Plowed Zealand out of Sweden with four ox-sons. Goddess associated with virginity.
Gefjon (Old Norse Gefjun) is an Asynja described by Snorri in Gylfaginning 1 and Ynglinga saga 5. Her best known myth tells how she visited King Gylfi of Sweden in disguise and asked for as much land as she could plow in one night. Gylfi, underestimating her, agreed. Gefjon then fetched her four sons by a giant and transformed them into enormous oxen. They plowed loose a piece of land that Gefjon dragged out into the sea, and it became the island of Zealand. The hole left in Sweden filled with water and became Lake Malaren.
In Lokasenna 20 Loki accuses Gefjon of selling her body for a necklace, a charge resembling the one leveled at Freyja. Gylfaginning 35 counts her among the Asynjur and links her to virginity: to her come, according to Snorri, those women who die as maidens. This dual character, connected to both virginity and erotic insinuations, has been discussed by scholars such as Simek and Lindow.
Sources in the Eddas
- Gylfaginning 1
- The tale of Gefjon plowing Zealand out of Sweden with her four ox-sons.
- Lokasenna 20
- Loki accuses Gefjon of having let herself be seduced in exchange for a jewel.
Interpretive traditions
A What we know
Gefjon plowed Zealand out of Sweden with her four ox-sons, attested in Gylfaginning 1.
Snorri counts her among the Asynjur and links her to virginity (Gylfaginning 35).
B What we think we know
Gefjon's relation to Freyja and possible identity with her as a fertility figure is debated.
The accusation in Lokasenna 20 may be a flyting topos or reflect an alternative mythic variant.
C What we do not know
Whether the Gefjon myth has an etiological core linked to actual landscape formation is unknown.