Frodi
The king who orders two giant women to grind wealth and peace at Grotti without granting them rest.
Overview
In Grottasongr, Frodi makes Fenja and Menja turn Grotti, first grinding wealth, peace, and prosperity for him. He does not take their song as a claim to rest, but shortens rest to the span of a bird’s call. The song slowly becomes an accusation: the two giant women remind him that buying strength is not knowing how it will answer. The poem lets us hear this king’s command at the mill and the prophecy that he will lose his throne; the sea-going aftermath belongs to adjacent prose.
Key facts
First demands wealth and peace
The two giant women first grind wealth, peace, and prosperity for Frodi.
Refuses to let the mill stop
Frodi says that rest must not last longer than a cuckoo’s call or the time he recites one lay.
Relationships
- Fenjacompels Fenja to keep the mill turning
compels Fenja to keep the mill turning
- Menjacompels Menja to keep the mill turning
compels Menja to keep the mill turning
- Fenjaturns the mill-song into a prophecy of the king’s fall
turns the mill-song into a prophecy of the king’s fall
- Menjaforetells Frodi’s lost throne with Fenja
foretells Frodi’s lost throne with Fenja
Story appearances
- Grottasongr: Peace Ground into ProphecyFigure or artifact in Grottasongr
The king who orders two giant women to grind wealth and peace at Grotti without granting them rest.
Ancient sources
MythWeave distinguishes ancient-source evidence from later adaptations and modern interpretation.
- Snorri Sturluson; English edition and scholarly summary, Prose Edda: Grottasongr, Manuscript context: the poem survives in manuscripts of Snorra Edda, not Codex Regius; adjacent prose separately tells of Mýsingr and the salt sea.
- Anonymous; English edition The Lay of Grotti, Grottasongr, Stanzas 1–8: Fenja and Menja serve in Frodi’s house; he has them grind wealth and peace, then refuses them rest.
- Anonymous; English edition The Lay of Grotti, Grottasongr, Stanzas 9–16: the women’s song recalls giant kin, moving stones, and fighting in Sweden, then names the cold hardship of service in the king’s house.
- Anonymous; English edition The Lay of Grotti, Grottasongr, Stanzas 17–24: the women say their hands will not rest, foretell fire and Frodi’s lost throne, and say the grinding is done after the millstone breaks.