Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

expressions refer to each other and designate with different words the same idea - the mill
that grinds islands and skerries.
The fate which, according to the Grotti-song, happened to King Frodi's mill has
its origin in the myth concerning the greater mill. The stooping position of the starry
heavens and the sloping path of the stars in relation to the horizontal line was a problem
which in its way the mythology wanted to solve. The phenomenon was put in connection
with the mythic traditions in regard to the terrible winter which visited the earth after the
gods and the sons of Alvaldi (Ivaldi) had become enemies. Fenja and Menja were
kinswomen of Alvaldi's sons. For they were brothers (half-brothers) of those mountain
giants who were Fenja's and Menja's fathers (Grotti-song 9). Before the feud broke out
between their kin and the gods, both the giant-maids had worked in the service of the
latter and for the good of the world, grinding the blessings of the golden age on the
world-mill. Their activity in connection with the great mechanism, möndull, which they
pushed, amid the singing of bliss-bringing songs of sorcery, was a counterpart of the
activity of the sons of Alvaldi, who made the treasures of vegetation for the gods. When
the conflict broke out, the giant-maids joined the cause of their kinsmen. They gave the
world-mill so rapid a motion that the foundations of the earth trembled, pieces of the
mill-stones were broken loose and thrown up into space, and the sub-structure of the mill
was damaged. This could not happen without harm to the starry canopy of heaven which
rested thereon. The memory of this mythic event comes to the surface in Rímbegla, 5
which states that toward the close of King Frodi's reign there arose a terrible disorder in
nature -- a storm with mighty thundering passed over the country, the earth quaked and
cast up large stones. In the Grotti-song the same event is mentioned as a "game" played
by Fenja and Menja, in which they cast up from the deep upon the earth those stones
which afterwards became the mill-stones in the Grotti-mill. After that "game" the giantmaids
proceeded to the earth and took part in the first world-war on the side hostile to
Odin (see No. 39). It is worthy of notice that the mythology has connected the fimbulwinter
and the great emigrations from the North with an earthquake and a damage to the
world-mill which makes the starry heavens revolve. 6
82.
THE WORLD-MILL (continued). THE ORIGIN OF THE SACRED FIRE
THROUGH MUNDILFARI. HEIMDALL THE PERSONIFICATION OF THE
SACRED FIRE. HIS IDENTITY WITH RIGVEDA'S AGNI. HIS ANTITHESIS, LOKI,
ALSO A FIRE-BEING.
Among the tasks to be performed by the world-mill there is yet another of the
greatest importance. According to a belief which originated in ancient Indo-European
times, a fire is to be judged as to purity and holiness by its origin. There are different
kinds of fire more or less pure and holy, and a fire which is holy in origin may become
5 A saga from the 12 th century.
6 For a fuller exploration of this theme, see Giorgio de Santilana's Hamlet's Mill (1969) in which he puts
forth the idea that various mythologies preserve the memory of an ancient global catastrophe.