And dost shed the briny flood,
Are my lonely grave’s recesses
Filled with black and loathsome blood.’”
Ballad of Aager and Else (Longfellow’s tr.).
Chapter XX: Ægir
The God of the Sea
Besides Niörd and Mimir, who were both ocean divinities, the one representing the sea near the coast and the other the primæval ocean whence all things were supposed to have sprung, the Northern races recognised another sea-ruler, called Ægir or Hler, who dwelt either in the cool depths of his liquid realm or had his abode on the Island of Lessoe, in the Cattegat, or Hlesey.
“Beneath the watery dome,
With crystalline splendour,