In these ancient times, Gylfi was the master (no ‘kings’ existed in Scandinavia at this time) of a large country, that we now call Sweden.Gefjon was one of the Æsir goddesses, as are the two goddesses we all know: Freyja, goddess of love, and Frigg, goddess of the hearth and home.As the god Odinn (Óðinn), she knew all of örlög (pronounce ‘ö’ as in German), i.e. everyone’s past, present and future. Our words ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’ mostly refer to the future whereas all that is ‘ourselves’ is contained in our timeless örlög.
There is an unfortunate tendency to engrave in our children’s brains the view that our lives are divided into past, present and future.Each of the three is inextricably related to the other two and it is meaningful to ‘unlearn’ this engraving so as to learn how much roots and branches of each one are tangled up with those of the other two ones.
She thus knew that the Æsir’s örlög called them towards the Northern realms: Odinn and her agreed of a scheme in order to shake Gylfi’s self-confidence in such way that he would not stir when they will settle in Sweden. They thought that the best way to achieve this goal was to show Gylfi how a ‘weak woman’ of the Æsir could remove an enormous territory from Sweden and him be unable to react against it. The heart of the idea was to draw a large part of Sweden nearby Denmark, where she could settle.
First of all, she knew that it would need quite an amount of strength to carry all this land. She thus went to the Giants’s residence and chose there a robust companion with whom she had four children. She then took road for Sweden in order to carry out her own Gylfaginning (Gylfi’s deception). She disguised herself as an itinerant poetess, a kind of beggar, so that she could join Gylfi’s companionship. Her songs were so beautiful, her poems so enthralling and her dances so lascivious that she was quickly allowed to perform in front of Gylfi. When she wished to leave, she asked her due. Gylfi, who believed to pull through cheaply, said to her that, as a reward, she was allotted as much ground as four oxen could plow in one day. That was the contract, Gylfi’s oath, acknowledged by Gefjon… no one could get away from it (in these times!). Here comes the ‘fraud’ by which Gylfi has been deceived: She pushed Gylfi to reward her with arable land and she knew that as a miser he might be, she could change any small holding into an immense territory. And here is how she could carry out her deception. Gefjon gathered her four half-giants sons, gave them the appearance of oxen and put them in front of a plough. The plough dug so deep and so broad that it took along with it a whole territory. The oxen went towards the west up to the sea and left their burden in it, between Denmark and Sweden. Thus the island of Zeeland was created, in the east of Denmark, where Copenhagen stands today. In Sweden, the torn off ground was replaced by a large hole that produced lake Mälar, placed at the North-West of what became Stockholm. It is said that this explains why the same angles show around the lake and around Zeeland. Let you judge yourself the relevance of this explanation.
Lake Mälar (Sweden) and Island of Zeeland (Denmark) The grounds torn off in Sweden were not cut out well precisely, which is not surprising. Or:the old ones had really much imagination! Modern people found another lake they claim better fitting to New Zealand, though not so convincingly either.
Gylfi quickly understood thus that it was no good to oppose the Æsir and made his peace with Odinn. He raised no objection when Odinn self-endowed a territory near the northern bank of lake Mälar, in a city called Old-Sigtuna, nor when he allocated fields to each one of Æsir, as the chart below partially shows.
Niord (Njörð) at Noatun Freyr at Uppsala Odinn at SigtunaHeimdall at Himinbiorg (Himmelsberga?)
It seems that the names of the places hosting Thor (Þórr), Thrudvang, and Baldr, Breidablik, became musical groups, clubs of sport and hotels. I do not know the mystery by which a city in the north of Norwayhas been named Noatun.
Gylfi was still very upset and wanting pry better knowledge of these Æsir who so easily acquired territories out of his. He thus went on a secret journey towards the gods’ home, Asgard (Ásgarðr). The Æsir were quickly acquainted with this travel. They had made it a rule that no one of humankind could come out alive of their home place. As a reward for Gylfi’s hospitality (or wisdom), they welcomed him in a fictional castle. Gylfi believed that he was cheating on the Æsir when prying on them in this way. Thus, when asked his name, he declared being Gangleri, since he believed that this could protect him from the Æsir’s probable future wrath. This double deception shows how much each part was wary of the other one – and how dangerous was Gylfi’s travel. He then asked if he could meet a knowledgeable person. The answer was it that was quite possible but that, if he did not show himself knowledgeable enough, he was likely to be put to death. Another feature of these times is that deadly fights could take place in the form of competitions in knowledge, poetry or riddle answering. Gangleri- Gylfi hardly had any choice so that he launched a lengthy questioning on the nature of the Æsir gods. This is told in Gylfa-Ginning (Gylfi’s deception – who deceived whom?) that Snorri Sturluson wrote much later, more than 200 years after Christendom had been introduced in Scandinavia. The story does not end up in slaughter: seemingly, the gods considered his questions so relevant that they spared his life.
Perhaps did the Æsir know all of Snorri’s örlög?