The Trent Aegir, also known as the Eagre, is a

tidal bore Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (se ...

on the

River Trent The Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and ...

in England. At certain times of the year, the lower tidal reaches of the Trent experience a moderately large bore (up to five feet (1.5m) high). It is said to take its name from

Ægir Ægir (anglicised as Aegir; Old Norse 'sea'), Hlér (Old Norse 'sea'), or Gymir (Old Norse less clearly 'sea, engulfer'), is a jötunn and a personification of the sea in Norse mythology. In the Old Norse record, Ægir hosts the gods in his halls ...

, a personification of the sea in

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern per ...

,Richard Stone, ''The River Trent'', (2005), p9, p124, Phillimore & Co Ltd, although this is disputed. A more likely derivation is from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

''ēagor'' (“flood, stream, water”). The Aegir occurs when a high

spring tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tabl ...

meets the downstream flow of the river. The funnel shape of the river mouth exaggerates this effect, causing a large wave to travel upstream as far as Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, and sometimes beyond. The Aegir cannot travel much beyond Gainsborough as the shape of the river reduces the Aegir to little more than a ripple, and weirs north of

Newark-on-Trent Newark-on-Trent or Newark () is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road bypasses the town on the line ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

stop its path completely. The Aegir can be seen at Gainsborough, Morton,

East Stockwith East Stockwith is a village within the civil parish of East Stockwith, in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the River Trent, north-west of Gainsborough. The River Trent Aegir, a tidal bore, reaches the village. I ...

West Stockwith West Stockwith is a village within the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 327. it lies on the west bank of the River Trent, north-west of Gainsborough and east of Misterton. West Stockwith ...

and

Owston Ferry Owston Ferry is a village and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the west bank of the River Trent, and north from Gainsborough. It had a total resident population of 1,128 in 2001 including Kelfield. This increased ...

. The

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and en ...

used to publish predictions for the occurrence of the bore, but now no longer provide these. The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) provides a lot of useful tidal prediction information. The UKHO have a free tidal prediction service which provides tidal times for the forthcoming week. In the years 2019 to 2021 A private prediction of the Aegir is regularly updated on an informational site about the neighboring community of Crowle, Lincolnshire. It is alleged that King

Cnut Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway ...

performed his purposely unsuccessful attempt to turn the tide back in the River Trent at Gainsborough. If this is the case, it is highly probable that Cnut was attempting to turn the Aegir tide.Sweyn Forkbeard: England's forgotten Viking king
BBC News, 25 December 2013 The Aegir features in

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

's '' The Mill on the Floss'' (1860). ''"Above all, the great Floss, along which they wandered with a sense of travel, to see the rushing spring-tide, the awful Eagre, come up like a hungry monster."'' (Chapter 5)

References

External links

"Aegir"
BBC Lincolnshire
Environment Agency websiteTrent Aegir 2022Trent Aegir Videos - Various locations 19 May 2019
** {{authority control Tidal bores Aegir Tourist attractions in Lincolnshire