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In the Lokasenna,
Loki responds in the stanza 34, stating that "from here you were sent east as hostage to the gods" (a reference to the Æsir-Vanir War) and that "the daughters of Hymir used you as a pisspot, and pissed in your mouth."[9]
Loki spake:
- "Be silent, Njorth; | thou wast eastward sent, To the gods as a hostage given; And the daughters of Hymir | their privy had When use did they make of thy mouth."
Why did the daughters of Hymir urinate in Njord's mouth?
Loki's insults in the poem Lokasenna aren't necessarily truthful. The Norse, like other medieval people including the Scots and the Inuit, had a traditon of insult contests called flyting that served to show off verbal cleverness and channel agression. There are many examples of this in Norse sagas, where people insult each other in ways that aren't even physically possible.
We know two important things about Njord: 1) he was sent as a hostage to the Aesir to end the war between them and the Vanir gods, and 2) he married a giantess (Skadi) to keep peace between the gods and giants, and it ended when she left him.
There has been a lot of discussion about whether Njord may also have been sent as a hostage to the giants, but if you take the two facts above and add to it the story of how the giantess Gjalp nearly drowned Thor by pissing into a river he was trying to cross, you can see how Loki was inspired.
The fact that in the story of Njord and Skadi the sea-god seems particularly passive, not even getting a say in being married off to the giantess, may also have contributed. After all, an insult doesn't have to be true, it just has to be funny and likely to stick, which means it should have some basis in a person's behaviour or appearance.
If you read stanza 33 and 35 you'll have more clues.
Hymir's daughters are the names of different waves. In Hymir's poem they travel to Eliwaves. The water in Eliwaves gets heated (the source of Hvergelmer) by Muspelheim. If you cross Eliwaves you will come to the kingdom of giants.
Urine contains inorganic salts etc. So, if the daughters (i.e. waves) do not "piss" in Njorth's mouth you will not have saltwater, right?
One reason to use salt in boiling water is to increase the boiling point of the water. So the water will have a higher temperature. Salted water actually boils more quickly.
Salt may help protect metal pots from corrosion. Salt also affects flavor. Affects flavor of mead maybe?
Njorth is also father of Frey, Frey who is the king of Elves. Elves is a type of soil. If you pour water in to soil you will eventually see plants grow.
But you can also read it from other perspectives as well! ;)
