Who Is Gefjon / Gefjon's Four Oxen (her sons) (Gefjun)?
The goddess who plowed away land to make an island
Gefjon
Gefjon is a goddess of the Æsir, the main family of gods in Norse mythology. At the beginning of Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda, she is famous for the story of how she had oxen pull a plow to cut away a piece of land, then hauled it into the sea to create an island.
In this manga, she appears before King Gylfi in the form of a traveling woman. As a reward for entertaining him, she is granted as much land as four oxen can plow in a day and a night. She brings her four sons, whom she had with a giant, from Jotunheim, the land of the giants in the north, and turns them into oxen. The plow cuts so deep that the land breaks free and is dragged west into the sea, becoming the island of Zealand (in present-day Denmark). On the Swedish side, where the land was taken, water gathered and formed a lake.
In Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, the Gefion Fountain shows Gefjon driving her four oxen. In another section of the same Prose Edda, Gefjon is described as a maiden goddess.
