Fenja and Menja were a pair of giants said to be behind the salt of the sea. They appeared in Odin's story in "Now Hear Of...," the sixth episode of Twilight of the Gods.
For Fenja "Little Root" see Little Root.
History[]
The sea king's ship.
Though it was unknown if the story was true, the tale of Fenja and Menja was passed down among the jötun. They were sisters, giants sold into slavery to a sea king and chained to a magic millstone aboard his ship. They were made to use the millstone to grind salt, never to stop. The king demanded an endless supply of salt not to eat, but to salt the earth and ruin the lands of his enemies. The king's ship cracked and sank into the sea, but it was said that the sisters continued to mill, which was why there was salt in the sea.[1]
Members[]
Norse origins[]
Fenja and Menja are slave girls from the Norse poem, Gróttasǫngr. They were bought to grind a magic millstone in Gróttasǫngr like they were in Twilight of the Gods, though, in the original poem, they ground wealth for a king rather than salt. They were also tasked with singing for the royals, but in Twilight, they sang for themselves.
Fenja and Menja were descendants of jötun in the original poem and had crafted the magic millstone to which they were chained. They knew how it worked and could grind not only wealth into existence, but warriors to attack the kingdom that chained them. They ground so hard that the millstone broke before the attacking forces arrived. A retelling of the tale in the Prose Edda more closely resembles the version seen in Twilight. A sea king named Mysing had the jötun sisters grind salt, but before long his ship cracked and sank, and when the sea rushed through the center of the millstone, the sea became salty.
The king of the original poem was Fróði, for whom the time of Fróði's Peace was named. Some said he had Fenja and Menja grind this peace into existence with the magic millstone. Fróði's Peace was a time of peace throughout Northern Europe that some believed coincided with the birth of Jesus Christ, which means the story's presence in Twilight is anachronistic. Odin tells the tale in Twilight as though it's an old story, which Sigrid mentions having heard as a child, yet Jesus' presence in the series is still only foretold in an unknown future.
References[]
- ↑ Eric Carrasco, Caitlin Parrish (writers) & Dave Hartman, Andrew Tamandl (directors). September 19, 2024. Twilight of the Gods episode 6, "Now Hear Of...."