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Viktor Rydberg's Investigations into Germanic Mythology Volume II  : Part 2: Germanic Mythology
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Prose Edda - Anderson Trans.


Extracts From Skaldskaparmal


The Grottesong

  
                Now are come
                To the house of the king
                The prescient two,
                Fenja and Menja.
                There must the mighty
                Maidens toil
                For King Frode,
                Fridleif's son.

                Brought to the mill
                Soon they were;
                They gray stones
                They had to turn.
                Nor rest nor peace
                He gave to them:
                He would hear the maidens
                Turn the mill.
                They turned the mill,
                The prattling stones
                The mill ever rattling.
                What a noise it made!
                Lay the planks!
                Lift the stones! (23)
                But he (24) bade the maids
                Yet more to grind.

                They sang and swung
                The swift mill-stone,
                So that Frode's folk
                Fell asleep.
                Then, when she came
                To the mill to grind,
                With a hard heart
                And with loud voice
                Did Menja sing:

                We grind for Frode
                Wealth and happiness,

                And gold abundant
                On the mill of luck.
                Dance on roses!
                Sleep on down!
                Wake when you please!
                That is well ground.

                Here shall no one
                Hurt the other,
                Nor in ambush lie,
                Nor seek to kill;
                Nor shall any one
                With sharp sword hew,
                Though bound he should find
                His brother's bane.

                They stood in the hall,
                Their hands were resting;
                Then was it the first
                Word that he spoke:
                Sleep not longer
                Than the cuckoo on the hall,                
                Or only while
                A song I sing:

                Frode! you were not
                Wary enought, ---
                You friend of men, ---
                When maids you bought!
                At their strength you looked,
                And at their fair faces,
                But you asked no questions
                About their descent.

                Hard was Hrungner
                And his father;
                Yet was Thjasse
                Stronger than they,
                And Ide and Orner,
                Our friends, and
                The mountain-giants' brothers,
                Who fostered us two.

                Not would Grotte have come
                From the mountain gray,

                Nor this hard stone
                Out from the earth;
                The maids of the mountain-giants
                Would not thus be grinding
                If we two knew
                Nothing of the mill.

                Through winters nine
                Our strength increased,
                While below the sod
                We played together.
                Great deeds were the maids
                Able to perform;
                Mountains they
                From their places moved.

                The stone we rolled
                From the giants' dwelling,
                So that all the earth
                Did rock and quake.
                So we hurled
                The rattling stone,
                The heavy block,
                That men caught it.

                In Svithjod's land
                Afterward we
                Fire-wise women,
                Fared to the battle,
                Byrnies we burst,
                Shields we cleaved,
                Made our way
                Through gray-clad hosts.

                One chief we slew,
                Another we aided---
                To Guthorm the Good
                Help we gave.
                Ere Knue had fallen
                Nor rest we got.
                Then bound we were
                And taken prisoners.

                Such were our deeds
                In former days,

                That we heroes brave
                Were thought to be.
                With spears sharp
                Heroes we pierced,
                So the gore did run
                And our swords grew red.

                Now we are come
                To the house of the king,
                No one us pities.
                Bond-women are we.
                Dirt eats our feet,
                Our limbs are cold,
                The peace-giver (25) we turn.
                Hard it is at Frode's.
                The hands shall stop,
                The stone shall stand;
                Now have I ground
                For my part enough.
                Yet to the hands
                No rest must be given,
                'Till Frode thinks
                Enough has been ground.

                Now hold shall the hands
                The lances hard,
                The weapons bloody,---
                Wake now, Frode!
                Wake now, Frode!
                If you would listen
                To our songs, ---
                To sayings old.

                Fire I see burn
                East of the burg,---
                The warnews are awake.
                That is called warning.
                A host hither
                Hastily approaches
                To burn the king's
                Lofty dwelling.

                No longer will you sit
                On the throne of Hleidra

                And rule o'er red
                Rings and the mill.
                Now must we grind
                With all our might,
                No warmth will we get
                From the blood of the slain.

                Now my father's daughter
                Bravely turns the mill.
                The death of many
                Men she sees.
                Now broke the large
                Braces 'neath the mill,---
                The iron-bound braces.
                Let us yet grind!

                Let us yet grind!
                Yrsa's son
                Shall on Frode revenge
                Halfdan's death.
                He shall Yrsa's
                Offspring be named,
                And yet Yrsa's brother.
                Both of us know it.

                The mill turned the maidens,---
                Their might they tested;
                Young they were,
                And giantesses wild.
                The braces trembled.
                Then fell the mill,---
                It twain was broken
                The heavy stone.

                All the old world
                Shook and trembled,
                But the giant's maid
                Speedily said:
                We have turned the mill, Frode!
                Now we may stop.
                By the mill long enough
                The maidens have stood.


ENDNOTES:
23. These words were spoken by the maidens while they put the mill together. [Back]

24. Frode. [Back]


25. The mill. [Back]




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