Gefjon

In Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda Gefjon is granted 'one plough-land' by King Gylfi; she takes four oxen from Jötunheimr — said to be her sons by a jötunn — and ploughs so deeply that she uproots a tract of land, which she draws out into the sea to become the island of Zealand while the pit left behind becomes a lake in Sweden (Snorri aligns this with Lake Mälaren though he notes other geographies such as Vänern have been suggested). Heimskringla presents a euhemerized account in which Gefjon is associated with Odense and is said to marry the legendary Danish king Skjöldr, placing her among ancestral/royal figures in saga-historic prose.

Primary source descriptions supply no sustained physical portrait of Gefjon beyond narrative scenes and poetic imagery. The Prose Edda and associated skaldic verses portray her in the act of ploughing with four swift oxen (her sons), and the Poetic Edda (Lokasenna) records her as a speaking participant among the gods. Kennings and skaldic usage place her as a known divine name in verse but do not provide detailed bodily features.

Texts attribute cosmological and social functions to Gefjon rather than enumerated magical rites. Her signature mythic act is land-creation by ploughing (Prose Edda, Heimskringla): by enlisting four oxen she removes land to form Zealand. Snorri's prose also describes her as a virgin and states that 'all who die as virgins attend her,' indicating a named post-mortem association. In Lokasenna Odin defends her, saying she 'knows the destinies of mankind just as well as Odin himself,' which associates her with foresight or knowledge of fate. She appears among the ásynjur at Ægir's feast and is used as a name in skaldic kennings.