Grotte - Poetic Edda | <i>Poetic Edda<>

Though not originally included in the Codex Regius, Gróttasöngr is included in many later editions of the Poetic Edda. Gróttasöngr is the work song of two young slave girls bought in Sweden by the Danish King Frodi. The girls are brought to a magic grind stone to grind out wealth for the king and sing for his household.

The girls ask for rest from the grinding but are told to continue. Undaunted in their benevolence, the girls proceed to grind and sing, wishing wealth and happiness for the King. The King, however, is still not pleased and continues to order the girls to grind without interruption.

King Frodi is ignorant of their lineage and the girls reveal that they are descended from mountain giants. The girls recount their past deeds, including moving a flat-topped mountain and revealing that they had actually created the grinding stone they are now chained to. They reveal that they had advanced against an army in Sweden and fought "bearlike warriors", had "broken shields", supported troops and overthrew a prince while supporting another. The girls recount that they had become well known warriors.

The girls then reflect that they had now become cold and dirty slaves, relentlessly worked, and living a life of dull grinding. The girls sing that they are tired and call to King Frodi to wake up so that he may hear them. The two state that an army is approaching, that Frodi will lose the wealth they've ground for him, that he will also lose the magic grindstone, that the army will burn the settlement and overthrow Frodi's throne in Lejre. The girls are grinding an army into existence via the magic stone. They then comment that they are "not yet warmed by the blood of slaughtered men".

The girls continue to grind even harder and the shafts of the mill-frame snap. The two then sing a prophecy of vengeance mentioning Hrólfr Kraki, Yrsa, Fróði and Halfdan:

Mölum enn framar.

Mun Yrsu sonr,

niðr Halfdanar,

hefna Fróða;

sá mun hennar

heitinn verða

burr ok bróðir,

vitum báðar þat.

Let us grind on!

Yrsa's son,

Hálfdan's kinsman,

will avenge Fródi:

he will of her

be called

son and brother:

we both know that.

Now filled with a great rage, the girls intensely grind until finally the grinding mechanism has collapsed and the magical stone has split into two. With the impeding army soon to arrive, one of the two girls finishes the song with:

Frodi, we have ground to the point where we must stop,

now the ladies have had a full stint of milling!