- Grótti, Grotti [ON, Icel.]; Grotti, Grotte [E. trans.]
[Cleasby-Vigfusson does not actually list grotti as an Icelandic common noun meaning "grinder",
but in its entry for Grotti the "magic mill", makes comparisons to Engl. grit, groats, and notes the sea is called Skerja-grotti, Skerry-grinder.]
- The magic mill (or kvern [ON] "quern") which ground out whatsoever it was asked to produce*1.
By some accounts it was given by one Hengikjöptr to King Frodi [Fróði]. It could only be turned by the bondsmaids (ambáttir*2) Fenja and Menja, and King Frodi asked for gold, peace and happiness. Thus it seems probable that the king in question is
Frið-Froði or "Peace-Frodi", Frodi III, the Frodo mentioned in Saxo's History of the Danes.
The king gave them hardly any rest and the angered maidens who sang the "Gróttasöngr" or "Mill Song"*3 of ominous nature.
According to Snorri, the sisters ground out a sea-host and Mysing (Mýsingr) the Sea-King, who slew Frodo and took the mill and the maidens. But the ship sank while they were grinding salt. And where it sank became a whirlpool (svelgr).
Turning the Grotti mill. The inscriptions read "Fenja og Menja / Donsk frumsøgn" in Faroese in silvered letters.
Fenja & Menja featured on a minisheet, issued by Åland in 2004.
— Top of the World page
*1 Snorri's Edda, Skaldskaparmál 42 (FJ 1907 ed. and  Brodeur tr.) = Skalds. 54 (Guðni Jónsson edition); Also selected in Anderson's tr. with selections from Skalds.
*2
While Snorri uses ambáttir (pl. of ambát) for "bondswoman", there is a set phrase
Fróða þýja meldr "Frodi's bondsmaids' flour" as a
kenning for gold, listed in Cleasby-Vigfusson and occuring in a skaldic poem of
Eyvind Finnson, quoted in Haralds saga gráfeldar.
*3 The episode is sometimes also included in some editions of the Poetic Edda as the lay Gróttasongr e.g., Thorpe's tr. of the Poetic Edda translates it as The Lay of Grótti, or The Mill_Song. (This collection also translates Hrafngaldr Óðins and Sólarljóð.)
§ The Maelstrom — various sources
The ocean whirlpool resulting from the sinking of the Grotti mill
is likely to be a reference to the Mosken mælstrom (q.v.)
in the arctic waters off Norway. *1
*1
The Northern Lights route carries articles in English navigable by starting from the The maelstrom page and clicking the pictures. 
Also, its page on  Olaus Magnus carries the maelstrom picture
within a larger cropped frame (mostly in Norwegian, w/ English summary at the end).
§ Snorri Sturluson (ca. 1179 - 1241), Prose Edda: Skaldskaparmál, "the sea"*1
The The Lay of Grótti section under the "periphrases for gold" is not the only place in the Skaldskaparmál "Poetic Diction" where Grotti is mentioned.
Another mention of Grotti occurs in a skaldic verse by Snæbjörn in Skaldskaparmál*1, and it is much studied because
it mentions the name of Amlóði, the Icelandic form of Hamlet.
The poem is analyzed at length by Gollanz in his edition of the saga of "Hamlet the Fool" Amlódi heimski *2, the prince whose real name was
Ambales.
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Sem Snæbjörn kvað:
"Hvatt kveð hræra Grotta
hergrimmastan skerja
út fyrir jarðar skauti
Eylúðrs níu brúðir,
þær er, lungs, fyrir laungu,
líð-meldr, skipa hlíðar
baugskerðir rístr barði
ból, Amlóða mólu."
Hér er kallat hafit Amlóða kvern.
— Prose Edda: Skaldskaparmál
[as quoted in Gollancz, Hamlet in Icel., xi]*2
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As Snæbjorn sang:
They say nine brides of skerries
Swiftly move the Sea-Churn
Of Grótti's Island-Flour-Bin
Beyond the Earth's last outskirt,—
They who long the corny ale ground
Of Amlódí; the Giver
Of Rings now cuts with ship's beak
The Abiding-Place of boat-sides.
Here the sea is called Amlódi's Churn. —Brodeur's trans., Prose Edda: Skaldskaparmál 25 ("periphrases for the sea")
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'Kveða ní brúðir eylúðrs hræra hvatt hergrimmastan skerja grotta út fyrir jarðar skauti, þær er fyrir löngu mólu Amlóða lið-meldr; baugskerðir rístr skipa hliðar ból lungs barði."
—Gollancz's prose rephrasing,
"'Tis said", sang Snæbjörn, "that far out, off yonder ness, the Nine
Maids of the Island Mill stir amain the host-cruel skerry-quern —
they who in ages past ground Amloði's meal. The good Chieftain
furrows the hull's lair with his ship's beaked prow.")
—Gollancz's trans.
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—Finnur Jónsson's prose rephrasing.
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*1 Snorri's Edda, Skaldskaparmál 25 (FJ 1907 ed. and Brodeur tr.); = Skalds. 34 (Guðni Jónsson edition); "Hvernig skal sæ kenna? " "How to periphrase the sea?"
*2
Gollancz, Israel, Hamlet in Iceland (London, 1898). Icelandic text opposite English translation, with numerous supplemental material such as Icelandic rímur (ballad) versions of the tale.
§ Asbjörnsen & Moe
There is a folktale version of the tale, found in Asbjornsen and Moe's
collection *1.
The folktale is categorized under the Arne-Thompson motif index as "AT 565: The magic mill".
Interestingly, the Japanese folklorist Yanagita *2 has collected a tale from the northern regions of Japan, which he must have presumed was oral tradition, but is nearly identical to the Asbjornsen-Moe version.
*1
Asbjørnsen, Peter Christian, 1812-1885 and Moe, Jørgen Engebretsen, 1813-1882.
Norske folke-eventyr, "Kvernen som står og maler på havsens bunn" "The salt mill at the bottom of the ocean".
The tale is included in Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book, "Why the Sea is Salt."
*2
Yanagita, Kunio (1875-1962), Nihon no mukashibanashi, "Umi no mizu wa naze karai?" ("why is sea water salty?" -- collected from Kamihei-gun, Iwate Prefecture).
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