Why the Sea Is Salty
folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 565
translated and/or edited by
D. L. Ashliman
© 2008-2018
folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 565
translated and/or edited by
D. L. Ashliman
© 2008-2018
Now are we comeAnd before they ceased their singing, they ground out a host against Frodi, so that the sea king called Mysingr came there that same night and slew Frodi, taking much plunder. Then the Peace of Frodi was ended. Mysingr took Grotti with him, and Fenja and Menja also, and bade them grind salt. And at midnight they asked whether Mysingr were not weary of salt. He bade them grind longer. They had ground but a little while, when down sank the ship; and from that time there has been a whirlpool in the sea where the water falls through the hole in the millstone. It was then that the sea became salt.
To the king's house,
The two fore-knowing,
Fenja and Menja:
These are with Frodi
Son of Fridleifr,
The Mighty Maidens,
As maid-thralls held.
It was not the first time his brother had been forced to help him, and you may fancy he wasn't very glad to see his face, but he said, "If you will do what I ask you to do, I'll give you a whole flitch [side] of bacon."
So the poor brother said he would do anything, and was full of thanks.
"Well, here is the flitch," said the rich brother, "and now go straight to hell."
"What I have given my word to do, I must stick to," said the other; so he took the flitch and set off. He walked the whole day, and at dusk he came to a place where he saw a very bright light.
"Maybe this is the place," said the man to himself. So he turned aside, and the first thing he saw was an old, old man, with a long white beard, who stood in an outhouse hewing wood for the Christmas fire.
"Good even," said the man with the flitch.
"The same to you; whither are you going so late?" said the man.
"Oh! I'm going to hell, if I only knew the right way," answered the poor man.
"Well, you're not far wrong, for this is hell," said the old man. "When you get inside they will be all for buying your flitch, for meat is scarce in hell; but mind, you don't sell it unless you get the hand-quern which stands behind the door for it. When you come out, I'll teach you how to handle the quern, for it's good to grind almost anything."
So the man with the flitch thanked the other for his good advice, and gave a great knock at the devil's door. When he got in, everything went just as the old man had said. All the devils, great and small, came swarming up to him like ants round an anthill, and each tried to outbid the other for the flitch.
"Well!" said the man, "by rights my old dame and I ought to have this flitch for our Christmas dinner; but since you have all set your hearts on it, I suppose I must give it up to you; but if I sell it at all, I'll have for it that quern behind the door yonder."
At first the devil wouldn't hear of such a bargain, and chaffered and haggled with the man; but he stuck to what he said, and at last the devil had to part with his quern. When the man got out into the yard, he asked the old woodcutter how he was to handle the quern; and after he had heard how to use it, he thanked the old man and went off home as fast as he could, but still the clock had struck twelve on Christmas eve before he had reached his own door.
"Wherever in the world have you been?" said his old dame. "Here have I sat hour after hour waiting and watching, without so much as two sticks to lay together under the Christmas brose."
"Oh!" said the man, "I could not get back before, for I had to go a long way, first for one thing, and then for another; but now you shall see what you shall see."
So he put the quern on the table, and bade it first of all grind lights, then a tablecloth, then meat, then ale, and so on till they had got everything that was nice for Christmas fare. He had only to speak the word, and the quern ground out what he wanted. The old dame stood by blessing her stars, and kept on asking where he had got this wonderful quern, but he wouldn't tell her.
"It's all one where I got it from; you see the quern is a good one, and the millstream never freezes. That's enough."
So he ground meat and drink and dainties enough to last till Twelfth Day, and on the third day he asked all his friends and kin to his house, and gave a great feast. Now, when his rich brother saw all that was on the table, and all that was behind in the larder, he grew quite spiteful and wild, for he couldn't bear that his brother should have anything.
"'Twas only on Christmas eve," he said to the rest, "he was in such straits, that he came and asked for a morsel of food in God's name, and now he gives a feast as if he were count or king."
And he turned to his brother and said, "But whence, in hell's name, have you got all this wealth?"
"From behind the door," answered the owner of the quern, for he didn't care to let the cat out of the bag.
But later on the evening, when he had got a drop too much, he could keep his secret no longer, and brought out the quern and said, "There, you see what has gotten me all this wealth."
And so he made the quern grind all kind of things. When his brother saw it, he set his heart on having the quern, and, after a deal of coaxing, he got it; but he had to pay three hundred dollars for it, and his brother bargained to keep it till hay harvest, for he thought, if I keep it till then, I can make it grind meat and drink that will last for years. So you may fancy the quern didn't grow rusty for want of work, and when hay harvest came, the rich brother got it, but the other took care not to teach him how to handle it. It was evening when the rich brother got the quern home, and next morning he told his wife to go out into the hayfield and toss, while the mowers cut the grass, and he would stay at home and get the dinner ready.
So, when dinnertime drew near, he put the quern on the kitchen table and said, "Grind herrings and broth, and grind them good and fast."
So the quern began to grind herrings and broth; first of all, all the dishes full, then all the tubs full, and so on till the kitchen floor was quite covered. Then the man twisted and twirled at the quern to get it to stop, but for all his twisting and fingering the quern went on grinding, and in a little while the broth rose so high that the man was like to drown. So he threw open the kitchen door and ran into the parlor, but it wasn't long before the quern had ground the parlor full too, and it was only at the risk of his life that the man could get hold of the latch of the house door through the stream of broth. When he got the door open, he ran out and set off down the road, with the stream of herrings and broth at his heels, roaring like a waterfall over the whole farm.
Now, his old dame, who was in the field tossing hay, thought it a long time to dinner, and at last she said, "Well! though the master doesn't call us home, we may as well go. Maybe he finds it hard work to boil the broth, and will be glad of my help."
The men were willing enough, so they sauntered homewards; but just as they had got a little way up the hill, what should they meet but herrings, and broth, and bread, all running, and dashing, and splashing together in a stream, and the master himself running before them for his life, and as he passed them he bawled out, "Would to heaven each of you had a hundred throats! But take care you're not drowned in the broth."
Away he went, as though the Evil One were at his heels, to his brother's house, and begged him for God's sake to take back the quern that instant; for, said he, "If it grinds only one hour more, the whole parish will be swallowed up by herrings and broth."
But his brother wouldn't hear of taking it back till the other paid him down three hundred dollars more.
So the poor brother got both the money and the quern, and it wasn't long before he set up a farmhouse far finer than the one in which his brother lived, and with the quern he ground so much gold that he covered it with plates of gold; and as the farm lay by the seaside, the golden house gleamed and glistened far away over the sea. All who sailed by put ashore to see the rich man in the golden house, and to see the wonderful quern, the fame of which spread far and wide, till there was nobody who hadn't heard tell of it.
So one day there came a skipper who wanted to see the quern; and the first thing he asked was if it could grind salt.
"Grind salt!" said the owner; "I should just think it could. It can grind anything."
When the skipper heard that, he said he must have the quern, cost what it would; for if he only had it, he thought he should be rid of his long voyages across stormy seas for a lading of salt. Well, at first the man wouldn't hear of parting with the quern; but the skipper begged and prayed so hard, that at last he let him have it, but he had to pay many, many thousand dollars for it. Now, when the skipper had got the quern on his back, he soon made off with it, for he was afraid lest the man should change his mind; so he had no time to ask how to handle the quern, but got on board his ship as fast as he could, and set sail.
When he had sailed a good way off, he brought the quern on deck and said, "Grind salt, and grind both good and fast."
Well, the quern began to grind salt so that it poured out like water; and when the skipper had got the ship full, he wished to stop the quern, but whichever way he turned it, and however much he tried, it was no good; the quern kept grinding on, and the heap of salt grew higher and higher, and at last down sunk the ship.
There lies the quern at the bottom of the sea, and grinds away at this very day, and that is the reason why the sea is salt.
When she became very old, and thought she was about to die, she called the little boy to her and said, "I am old, Hans, and may not live long. You were always a good boy, and therefore you shall have my only treasure, a coffee mill which I have always kept at the bottom of my old chest. This coffee mill will grind all that you wish. If you say to it, 'Grind a house, little mill,' it will work away, and there the house will stand. When you say, 'Stop, little mill,' it will cease to grind."
Hans thanked his grandmother kindly, and when she died, and he was alone in the world, he opened the chest, took the coffee mill, and went out into the world.
When he had walked a long distance, and needed something to eat, he placed the mill on the grass and said, "Grind some bread and butter, little mill." Very soon Hans had all that he needed, and then he bid the mill to stop.
The next day he came to a large seaport, and when he saw the many vessels, he thought it would be pleasant to see more of the great world. He therefore boarded one of the ships and offered his service to the sailors. As it just happened that the captain needed a boy of Hans's age, he told him to stay.
As soon as the ship was out of port, the sailors commenced abusing Hans. He bore the harsh treatment as well as he could, and when he had nothing to eat the mill ground all that he wished. The bad men wondered how he could always be contented, although they gave him but little to eat. One day one of them peeped through a hole in the cabin door and discovered how the coffee mill served him.
Now the sailors offered a large sum of money to Hans if he would sell his treasure. He refused, however, saying that it was all that his good old grandmother had left him. So one day these wicked men threw Hans overboard and seized the mill. As they were in need of some salt, they bid it grind for them. The mill immediately began its work, and soon they had enough. Now they asked it to stop, but as the one who had peeped through the hole into the boy's cabin had not learned the exact command, the mill refused to obey, and before long the ship was filled with salt.
The men grew desperate, but none of them was able to find a way out of the difficulty. So at length the ship sank down with the mill, the salt, and all the wicked men. The men were drowned, but the mill is yet standing at the bottom of the sea, grinding away, and for this reason the water in the ocean has and always will have a salt taste.
The boy thanked her, said farewell, and boarded his ship. When his comrades again began to gamble with their money, he took his mill into a dark corner and said, "Mill, mill, grind for me; grind golden ducats for me at once!" and the mill ground out ducats of pure gold that fell ringing into his leather cap.
When the cap was full he said, "Mill, mill, stand still, for I want nothing more!" and it stopped grinding. He was now the richest of all his comrades.
The ship's captain was very miserly, and whenever there was not enough to eat, the boy had only to say, "Mill, mill, grind for me; grind fresh bread for me at once!" and it would grind away until he said the other words. The mill ground out anything for him that he wanted.
His comrades often asked him how he got these good things, but he said only that he was not at liberty to tell them. However, they continued to press him, until at last he told them the whole story.
It was not long before the evil ship's captain got wind of this, and he immediately hatched a plot. One evening he called the boy into his cabin and said, "Fetch your mill and grind out some fresh chickens for me!"
The boy went and brought back a basket full of fresh chickens, but the godless man was not satisfied. He beat the poor boy until he brought the mill to him and told him what he had to say to make it grind. However, the boy did not tell him how to make it stop, and the captain did not think to ask him about this.
Afterward when the boy was standing alone on deck, the captain went to him and pushed him into the sea, not thinking at all about how much care and concern his father and mother had given for him, nor how his blind grandmother was hoping for his return. He pushed him into the sea, then said that he accidentally had fallen overboard, thinking that this was the end of the story.
Then he went into his cabin and said to the mill, "Mill, mill, grind for me; grind salt for me at once!" and the mill ground out grains of pure white salt.
When the bowl was full the ship's captain said, "That is enough!" but the mill continued to grind forth. Whatever the captain said or did, the mill ground away until the entire cabin was full. He took hold of the mill to throw it overboard, but received such a blow that he fell to the floor as though stunned. The mill continued to grind forth until the entire ship was full and was beginning to sink.
Finally the ship's captain grabbed his sword and chopped the mill into tiny pieces; but behold, every little piece became a little mill, and all the mills ground out grains of pure white salt.
It was soon over for the ship. It sank with man and mouse and all the mills. These are still grinding out grains of pure white salt at the bottom of the sea. And even if you were to shout out the correct command, they are so deep that they would not hear it. And that is why seawater is so salty.
One bright morning, while Ang-ngalo was climbing to his loftiest cave, he spied across the ocean -- the ocean at the time was pure, its water being the accumulated tears of disappointed goddesses -- a beautiful maid. She beckoned to him, and waved her black handkerchief; so Ang-ngalo waded across to her through the water. The deep caverns in the ocean are his footprints.
This beautiful maid was Sipgnet, the goddess of the dark. She said to Ang-ngalo, "I am tired of my dark palace in heaven. You are a great builder. What I want you to do for me is to erect a great mansion on this spot. This mansion must be built of bricks as white as snow."
Ang-ngalo could not find any bricks as white as snow; the only white thing there was then was salt. So he went for help to Asin, the ruler of the kingdom of Salt. Asin gave him pure bricks of salt, as white as snow. Then Ang-ngalo built hundreds of bamboo bridges across the ocean. Millions of men were employed day and night transporting the white bricks from one side of the ocean to the other. At last the patience of Ocean came to an end; she could not bear to have her deep and quiet slumber disturbed. One day, while the men were busy carrying the salt bricks across the bridges, she sent forth big waves and destroyed them. The brick-carriers and their burden were buried in her deep bosom. In time the salt dissolved, and today the ocean is salty.
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Revised October 21, 2018.