Why The Sea Is Salty

A Danish King called Frodi once ruled over his Scandinavian Empire at a time when there was no crime, no killing and no despair. It was an era so blissful that it became known as Frodi’s Peace.

Frodi had a secret though, the source of his peace wasn’t entirely natural. Inside his palace, he kept an enormous, magical set of millstones known as the Grotti. The mill would grind out whatever the owner desired, but it was so large that for years Frodi had been unable to use it.

That all changed after the King visited the Queen of Sweden and bought two enslaved giantesses known as Fenya and Menya. Frodi brought them back to Denmark and together the pair were strong enough to work Grotti. Their master’s first wish was for the mill to grind out peace and prosperity for the land.

It was a noble use for something so powerful, but eventually, Frodi’s greed got the better of him. He asked Fenya and Menya to grind him gold, his eyes lighting up as the precious metal poured from the millstones. As it piled up higher and higher, Frodi had to build new houses and sheds to store it all.

Soon the giantesses began to get tired and asked if they could have some time to rest. Frodi thought about it, telling his slaves that they could only rest for as long as it takes the cuckoo to sing. A two-note song was a worthless amount of time and so Fenya and Menya were getting angry.

While Frodi slept, they began to sing their own tune known as the Grottasong. The powerful words described how Frodi was a wicked King and they would grind him gold no longer. Instead, the magical mill began grinding an army to overthrow their master, led by a sea-king called Mysing who killed Frodi and captured the Grotti for himself.

Mysing decided to take the mill as well as Fenya and Menya away on his ship as far as possible from Denmark. As they approached the coast of Scotland, the sea-king decided to make his own wish. He ordered the giantesses to grind him salt, the only thing worth its weight in gold.

They did as ordered and precious salt began to fill up the holds of Mysing’s ship. The cargo was getting steadily heavier and as time went on, the workers exclaimed they must have enough salt by now. Mysing ignored their pleas and ordered more, but the ship was beginning to sit very low in the water.

As they reached the straight between Caithness and Orkney, suddenly the ship couldn’t stay afloat any longer. It sank to the bottom of the sea in the Pentland Firth with Grotti, Fenya and Menya all still on board. There they continue to grind out salt, trapped below the waves, forced to work the mill forever. At times, a whirlpool known as the Swelkie forms on the surface of the water, proof that the giantesses are still there grinding away, keeping the sea topped up with salt.