Gefion
Gefion , also Gefjun , is an Aesir maiden in Germanic mythology , protector of virgins , who owns all who die unmarried, as well as goddess of family and happiness. It is considered as pure as the morning dew.
It is said that Odin asked her to make a beautiful land for the people. King Gylfi of Sweden had given her as a traveling woman, who delighted him with singing, as a reward as much land as four oxen could plow day and night. But she, from the Asen family, took four oxen from Jotunheim , which she had given birth to a giant , and harnessed them to the plow. The plow went so deep that it tore land away from Sweden, whereupon the oxen pulled it away through the sea (meaning Zealand ).
Gefion is said to have been married to Skjöld , Odin's son, and to have lived with him in Lethra , the Danish royal seat on Zealand.
In Loki's “ Disgrace ” (Lokasenna) Gefion wonders why the sir are angry with Loki. She says it is his way of blaspheming and accuses him of hating the sir. Loki attacks Gefion and says that a milk beard gave her jewelry and that she immediately wrapped her thighs around him. Odin then warns Loki not to arouse Gefion's grudge, for she knows as much about the fate of the world as the main god himself.
literature
- A. Olrik: Gefion . In: Danske studier 7, 1910, pp. 1–31.
- Hilda Ellis Davidson: Roles of the northern goddess . Routledge 1998.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Konrad Schwenck : The mythology of the Asian peoples of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Germanic peoples and Slavs . Volume 6, JD Sauerländer 1851, p. 191.
- ^ Karl Simrock : Handbook of German mythology including the Nordic . 1878, ND Boston 2005, p. 339.