Grottasöngur

Abstract

Grottasöngr, although usually considered an Eddic poem, is not found in the Codex Regius of the poetic Edda (GKS 2365 4to), but appears in the Codex Regius of Snorra Edda (GKS 2367 4to) and its sister ms. Codex Trajectinus. In these mss. it is introduced by a prose narrative partly based on the poem but also containing material not found there. The prose, together with the initial stanza, was probably part of an original or early version of the Snorra Edda. At the centre of the prose and the poem is the mill Grotti and the enslaved giant maidens Fenja and Menja, who are forced by the Danish king Fró›i to grind gold for him. Several kennings for gold are based on this tale, and the prose rendering has been included in the Snorra Edda to explain these kennings. It is not certain that any of the skalds is referring directly to Grottasöngr, with the exception of Snorri in Háttatal. Snorri’s prose version has its roots in a tale combining three myths: a myth about the peaceful and prosperous era of King Fró›ð of Denmark; a tale about a magic mill grinding out gold for its owner, whose greed and cruelty causes his downfall; and an etiological myth about a mill in the ocean which accounts for the fact that the sea is salty, also attested in nineteenth century folk tradition in Orkney and Shetland; the last of these is not included in the poem. 

Grottasöngr has much in common with Völundarkviða. The protagonists of both poems are superhuman beings, endowed with special qualities, who are enslaved by a cruel king who wants to benefit from their skills as millers or as a smith; the smithy and the mill were important in viking age culture, enabling people to create tools and other important objects, as well as providing nourishment; skill in the use of such basic tools, as well as the tools themselves, have taken on mythic dimensions in poetry. The poet’s control over the subject matter is demonstrated by the skilful interweaving of past, present and future, which come together in a furious climax, and by the variation between a sparsely used objective 3rd person narrative and emotionally charged direct speech. The sympathy with female protagonists in Grottasöngr parallels that of many of the heroic poems, although in them the heroines are of royal birth, while Grottasöngr takes sides with slave girls descended from giants. Several motifs in the poem connect it with mythological lore about giants. Scholars have noted that much of the poem is spoken by women with foresight, just as in Völuspá, and despite important differences in scope there are clear parallels between the two poems. Many scholars have dated Grottasöngr to the viking age, although the only certain thing about its age is that it must be older than the Snorra Edda. Mythology and traditional lore are used as raw material for a poetic recreation of an old story. The myth is displaced, and the poet treats traditonal material in a similar way as the poets who composed the so-called heroic elegies. The drama is presented in the dialogue of one central scene framed by brief third person comments, in a similar proportion as in the ‘elegies’, and in both cases there is a review of past events and a prophecy of future events that the prose myth presents as plain narrative. The narrative form of the poem, as well as its vocabulary and its general treatment of mythological motifs, show a reflective attitude to traditional material and lead to the conclusion that Grottasöngr is a late poem, probably not much older than ca. 1200. Although the poem shows signs of oral preservation, it is likely that it was composed in a literate milieu.