HOW THE SEA BECAME SALT

: Stories To Tell Children

This story was told long ago by our Northern forefathers who brought it

with them in their dragon ships when they crossed the North Sea to

settle in England. In those days men were apt to invent stories to

account for things about them which seemed peculiar, and loving the sea

as they did, it is not strange that they had remarked the peculiarity of

the ocean water and had found a reason why it is so different from the

ater in the rivers and steams.



This is not the only story that has come down to tell us how people of

old accounted for the sea being salt. There are many such stories, each

different from the other, all showing that the same childlike spirit of

inquiry was at work in different places, striving to find an answer to

this riddle of nature.



* * * * *



There sprang from the sons of Odin a race of men who became mighty kings

of the earth, and one of these, named Frode, ruled over the lands that

are called Denmark.



Now about this time were found in Denmark two great millstones, so large

that no one had the strength to turn them. So Frode sent for all the

wise men of the land and bade them examine the stones and tell him of

what use they were, since no one could grind with them.



And after the wise men had looked closely at them and read the magic

letters which were cut upon their edge, they said that the millstones

were precious indeed, since they would grind out of nothing anything

that the miller might wish.



So King Frode sent messengers over the world to find for him two

servants who would be strong enough to grind with the millstones, and

after a long, long time his messengers found him two maid-servants, who

were bigger and stronger than anyone in Denmark had ever seen. But no

one guessed that these were really Giant-Maidens who bore a grudge

against all of the race of Odin.



Directly the Giant-Maidens were brought before Frode, and before they

had rested after their long journey, or satisfied their hunger, he bade

them go to the mill, and grind for him gold and peace and happiness.



"They sang and swung

The swift mill stone,

And with loud voice

They made their moan.

'We grind for Frode

Wealth and gold

Abundant riches

He shall behold.'"



Presently Frode came into the mill to see that the new servants were

performing their task diligently. And as he watched them from the shadow

by the door, the maidens stayed their grinding for a while to rest.



The greedy man could not bear to see even an instant's pause, and he

came out of the shadow, and bade them, with harsh words, go on grinding,

and cease not except for so long as the cuckoo was silent, or while he

himself sang a song. Now it was early summer-time, and the cuckoo was

calling all the day and most of the night.



So the Giant-Maidens waxed very wroth with King Frode, and as they

resumed their labours they sang a song of the hardness of their lot in

the household of this pitiless King.



They had been grinding out wealth and happiness and peace, but now they

bade the magic stones to grind something very different.



Presently, as the great stones moved round and round, Frode, who still

stood by, heard one chant in a low, sing-song voice,--



"I see a fire east of the town--the curlews awake and sound a note of

warning. A host approaches in haste, to burn the dwelling of the king."



And the next took up her song,--



"No longer will Frode sit on his throne, and rule over rings of red gold

and mighty millstones. Now must we grind with all our might--and,

behold! red warriors come forth--and revenge, and bloodshed, and ruin."



Then Frode shook from head to foot in his terror, for he heard the tramp

of a mighty host of warriors advancing from the sea. And as he looked

for a way of escape, the braces of the millstones broke with the strong

grinding, and fell in two. And the whole world shook and trembled with

the mighty shock of that breaking.



But through the crash and din came the voices of the Giant-Maidens,

loudly chanting,--



"We have turned the stone round;

Though weary the maidens,

See what they have ground!"



And that same night a mighty sea-king came up and slew Frode and

plundered his city.



When he had sacked the city, the sea-king took on board his ship the two

Giant-Maidens, and with them the broken millstones. And he bade them

begin at once to grind salt, for of this he had very scanty store.



So they ground and ground; and in the middle of the night, being weary,

they asked the sea-king if he had not got salt enough.



But the sea-king was hard of heart, like Frode, and he roughly bade them

go on grinding. And the maidens did so, and worked to such effect that

within a short time the millstones had ground out so much salt that the

weight of it began to sink the ship. Down, down it sank, ship and giants

and millstones, and in that spot, in the very middle of the ocean, arose

a whirlpool, from whence the salt is carried north and south, east and

west, throughout the waters of the earth.



And that is how the sea became salt.