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A firm rotating sky
roof must have a central axle, horizontal if viewed from the
equator. The rotating motion should cause a whirlpool
if the axle was located in the sea. The Polynesians knew that the
axle would turn upwards when the viewer moved away from the equator,
becoming vertical somewhere far in the north - below the North Star.
"... Snorri Sterluson
explains why 'Frodi's grist' is a kenning for gold. Frodi ruled
during a peaceful and productive period, contemporaneous with
Augustus's Pax Romana and the birth of Christ; hence the
kenning. There were neither thieves nor robbers during this period,
'so that a gold ring lay long on Jalang's heath'.
Snorri continues
his account with the legend of the mill beyond what is told in the
song: The girls' grinding produced an army hostile to Frodi. On the
very day of the girls' predictions, the sea-king, Musing (Son of the
Mouse), landed o the Danish shore, killed Frodi, and took away
Grotti and the women on his ship.
The girls were
bidden to grind out salt on the mill. At midnight they asked for
further instructions. 'Keep grinding', he told them. Then they
ground with such vigor that the ship sank. Water poured into the eye
of the mill, creating the maelstroem of the sea. Therefore the sea
was salt. Incidentally, the mill was given a kenning, Serpent's
Couch." (Worthen)
Olaus Magnus located
a whirlpool outside Helgoland, 'Helalandia, terra nobilium', (ref.
Hamlet's Mill):
Curiously it is
located in the midst of three islets, just as we would expect a
similar whirpool to be found outside the southwest corner of Easter
Island. There should be two holes, though, also one at winter
solstice.
In the dialect of
Easter Island a whirlpool is ure
tiatia moana.
Moana is the
deep sea (in contrast to tai, the shallow sea close to land)
and the intensified tia is worthy of a closer look:
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Tia (Tiha G) .To
sew. T Mgv.: tia, to prick, to pierce, to stick
in. Churchill.
Ta.: tia, the lower belly. Mq.:
tia-kopu, pubes. Ma.: tia, the lower
abdomen. Tiahonu, to piece together. Mq.:
tuhonu, to mend, to patch. Ma.: tuhonu, to
join. Churchill.
Mq.: tiaha, drinking cup. Ha.:
kiaha, a cup, a mug. Tikao, to dig out, to
disembowel. Ma.: tikaro, to dig out of a hole.
Churchill. |
Fornander:
"KIA.
s. Haw., pillar or inner post of
a house supporting the roof, any kind of
pillar or post, a mast of a vessel;
kia-aina, a supporter of the land, a
governor of a province.
Marqu.,
tia, id.
Sam.,
ti'a, the stick used in tanga-tia,
a man's head (abusively); tia-pula,
taro-tops cut off for planting.
Sunda,
tihang. Mal., tiang, a
pillar.
Greek,
κιων, a
pillar, support of the roof, the
identical sense of the Polynesian usage
of the word. Liddell and Scott give no
etymology or connections of
κιων."
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The pillar upholding
the sky roof would have been called kia by the Hawaiians, I
think. A rotating pillar is like a screw and it will fit into the hole
of the mill.
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