Why the Sea Is Salt

Discover a little mill that can grind anything in a Norwegian folktale for children about knowing when enough is enough, from Asbjørnsen and Moe.

Region: Norway (Scandinavian folk tradition)
Category: Folk & Fairy Tales
Ages: From 4, with three reading levels (ages 4–6, 7–9 and 10+)
Languages: English, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish

About the legend

Being: Trolls and a magic hand mill
Cultural meaning: In old Norwegian folk belief, giants and trolls were thought to live inside the mountains, and trolls were named after the places they lived, such as mountain trolls and forest trolls. One old story tells how the underground folk came to a farm every Christmas Eve, drove the people out and helped themselves to the Christmas food. That is why this retelling lets trolls, not the devils of Asbjørnsen and Moe's tale, bid for the ham. The magic mill will start for anyone who owns it, but only someone who knows how to stop it can use it safely.
Fun fact: The real sea is salty because rain slowly wears away rocks on land. Streams and rivers carry tiny bits of salt from those rocks out to the sea, and more salt comes up through openings in the seafloor. Over time, the salt has built up in the sea.

Cultural notes

«Kvernen som står og maler på havsens bunn» (The mill that stands grinding at the bottom of the sea) is a Norwegian folk tale published by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr; in the 1852 edition it is no. 50. George Webbe Dasent translated it into English as 'Why the Sea is Salt' in Popular Tales from the Norse (1859). Stories that explain the salty sea are told in many forms in different countries, and a much older Norse tale does it in a similar way. In the Younger Edda of the Icelander Snorri Sturluson (1178–1241), King Frode has a mill called Grotte, whose two millstones grind whatever is asked of them, and two large, strong maid-servants, Fenja and Menja, must turn it. The sea-king Mysing carries off the mill and the two women and has them grind salt. In the middle of the night they ask whether he has salt enough; he bids them grind more, and soon the ship sinks. The Younger Edda adds that a whirlpool arose where the sea runs into the mill's eye, and that is how the sea became salt.

About this retelling

Traditional tale, retold for children A retelling of the Norwegian folk tale about the magic mill that grinds at the bottom of the sea, from Asbjørnsen and Moe's Norske Folkeeventyr.

Based on «Kværnen, som staaer og maler paa Havsens Bund» in Asbjørnsen and Moe's Norske Folkeeventyr. The rich and the poor brother, the ham on Christmas Eve, the old man chopping Christmas firewood, the hand mill behind the door, the Christmas table ground from nothing, the feast on the third day of Christmas, the flood of herring and porridge at hay time, the farm by the sea that shines with gold and the skipper who sinks his ship with salt all come from the tale. In the original, the rich brother tells the poor one to go to Hell, and the devils bid for the ham; here he is sent to the trolls under the mountain, and what the trolls offer is added. The poor brother lets out his secret after drinking too much; here he is simply too happy to keep it. The rich brother nearly drowns in his porridge; here he wades out. In the tale the poor brother asks three hundred more to take the mill back; here the rich brother offers them and Arne says no. The tale covers the whole farm in gold; here only the roof. The tale ends as the ship sinks; here the crew row safely ashore. The names Arne, Kari, Rolf, Magnus and Ola are added, and so are the old man's words about knowing when to stop, 'That is enough' as the words that stop the mill (the tale never says how it is stopped), Arne's 'We have enough', and the scene on the beach. The sailor's question 'Isn't that enough?' is borrowed from the older Norse tale of the mill Grotte.

Sources

Themes

contentment
self-control
keeping promises
wisdom
Why the Sea Is Salt
Kvernen som står og maler på havsens bunn
Asbjørnsen and Moe
Norske Folkeeventyr
magic mill
hand mill
trolls
Christmas Eve
two brothers
herring and porridge
salt
sea
skipper
Grotte
Norwegian folk tale