According to the Heimskringla Saga, Gefjon is a giantess-goddess who had four sons by a giant. She asked the King of Denmark to give her land, and he told her that she could have as much land as she could plow in a day. She changed her four giant-sons into great bulls and plowed the then-peninsula of Zealand off the mainland, making it into an island, and claimed it as her own. This famous legend is immortalized today in a beautiful fountain in Copenhagen.

Gefjon is a protector of unmarried women, and especially teen girls. She has permission to take them into her hall if they die unmarried. Her name means "giver", and she is a patron of plows and agriculture.She is also a goddess of gift-giving, and can be invoked when one wishes a gift to be accepted with a smile.

Linda Demissy says of her:

Gefjon was a giantess who dreamed of becoming a Goddess. With only farming skills, great strength and determination, she made her way barefoot to Asgard, only to be laughed at by Odin. She pledged to give him whatever he wanted, and he asked for as much land in the human realm as could be crossed in a day by a fast horse. Njord gave her advice and encouragement when she despaired, and she made her plan. By seductive dancing and then sex she won from the Swedish king a promise: to have as much land as she could plough in a day. To Giantland she then returned to bear four sons to the man her parents had promised her to. When they were old enough, she returned to Midgard, and with these sons taking the form of four bulls, she ploughed an island off from the mainland. This is how she paid for and won her place in Asgard. Later she earned Hela’s permission to welcome any willing woman who died unmarried to serve her in working the land.

You can earn her favor by working hard toward your dreams in her name, whatever they may be, and not letting your pride get in the way of your goals. She likes hearty foods, just don’t offer her beef, and prefers to be honored barefoot. The image of a bull, plough, or any tool a farmer would use, may be used as her token. Her name is pronounced “GEF-yon”.

Gefjon’s Bitch Prayer

by Linda Demissy

To stay sane when you are forced to do repulsive things to survive, pray to Gefjon. This prayer is addressed to her and to the ancestral mothers (called Matres, Matrones or Matronae), for we are all descended from long line of women strong enough to live through their hardships.

Ever unfair, was women’s share,

Ploughed as they please, brought to their knees.

Mothers I pray, give strength this day,

To flush my shame, to keep me sane.

The strong they stain, with power plain.

My power lies, in yielding eyes.

Like rubber bend, to never break,

They see defeat, but it is fake.

I am alive, for someone’s sake,

I will do — whatever it takes.

This bitch will win, let roosters fight,

Until the time, they leave my sight.