GrainAleMilkBreadWork done on the landThe first furrow
Invocation Approach
Tone
Steady and generous
Address
GefjonThe Giving OneLady of the Plough
Relationship
The one who makes ground into a country
Warning
She takes her land by ploughing a claim generosity with a claim in it
Resonance
Founders farmers those beginning a place
Symbols
PloughOxenThe islandThe gift
Mythology Summary
Gefjon is the goddess who ploughed Zealand out of Sweden: in Gylfaginning 9, disguised as a wandering woman, she is given as much land as four oxen can plough in a day and night, yokes her four sons by a giant to the plough, and carves the island out of the mainland, leaving the lake that became Vänern behind. Ynglinga saga tells the same story in euhemerised form, with Gefjon among the women of Odin's line, and Snorri says that she is a virgin and that women who die unmarried become her handmaidens. Lokasenna 20 accuses her of having been bought with a jewel, which is the only hostile version.
Modern Practice
Gefjon is called at the founding of a place — a garden, a house, a new beginning on bare ground — and for work that is the land itself. The practice is the first furrow, the physical labour of making a claim, and the gift that is also a demand.