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His ships, therefore, became so full of salt that they sank, and Grotti with them, before they could reach the islands of Orkney; hence the Swelkie.
Mysingr took with him the quern, Grotti, with Fenia and Menia, and ordered them to grind salt. About midnight they asked Mysingr whether he had salt enough. On his ordering them to go on grinding, they went on a little longer till the ship sank under the weight of the salt. A whirlpool was produced, where the waves are sucked up by the mill-eye, and the waters of the sea have been salt ever since.
These daughters of the giant he had bought as slaves, and he made them grind his quern or hand-mill, Grotti, out of which he used to grind peace and gold. Even in that golden age one sees there were slaves, and Frodi, however bountiful to his thanes and people, was a hard task-master to his giant hand-maidens.
Now Grotti, which ground either gold or peace for King Frodi as he willed, was stolen by a sea king named Mysing, who set the mill to grind white salt for his ships. But it happened that Mysing had only learned the spell to set the mill going, and knew not how to stop it.
The reader will surely have already recognized what kind of a mill, what kind of water is meant. I will rest satisfied with the mere mention of several facts from folklore and dream-life. Therefore all the mills in Rome stand still at the festival of the chaste Vesta. Grotti means both woman and mill. Greeth is only a paraphrase of woman. The man is the miller, the woman the mill.” Glaub usw. d.
In those days there were found in Denmark two quern-stones of such a size, that no one was able to move them, and these mill-stones were endued with such virtue, that the quern in grinding produced whatever the grinder wished for. The quern was called Grotti. King Frothi caused these slaves to be brought to the quern, and ordered them to grind gold, peace, and prosperity for Frothi.
Those who know the secrets of the ocean currents of the northern seas have their own scientific explanations to give; but our native boatmen and sailors, who were not so well acquainted with the eccentricities of the Gulf stream as with the popular legends of Orkney, accounted for the Swelkie in this way: A certain King Frodi had a magical quern, or hand mill, called Grotti; the largest quern ever known in Denmark.
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