Mysing took with him Grotte
and also Fenja and Menja and bade them grind salt, and in the middle
of the night they asked Mysing whether he did not have salt enough.
He bade them grind more. They ground only a short time longer before
the ship sank. But in the ocean arose a whirlpool (maelstrom,
mill-stream) in the place where the sea runs into the mill-eye: the
Swalchie of Stroma.
The story "Why is the sea salt?" or "How the sea became salt," has
appeared in one form or another among many nations of the world, and
naturally appealed strongly to the imagination of the youth of a
maritime nation like England. The story as told formerly amongst
schoolboys was as follows:
Jack had decided to go to sea, but before doing so he went to see his
fairy godmother, who had a strange looking old coffee-mill on the
mantelshelf in her kitchen. She set the table for tea without
anything on it to eat or drink, and then, taking down the old mill,
placed it on the table and asked it to grind each article she
required. After the tea-pot had been filled, Jack was anxious for
something to eat, and said he would like some teacakes, so his fairy
godmother said to the mill:
"Mill! Mill! grind away.
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