Chapter XXX: Section XI: Gefjun, Eir

The norns or destinies have been previously explained (see p. 190); Nanna will be discussed in connection with Balder, and Freyja, the goddess of love, in connection with Njord and Frey; but there are besides these a few other goddesses, who demand our attention here.

Gefjun is a maid, and all those who die maids become her hand-maidens. Of her there is the following anecdote in the Younger Edda. King Gylfe ruled over the land which is now called Sweden. It is related of him that he once gave a wayfaring woman, as a recompense for her having diverted him, as much land in his realm as she could plow with four oxen in a day and a night.[44] This woman was however of the race of the asas, and was called Gefjun. She took four oxen from the North, out of Jotunheim, (but they were the sons she had had with a giant,) and set them before a plow. Now the plow made such deep furrows that it tore up the land, which the oxen drew westward out to the sea until they came to a sound. There Gefjun fixed the land and called it Zealand. And the place where the land had stood became water, and formed a lake which is now called Logrinn (the sea) in Sweden, and the inlets of this lake correspond exactly with the headlands of Zealand in Denmark. Thus saith the Skald, Brage:

Gefjun drew from Gylfe,
Rich in stored up treasure,
The land she joined to Denmark.
Four heads and eight eyes bearing,
While hot sweat trickled down them,
The oxen dragged the reft mass
That formed this winsome island.

The etymology of Gefjun is uncertain. Some explain it as being a combination of the Greek γῆ, and Norse _fjón_, separation (_terræ separatio_). Grimm compares it with the Old Saxon _geban_, Anglo-Saxon, _geofon_, _gifan_, the ocean. Grundtvig derives it from Anglo-Saxon _gefean_, gladness. He says it is the same word as Funen (_Fyn_), and that the meaning of the myth is that Funen and Jutland with united strength tore Zealand from Sweden. This would then be a historical interpretation.

The derivation from _gefa_, to give, has also been suggested, and there is no doubt that the plowing Gefjun is the goddess of agriculture. She unites herself with the giants (the barren and unfruitful fields or deserts) and subdues them, thus preparing the land for cultivation. In this sense she is Frigg’s maid-servant. Gefjun, the plowed land, develops into Frigg, the fruit-bearing earth; hence she is a maid, not a woman. The maid _is not_, but _shall become_ fruitful.

Eir is the goddess of the healing art, and this is about all that we know of her; but that is a great deal. A healer for our frail body and for the sick mind! what a beneficent divinity!