The Island the Oxen Pulled Away

How did oxen make an island?

A traveling woman came to King Gylfi, who ruled Sweden. To thank her for entertaining him, the king gave her some land: as much as 4 oxen could plow in a day and a night. Her name was Gefjon, and she belonged to the Aesir.

Gefjon brought oxen from the land of the giants in the north. These oxen were her sons, whose father was a giant. When she harnessed all 4 to the plow, it sank deep into the ground. The plow cut so wide and so deep that the land itself broke free.

The oxen dragged the loosened land out to sea and headed west. They stopped in a strait, where Gefjon set the land down. She named it Zealand. A lake remained where the land had been. The shape of its inlets matches the headlands jutting out from the island.

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