To ensure the survival of Grottasöngr, one copyist of Snorris Edda consciously decided to record the entire poem rather than just a single stanza. The giantess Fenja and her sister Menja used the enchanted mill Grotti to create gold, which is why Snorri brought it up in the first place as an explanation for why “Frodi’s meal” was a kenning for the precious metal. While he may have only cited the pertinent stanza, the copyist or patron of at least one copy of his Edda decided to include the entire poem. This is the story behind the origin of the name “Fródi’s Meal” for gold. The Skjöldungs can trace their ancestry to Odin’s son Skjöldr, who settled and reigned over Denmark but was then called Gotland. Skjöldr’s son, Fridleifr, succeeded him as king.
After his death, the throne was passed on to Fridleifr’s son, Fródi. The birth of Christ and the establishment of universal peace by Augustus Caesar occurred during this era. In all places where Danish is spoken, the peace is known as Fródi’s name because he was the strongest monarch in the Northern lands, and people started referring to it as the Fródi Peace.
Neither man harmed the other, even when confronted by someone who killed his father or brother. There were no thieves or robbers back then, so a gold band was left for quite some time on Jalangr’s Heath. King Fródi travelled to the Swedish palace of King Fjölnir for a feast, where he purchased two maidservants named Fenja and Menja. At about the same time, two millstones so large that no human being could turn them were discovered in Denmark. The mill was designed so that whatever the person riding the stones requested would be produced. Grótti was the name of the mill where this stone was ground. One Hengikjöptr donated the mill to King Fródi.
King Fródi ordered his maidservants to process gold at the mill, and they complied. Gold and happiness were ground into powder for Fródi before he let them slumber, but only for as long as the cuckoo stayed silent or a song could be sung. The Lay of Grótti is a composition said to have been sung by the group; its opening lines read as follows: And before they stopped singing, they must have rounded up an army to attack Fródi, because that very night the sea monarch known as Msingr showed up and killed Fródi while stealing a lot of his stuff. Then the Fródi Peace Agreement collapsed. To help him with the salt grinding, Msingr enlisted the help of Grótti, Fenja, and Menja. And at noon, they inquired if Msingr had had enough salt, and he prompted them to continue working for a while longer by asking them to the mill. They had only been grinding briefly before the ship went down, creating a whirlpool in the ocean where the water leaked from the millstone. The water turned to salt at that time.
