Rán (Bellows spells her "Ron") is the wife of Ægir and mother of his nine wave-daughters Skáldskaparmál 33. Where Ægir is the sea as host and brewer, Rán is the sea that takes. Snorri says the gods noticed at Ægir's feast that "Rán had that net wherein she was wont to catch all men who go upon the sea" Skáldskaparmál 33.

She has no story of her own, but her net has one. In the prose of Reginsmál, Loki needs gold to pay for killing Otr, so he borrows "her net" and catches the dwarf Andvari, who is swimming as a pike Reginsmál, prose 1.

The heroic poems use her as a figure for drowning. A storm nearly gives Helgi's crew to her, and his ship is saved "from the claws of Ron" Helgakviða Hundingsbana I 31. A troll-woman is accused of wanting to give the king's men "to Ron" Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar 18. In skaldic poetry the sea is "Husband of Rán" and "Land of Rán" Skáldskaparmál 25, and the stormy sea is "Rán's Road" Skáldskaparmál 60.

Outside the Eddas, Egill Skallagrímsson's poem Sonatorrek, about a son lost at sea, speaks of Rán as the one who has robbed him. The sources say nothing about her family or her home beyond her marriage to Ægir.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

Then the Æsir became aware that Rán had that net wherein she was wont to catch all men who go upon the sea.
Skáldskaparmál 33 Snorri gives Rán her net and names her as Ægir's wife.
he went to Ron and got her net, and went then to Andvari's fall and cast the net in front of the pike
Reginsmál, prose 1 Loki borrows Rán's net to catch the dwarf Andvari.
Mightily came from the claws of Ron The leader's sea-beast off Gnipalund.
Helgakviða Hundingsbana I 31 Helgi's ship is rescued from Rán's 'claws' by the valkyrie Sigrún.
To Ron wouldst have given the ruler's men
Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar 18 Giving men to Rán means drowning them.

Myths with Rán

Otter's ransom and Andvari's curse Loki kills an otter that turns out to be a farmer's son. To buy their lives the gods must fill and cover its skin with gold, which Loki wrings from the dwarf Andvari, along with a ring Andvari curses. The curse starts working at once.

Related

Ægir The sea in person and the gods' brewer: his hall is where they feast, his wife is Rán and his nine daughters are the waves. Snorri also makes him the listener to whom Bragi tells the myths in Skáldskaparmál. Loki The giant-born trickster counted among the Æsir: father of Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and Hel, contriver of Baldr's death, bound until Ragnarök. Andvari A dwarf living as a pike in a waterfall, from whom Loki extorts all his gold, including a ring he curses so that it will destroy whoever owns it. The giants (jötnar) jötnar The giants of Norse myth: the oldest race in the world, descended from Ymir, wise and often wealthy, enemies of the gods yet their kin, their wives and their mothers.