Note to Snæbj Lv 1^III

[1] Grotta ‘Grotti <hand-mill>’: The vowel quantity is uncertain (see LP: Grotti). If the vowel is short (Grotti), the word means ‘crusher’ (< Gmc *gruntan, see AEW: grotti; cf. Grottasǫngr). Grotti (or Grótti) is the mythical mill that could grind anything a person desired (see Grott, Skm, SnE 1998, I, 51-2). SnE relates that the Danish king Fróði forced two female slaves from Sweden, Fenja and Menja, to grind gold, peace and ‘Fróði’s joy’ (sæla Fróða) for him. They, however, secretly used the mill to ‘grind’ an army whose commander, the sea-king Mýsingr, killed Fróði and took the two slaves aboard his ship, with the mill, to grind salt – so much that the ship sank, taking the mill with it. Later a maelstrom arose where the sea falls through the hole in the millstone. The factual basis for this myth is believed to be the tidal current known as Moskstraumen, one of the world’s strongest, which is located in the outer Lofoten archipelago in Norway. It was first mentioned in the C8th by Paulus Diaconus and later described by Olaus Magnus, who depicted it in the C16th on his Carta marina (see Tolley 1994-7, 68-9).

References

1. Bibliography
2. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
3. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
4. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
5. Tolley, Clive. 1994-7. ‘The Mill in Norse and Finnish Mythology’. SBVS 24, 63-82.
6. Internal references
7. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
8. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 19 April 2024)
9. Not published: do not cite ()