In Norse mythology, Gefjon (Old Norse: ; alternatively spelled Gefion, or Gefjun , pronounced without secondary syllable stress) is a goddess associated with ploughing, the Danish island of Zealand, the legendary Swedish king Gylfi, the legendary Danish king Skjöldr, foreknowledge, her oxen children, and virginity. Gefjon is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson; in the works of skalds; and appears as a gloss for various Greco-Roman goddesses in some Old Norse translations of Latin works.
The Prose Edda and Heimskringla both report that Gefjon plowed away what is now lake Mälaren, Sweden, and with this land formed the island of Zealand, Denmark. In addition, the Prose Edda describes that not only is Gefjon a virgin herself, but that all who die a virgin become her attendants. Heimskringla records that Gefjon married the legendary Danish king Skjöldr and that the two dwelled in Lejre, Denmark.
Scholars have proposed theories about the etymology of the name of the goddess, connections to fertility and ploughing practices, the implications of the references made to her as a virgin, five potential mentions of the goddess in the Old English poem Beowulf (parallelled by mentions in the Old Saxon poem Heliand), and potential connections between Gefjon and Grendel's Mother and/or the goddesses Freyja and Frigg.
Etymology
The etymology of theonym Gefjon (and its variant Gefjun) has been a matter of dispute. In modern scholarship, the element Gef- is generally held to be related to the element Gef- in the name Gefn, one of the numerous names for the goddess Freyja, and likely means 'she who gives (prosperity or happiness)'. The connection between the two names has resulted in etymological interpretation of Gefjun as "the giving one." The names Gefjun and Gefn are both related to the Matron groups the Alagabiae or Ollogabiae.
Albert Murey Sturtevant notes that "the only other feminine personal name which contains the suffix -un is Njǫr-un, recorded only in the þulur [...], and among the kvenna heiti ókend. Whatever the stem syllable Njǫr- represents (perhaps *ner- as in *Ner-þuz>Njǫrðr), the addition of the n- and un-suffixes seems to furnish an exact parallel to Gef-n : Gefj-un (cf. Njǫr-n : Njǫr-un)." The suffix of the name may stem from the Norse 'hjón', literally 'the joined', meaning a household, a loving couple, or even the crew on a ship, particularly a skeið.
A Finnish word kapiot for "bride's outfit, trousseau" may derive from Gefjon's name.
Attestations
Poetic Edda
In the Poetic Edda, Gefjon appears solely in three stanzas of the poem Lokasenna, where an exchange occurs between Gefjun and Loki at a dinner feast, and the god Odin comes to Gefjon's defense. After an exchange occurs between Loki and the goddess Iðunn, Gefjon questions why Loki wants to bring negativity into the hall with the assembled gods:
The last two lines of the stanza above differ greatly by translation. Henry Adams Bellows comments that the manuscript text for these two lines is "puzzling" and that as a result they have been "freely amended." In the stanza that follows, Loki responds to Gefjon, commenting that a youthful male once gave her a necklace, and that with this youth Gefjon slept:
Odin interjects; stating that Loki must be quite insane to incur the wrath of Gefjon, for she knows the destinies of mankind just as well as Odin himself:
Prose Edda
The Prose Edda book Gylfaginning begins with a prose account stating that King Gylfi was once the ruler of "what is now called Sweden," and that he was said to have given "a certain vagrant woman, as reward for his entertainment, one plough-land in his kingdom, as much as four oxen could plow up in a day and night." This woman was "of the race of the Æsir" and her name was Gefjun. Gefjun took four oxen from Jötunheimr in the north. These oxen were her sons from a jötunn (name not provided). Gefjun's plough "cut so hard and deep that it uprooted the land, and the oxen drew the land out into the sea to the west and halted in a certain sound." Gefjun there placed the land, and bestowed upon it the name Zealand. Where the land had been taken from a lake stands. According to Snorri, the lake is now known as Lake Mälar, located in Sweden, and the inlets in this lake parallel the headlands of Zealand; however, since this is much more true of Lake Vänern, the myth was probably originally about Vänern, not Mälaren.