around you, giant-woman,
make it so you cannot
leave here unburned—
so you can’t leave here
in the night
like a ewe
with your ram.”
{167} Hyndla said:
[49] “I see a fire kindling,
I see the earth burn.
But most living things
have to endure death.
Take a beer
to Ottar,
a poison-mixed
drink for ill health.”
Freyja said:
[50] “Your curse
will do no harm,
giant woman,
no matter what you threaten.
He will drink
only good drinks.
I ask all the gods
to help Ottar!”
{168} Grottasongr (The Song of Grotti)
Grottasongr (literally “Song of Grotti”) is the last of the poems in this collection that are not included in the Codex Regius manuscript. Here, we read of two giant women who were purchased as slaves by the legendary Danish king Frothi to work his magical mill named Grotti, which would grind out whatever was asked of it (this magical item is similar to the Sampo of Finnish legend). Initially, the giant women are told to grind out peace and wealth for Frothi, but toward the end they use it to create an army to avenge themselves on Frothi.
“Spellcaster” (who sells Frothi the slaves) and “Hangjaw” (who gives Frothi the millstone) are unusual names, but these men are no doubt Odin himself in disguise, as these are among the names of Odin that Odin himself lists in Grimnismal. The prose introduction is from the Prose Edda, one of the sources in which this poem is quoted.
Grottasongr
Skjold was a son of Odin; the Skjoldungs are descended from him. He had his throne and ruled in lands that are now called part of Denmark, but then were called Gotland. Skjold had a son named Frithleif who ruled these lands after him. The son of Frithleif was named Frothi. He inherited the land from his father during the time when Augustus Caesar made the whole world peaceful, the time when Christ was born. And since Frothi was the most powerful of all kings in Scandinavia, the peace was credited to him wherever Norse was spoken, and Scandinavians called it the Peace of Frothi. No man did any injury to another, even if he met his father’s or his brother’s killer, whether free or in chains. There was no theft or robbery either, such that a gold ring was able to be left out in the open at Jalangerheith for a long time.
King Frothi went to Sweden for a visit with the king named Spellcaster, and on this visit he bought two slavewomen, named Fenja and Menja, who were both big and strong.
At this time in Denmark there was a millstone so big that no one was strong enough to grind with it. And the millstone had an unusual power, that it would produce whatever the grinder told it to produce. The millstone was named Grotti. Hangjaw was the {169} name of the man who had given the millstone to Frothi. Frothi brought his two new slavewomen to the millstone and ordered them to make gold and peace and joy with it for him. But for rest or sleep he allowed them only as much time as a cuckoo might stay silent in, or that one might be able to sing a song in.
Then it is said that Fenja and Menja sang a song called The Song of Grotti. And before the song was done, they had ground out an army against Frothi. And that very night, the sea-king named Mysing came and killed Frothi and took a great deal of loot. Thus ended the Peace of Frothi.
Mysing took the millstone Grotti with him on the ship, and also Fenja and Menja, and there he told them to grind out salt, and to keep grinding. They ground for only a little while before the ships sank, and now there is a whirlpool in the sea, where the sea spins around in a circle like a millstone. This is how the sea became salty.
[1] NOW THERE WERE
two forward-seeing women,
Fenja and Menja,
in the king’s house.
But these two women
were taken
as slaves
by Frothi, Frithleif’s son.
[2] The women were led
to the millstone,
they were told to push
the gray millstone around.
He promised them
they’d have neither joy nor peace
if he couldn’t hear
the grinding of that millstone.
[3] The two women
sang a working song:
“Let’s put our backs in it,
let’s push the stone.”
Frothi told the girls
to grind endlessly.
{170} [4] They sang, and they
pushed the millstone,
while most of the workers
of Frothi were sleeping.
Then Menja spoke
as she was grinding:
[5] “We are grinding
wealth and joy,
and too much property,
on this wish-stone, all for Frothi;
Frothi sits on gold
and sleeps on down pillows,
he wakes up when he likes,
and we grind on.
[6] “Here no one
hurts anyone else,
there are no bad deeds,
no violent deaths.
The sword sleeps
tranquil in its sheath,
even if a man meets
his brother’s killer.”
[7] The king said
nothing to them, except:
“Don’t sleep any longer
than a cuckoo sleeps!
Don’t sleep any longer
than it takes me to sing a song!”
[8] Fenja said, “Frothi,
you’re a wise king,
but you were not wise
when you bought us.
You chose us for
our looks and strength,
but you asked nothing
about our ancestry.
{171} [9] “Hrungnir was tough,
so was his father,
and yet Thjassi
accomplished still more.
The mountain-giants
Ithi and Aurnir
are our relatives,
we were born into their family.
[10] “Grotti, the hard millstone,
would never have
come out of the rock,
never come out of the earth,
and we giant women
would not grind so endlessly,
if we had known anything
about our fate.
[11] “We grew up
nine winters
and played as young girls
deep beneath the earth.
Then we started
to show our strength;
we are the ones who shoved
the stone from its place.
[12] “We rolled the stone
up out of the ground,
so that the whole earth
started shaking.
Then we threw down
this ring of stone,
this heavy rock,
so humans could take it.
[13] “Then we two
wise giant women
went down to Sweden
among the armies.
We killed berserkers,
{172} we broke shields,
we went straight through
the troops in their chainmail.
[14] “We helped one king,
and harmed another.
We gave help
to Gotthorm the Good.
We did not sit quiet
when Knui fell.
[15] “We played like this
for years,
our deeds made us famous
as champions:
our spears spilled
rivers of blood,
our swords
were reddened in wounds.
[16] “Now we’ve been kept
in the house of a king,
made slaves
and shown no mercy.
The dirt’s bitten our bare feet,
we’ve frozen in the cold,
we’ve labored at the millstone,
but all’s not well with Frothi.
[17] “Now my hands will rest,
the millstone will stop.
I have ground all I will,
and my work is done.
I would have
fallen dead
before I ground out
everything that Frothi wanted.
[18] “Let’s grind out
warriors’ hands, hard helmets,
bloody weapons!
Wake up, Frothi!
{173} Wake up now, Frothi,
if you want to hear
our songs
and our old stories.
[19] “I see a fire burning
east of the city,
an army is awakened,
and that will be the signal.
An army is coming
here in haste,
they are setting fire
in the king’s own home.
[20] “Frothi, you will no longer
hold the throne at Lejre,
nor the gold rings,
nor this royal millstone.
Put your back in it,
sister, a little harder!
It isn’t yet warm
with men’s blood.
[21] “Oh, sister,
you ground hard there,
for I saw the death
of a great many men.
There I saw the big
iron-fastened supports
below the millstone break—
let’s grind still more.
[22] “Let’s grind still more!
And King Hrolf
will avenge Halfdan
on King Frothi.
He will be called
his mother’s son
and also her brother,
we both know that.”
{174} [23] The women ground more,
they stretched their strength,
those young women
raged like the giants they were.
The mill’s support beam shook,
the stone rattled,
the hard stone halves
of the mill came loose.
[24] Then one
of the two giant women said:
“We have ground, Frothi,
and now we’ll stop.
We have worked
this millstone long enough.”
{175} POEMS ABOUT HEROES
Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar (The Poem of Helgi, Son of Hjorvarth)
Following the poems about the gods, the first three heroic poems in the Poetic Edda concern Helgi, a hero who is reincarnated at least twice (according to the poems themselves). In one of these poems he is the son of Hjorvarth, and in the other two the son of Sigmund. It is possible that both Helgi characters stem from one common traditional hero, and that we are dealing with different versions of the same original story that have become so divergent from one another that a later editor inserted the reincarnation of the hero to explain why he is said to be the son of two different men in different poems.
In the Codex Regius, the order of these three poems is different than what is given here (the order in the manuscript is Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, then Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, then Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II). However, since Helgi Hjorvarthsson is a different Helgi than Helgi Sigmundsson in the other two, I have moved Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar to the front in order to keep the two poems about Helgi Sigmundsson together.
Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar is a difficult poem: it probably consists of several fragments of poetic dialogue pieced together by a later editor, and then connected by means of explanatory prose sections between them. A short summary will be needed to help orient the reader.
The first part of the poem (including st. 1–5 and the large amount of prose surrounding them) concerns not Helgi himself but his father King Hjorvarth, and his follower Atli. Hjorvarth sends Atli to ask for the hand of Sigerlinn, daughter of King Svafnir, after a bird informs Atli that Sigerlinn is the most beautiful woman in the world. The marriage proposal is refused, which prompts {176} Hjorvarth to travel with Atli to make his case in person. However, upon reaching Svafnir’s kingdom, they find that he has already been killed by his rival King Hrothmar. Hjorvarth marries Sigerlinn.
Hjorvarth and Sigerlinn have a son, and for many years they are unable to give him a name. But the boy encounters a troop of Valkyries led by Svava, who gives him the name Helgi and gives him directions to find a special sword. Helgi then leads an army to defeat King Hrothmar (who had killed King Svafnir) with the aid of Atli. Helgi and Atli also kill a giant, and there is an unusual exchange between Atli and the giant’s daughter Hrimgerth; this takes up stanzas 12–23. Helgi joins the exchange of insults in stanzas 24–30, where we learn that Svava and her Valkyries have protected Helgi from having his ships destroyed by Hrimgerth. Helgi and Atli keep Hrimgerth talking till the sun rises and turns her to stone (the same trick Thor uses against the dwarf in Alvissmal).
Helgi and Svava promise to marry one another, but Svava continues to live with her father. Later, Helgi’s half-brother Hethin is away from home when he meets a troll-woman and he refuses to let her accompany him. She tells him that he will pay for this at the upcoming feast when oaths are sworn. At this feast, her promise is fulfilled when Hethin swears he will take Helgi’s fiancée Svava for himself, but he regrets his oath and wanders in the wilderness.
Helgi eventually encounters Hethin, who tells him about his oath. Helgi assures him that this is for the best, since he has been challenged to a duel by King Alf (son of his old enemy King Hrothmar). Helgi expects he will die in this duel, in which case it would please him to know that his beloved will be in the care of his brother Hethin.
Helgi is mortally wounded in the duel, and sends for Svava. Helgi begs her to marry his brother Hethin in his stead, but she says she will keep her promise to love no man but Helgi. The poem ends with Hethin swearing to Svava that he will not return home before he has avenged Helgi’s death.
{177} Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar
Concerning Hjorvarth and Sigerlinn
A king was named Hjorvarth; he had four wives. One was named Alfhild, and their son was named Hethin. The second was named Saereith, and their son was named Humlung. The third was named Sinrjoth, and their son was named Hymling.
King Hjorvarth had sworn an oath to marry the most beautiful woman he saw. He learned that King Svafnir had a daughter who was most beautiful of all, named Sigerlinn. King Hjorvarth had a man at his court named Ithmund, and Ithmund’s son Atli went to ask for Sigerlinn’s hand in marriage to King Hjorvarth. Atli stayed the whole winter with King Svafnir. King Svafnir had an important follower named Franmar, and he was the foster-father of Sigerlinn. Franmar had a daughter named Alof. Franmar told Atli that the girl would not be married to King Hjorvarth, and then Atli rode away.
Atli stood one day in a grove, and he heard a bird sitting in the tree branches above him; the bird had heard Atli’s men say that there was no woman more beautiful than King Hjorvarth’s wives. The bird called, and Atli listened to what it said.
The bird said:
[1] “DID YOU SEE SIGERLINN,
Svafnir’s daughter,
the most beautiful woman
in the entire world?
She’s more beautiful
than Hjorvarth’s wives,
though they seem beautiful enough
to the men at Glasislund.”
Atli said:
[2] “Will you say more
to Atli,
son of Ithmund,
you wise-remembering bird?”
{178} The bird said:
“I would—if you, young man,
would give me a sacrifice.
I’ll choose what I want
from the king’s household.”
Atli said:
/>
[3] “Don’t choose Hjorvarth,
nor his sons,
nor the king’s
lovely brides,
the wives
of King Hjorvarth.
But we’ll make a good deal;
that’s the way of friends.”
The bird said:
[4] “I will choose a temple,
many altars,
and golden-horned cows
from the king’s household,
if what I say brings Sigerlinn
to sleep in his arms,
if that woman
marries him of her free will.”
This was before Atli’s journey to King Svafnir. When Atli came home, King Hjorvarth asked him his news, and Atli said:
[5] “We had trouble,
the errand was not accomplished.
We wore out our horses
on the high mountains,
and then we had to wade
the river Saemorn.
And then Svafnir’s
ring-decked daughter,
the girl we went there to get,
was denied to us.”
{179} King Hjorvarth asked them to go a second time, and he went along himself this time. And when they went up on a mountain, they saw wildfires burning in Svavaland, and they saw huge clouds of dust kicked up by horses’ hooves. Then the king rode down from the mountain and spent the night by a river. Atli stood on guard, and he went over the river. There he found a house. A large bird sat on the house and kept watch, but it had fallen asleep. Atli threw a spear at the bird and killed it.
In the house, Atli found Sigerlinn, the daughter of King Svafnir, and Alof, the daughter of Jarl Franmar, and he took them away from there.
Hrothmar, another king who had courted Sigerlinn, had killed King Svafnir and then burned and robbed the country. Jarl Franmar had turned himself into an eagle, and he had been guarding the women with his magic.
King Hjorvarth married Sigerlinn, and Atli married Alof.
Hjorvarth and Sigerlinn had a big, handsome son. He was quiet, and no name suited him for long.
One day the boy sat on a mound, and he saw nine Valkyries riding, and one of them stood out from the others. She said:
[6] “It will be a while,
Helgi, before you rule
the golden rings
and the lands of Rothulsvellir.
Even though you’re always silent,
a young eagle will cry
on the battlefield after you—
you’ll show your courage, warrior.”
Helgi said:
[7] “You named me Helgi—
The Poetic Edda Page 15