 Some scholars have linked the Nine Mothers of Heimdallr with the Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán (who personify waves), an identification that would mean that Heimdallr was thus born from the waves of the sea.However, this connection has been questioned on the grounds that the names presented for the Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán and the Nine Mothers of Heimdallr (as found in "Völuspá hin skamma") do not match.Scholar John Lindow comments that the identification of Heimdallr's mothers as Ægir and Rán's daughters do, however, match on the grounds that Ægir and Rán's daughters, like Heimdallr's mothers, are sisters, and that two separate traditions about Heimdallr's mothers may explain the differences between the two.