thumb|Fenja and Menja at the mill. Illustration by [[Carl Larsson and Gunnar Forssell.]]

Grottasǫngr (or Gróttasǫngr; Old Norse: 'The Mill's Songs', or 'Song of Grótti') is an Old Norse poem, sometimes counted among the poems of the Poetic Edda as it appears in manuscripts that are later than the Codex Regius. The tradition is also preserved in one of the manuscripts of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda along with some explanation of its context.

The myth has also survived independently in modified forms in northern European folklore. Gróttasǫngr had social and political impact in Sweden during the 20th century as it was modernized in the form of Den nya Grottesången by Viktor Rydberg, which described conditions in factories using the mill of Grottasǫngr as a literary backdrop.

Poetic Edda

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

The girls ask for rest from the grinding but are commanded 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-risar. 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 tell him that they had advanced against an army in Sweden and fought "bearlike warriors", had "broken shields",

Now filled with a great rage, the girls grind even harder until finally the grinding mechanism collapses and the magical stone splits in two. With the impending army soon to arrive, one of the girls finishes the song with:

<poem style="margin-left:2em">

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

now the ladies have had a full stint of milling!

Modern cultural references

Viktor Rydberg's apprehension of unregulated capitalism at the dawn of the industrial age is most fully expressed in his acclaimed poem Den nya Grottesången (The New Grotti Song) in which he delivered a fierce attack on the miserable working conditions in factories of the era, using the mill of Grottasöngr as his literary backdrop.

Grottasǫngr appears as part of Johannes V. Jensen's novel The Fall of the King.

The author edited his prose text into a prose poem that was included in his first poetry collection published in 1906.

Jensen later reflected on the Grottasǫngr in his book Kvinden i Sagatiden.

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie also draws inspiration from the Grottasǫngr in the character of the Strength and Patience of the Hill.

Verses of the poem were used for the song Grótti by French neofolk group Skáld in 2020.

References

Bibliography

  • Tolley, Clive (ed. and trans.), Gróttasǫngr: The Song of Grotti. Viking Society for Northern Research, 2008.
  • Gróttasǫngr in Old Norse
  • Den nya Grottesången in Swedish from «Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad» Norway.