For rest we call.”
Thus sang the two giant women; then they begged again: “Give us rest, O Frothi!”
But still Frothi answered: “Rest whilst the verse of a song is sung, or as long as the cuckoo is silent in the spring.”
No longer would the king give them.
Yet Frothi was deemed a good king, but gold and good luck were hardening his heart.
Menia and Fenia went on grinding, and their wrath grew deeper and deeper, and thus at last they spoke.
First said Fenia: “Thou wert not wise, O Frothi. Thou didst buy us because like giants we towered above the other slaves, because we were strong and hardy and could lift heavy burdens.”
And Menia took up the wail: “Are we not of the race of the mountain giants? Are not our kindred greater than thine, O Frothi? The quern had never left the gray fell but for the giants’ daughters. Never, never should we have ground as we have done had it not been that we remembered from what race we sprang.”
Then answered Menia: “Nine long winters saw us training to feats of strength, nine long winters of wearisome labor. Deep down in the earth we toiled and toiled until we could move the high mountain from its foundations. We are weird women, O Frothi. We can see far into the future. Our eyes have looked upon the quern before. In the giants’ house we whirled it until the earth shook, and hoarse thunder resounded through the caverns. Thou art not wise, O Frothi! O Frothi; thou art not wise!”
But Frothi heard them not; he was sleeping the sweet sleep that the quern stones had ground for him.