Gripla - 20.12.2005, Side 136

GRIPLA134
Johnston, Alfred W. 1909-10. Grotta Söngr and the Orkney and Shetland Quern. Saga-
Book of the Viking Club 6:296-304.
Mohr, Wolfgang. 1938. Enstehungsgeschichte und Heimat der jüngeren Eddalieder süd-
germanischen Stoffes. Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur,
75:217-280.
Mohr, Wolfgang. 1939. Wortschatz und Motive der jüngeren Eddalieder mit südger-
manischem Stoff. Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur
76:149-217.
Olrik, Axel. 1903-1910. Danmarks heltedigtning. En oldtidsstudie I-II. Kaupmanna-
höfn.
Schulz, Katja. 2004. Riesen. Von Wissenshütern und Wildnisbewohnern in Edda und
Saga. Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg.
See, Klaus von, Beatrice La Farge, Eve Picard, Katja Schulz. 2000. Kommentar zu den
Liedern der Edda. Bd. 3: Götterlieder. Universitätsverlag C. Winter, Heidelberg.
Sprenger, Ulrike. 1992. Die altnordische heroische Elegie. Walter de Gruyter, Berlín.
Sävborg, Daniel. 1997. Sorg och elegi i Eddans hjältediktning. Almqvist & Wiksell,
Stockholm.
Tolley, Clive. 1995. The mill in Norse and Finnish mythology. Saga-Book of the
Viking Society 24:63-82.
Vésteinn Ólason. 1997. Fró›a meyjar. Frejas psalter. En psalter i 40 afdelinger til brug
for Jonna Louis-Jensen:197-199. Det arnamagnæanske Institut, Kaupmannahöfn.
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skandinavistik:165-193. Ritstj. Jürg Glauser og Julia Zernack.
SUMMARY
Grottasöngr, although usually considered an Eddic poem, is not found in the Codex
Regius of the poetic Edda (GKS 2365 4to), but appears in the Codex Regius of Snorra
Edda (GKS 2367 4to) and its sister ms. Codex Trajectinus. In these mss. it is in-
troduced by a prose narrative partly based on the poem but also containing material not
found there. The prose, together with the initial stanza, was probably part of an original
or early version of the Snorra Edda. At the centre of the prose and the poem is the mill
Grotti and the enslaved giant maidens Fenja and Menja, who are forced by the Danish
king Fró›i to grind gold for him. Several kennings for gold are based on this tale, and
the prose rendering has been included in the Snorra Edda to explain these kennings. It
is not certain that any of the skalds is referring directly to Grottasöngr, with the
exception of Snorri in Háttatal.
Snorri’ s prose version has its roots in a tale combining three myths: a myth about
the peaceful and prosperous era of King Fró›i of Denmark; a tale about a magic mill
grinding out gold for its owner, whose greed and cruelty causes his downfall; and an
etiological myth about a mill in the ocean which accounts for the fact that the sea is
salty, also attested in nineteenth century folk tradition in Orkney and Shetland; the last
of these is not included in the poem.