King Gylfi ruled the lands that are now called Sweden. It is told of him that he gave a ploughland in his kingdom, the size four oxen could plough in a day and a night, to a beggar-woman as a reward for the way she had entertained him. This woman, however, was of the family of the Æsir. Her name was Gefion. She took from the north, out of Jötunheim, four oxen which were the soils of a certain giant and, herself, and set them before the plow. And the plow cut so wide and so deep that it loosened up the land; and the oxen drew the land out into the sea and to the westward, and stopped in a certain sound. There Gefion set the land for good and gave it a name, calling it "Zealand." And from that time on, the spot whence the land had been torn up is water: it is now called the "Väneren" in Sweden; and bays lie in that lake even as the headlands in Zealand. Thus says Bragi, the ancient skald. Pictured: The Gefion Statue on
Østerbro
