Norse Goddess Magic (16 page)

Call to Gna

Gna—far-traveler—
    swift messenger of Frigg,
    rider of Hofvarpnir—

You who soar through the high towers of the sky,
You who speed through the dark currents of the sea,
You who are the eyes and ears of heaven,
    the voice of the goddess.

Loud of laughter, light of limb,
    swifter than light or thought—

You carry the seed to the womb,
    the word to the heart,
    the greeting of kinship and the riot of rumor.

Come to us, wild one,
Carry fame and fancy,
Carry mystery and joining,
Carry our minds and our hearts—

Gna—Messenger—Come!

12

Gefjon

The Worker

Lore

Unlike some of the Asynjur, Gefjon (ON Gefjon; also called
Gefjun) has a clearly established identity of her own and appears in skaldic
poetry, art, and legend as an independent figure, although she has also been
associated and confused with both Frigg and Freyja. Her name means the “giver”
and derives from the ON verb
gefa,
meaning “to give” (with the further
connotation “to give in marriage”). The name
Gefjon
has also been linked
to the OE
geofon
(“ocean, sea”). Gefjon is associated with the Danish
island of Sjelland (Zealand), thought by some to be the center of worship of the
goddess Nerthus, mentioned by Tacitus.
¹
However, there is little
evidence to suggest that Gefjon was thought of as a sea goddess; rather, she is
more strongly connected to agriculture and the land.

The OE word for “gift,”
giefu,
is also the name of an Anglo-Saxon
rune,
gyfu
(Gmc.
gebō
), which means “gift, generosity,
hospitality.” In early Germanic culture, the concepts of gift and giving had a
deeper, more magical meaning than contemporary society gives them. More than the
mere exchange of physical property, a gift symbolized a blending of the minds
and lives of both giver and receiver, a magical state of communion and
inspiration that was heightened when it included exchanges between humans and
gods. Giving cemented the bonds of human society, creating reciprocal ties of
interdependence, quelling feuds and quarrels without bloodshed, and enabling
independent persons and kinship groups to function together for the greater
good. Gifts were required to seal business dealings, solemnify marriages, and
ratify peace treaties and were necessary to make binding almost any agreement or
ceremony.

The Tenet of Hospitality

Hospitality, which was considered a moral obligation by Northern
peoples, included help that friendless travelers could depend on to sustain them
on journeys. Without this concept of generosity travel, trade, and communication
in general would have been hindered, if not impossible, in older times. Between
host and guest existed a sacred bond of reciprocal aid and peace; to do violence
to host or guest was a terrible crime, violating laws both human and divine.
Sagas and legends are full of occasions where enemies were forced to meet
amicably because they were all guests of a host who was anxious to keep
bloodshed from violating his hall. The
gebo
rune also symbolizes ritual
and sacrifice, the divine exchange of gifts between humans and the gods creating
a relationship of kinship and mutual interdependence.

The host-guest relationship and the concept of giving shows up in the major
extant myth pertaining to Gefjon. This story is told twice by Snorri, in the
beginning of the Gylfaginning (ch. 1) in the
Prose Edda
and in the
Ynglinga saga
(ch. 5) of the
Heimskringla
. The skaldic poet Bragi
Boddason the Old also wrote several stanzas about the event, showing that the
story must have been fairly widely known. In the Eddic version, Gylfi, the king
of Sweden, is greatly entertained by a traveling woman who stays at his hall,
and, in return for her merrymaking, he gives her a plot of land as large as she
and four oxen can plow in a day and a night. The woman, who is in reality the
goddess Gefjon, brings from Jotunheim her four sons, fathered by a giant. She
changes them into oxen and with their aid plows up a huge tract of land. The
goddess then proceeds to drag her prize away across the ocean, where it becomes
an island along the coast of Denmark. This island is said to be Sjælland, the
largest of Denmark's islands and the site of the city of Copenhagen. There is a
lake in southeast Sweden, Lake Malaren (Malar), whose indentations are said to
correspond exactly to the headlands of the Danish island. The version of the
tale in the
Heimskringla
is basically the same, with two slight
variations. Here Odin sends Gefjon to Gylfi in quest of land, and the goddess
goes to Jotunheim to conceive her four sons after accepting Gylfi's gift.

The story of a person who makes a seemingly insignificant promise and is
later forced to give more than he bargained for is a common theme in northern
European folk literature and myths. Modern readers may often fail to see why
someone would allow herself to be tricked so, but this is because we no longer
see the idea of giving one's word or a gift to be holy. To break such a bargain
once made would cause a rift in the stability of society itself, and, on a
spiritual level, it would cause unpleasant repercussions in the oathbreaker's
ørlög. Gefjon is often regarded as a patron of Denmark because she gave the
island she won from Gylfi to increase that country's holdings; there is a statue
of her and her oxen in Copenhagen. However, she also has ties with Sweden
because she accepted the king's gift of land in exchange for her entertainment.

The
Ynglinga saga
tells that after winning her island, Gefjon married
the legendary Danish hero Skjold (Scyld), king of Leire and son of Odin, and
with him founded the royal Danish race, called the Scyldings in his honor. (This
is the same Scyld Scefing who shows up at the beginning of
Beowulf
as
that hero's father.) Gefjon is known to have had a sanctuary or place of
sacrifice at Leire, and there are a number of other place-names in Denmark that
could have been derived from her name.

Gefjon's Ties to Agriculture

Because of the Gylfi myth, Gefjon is seen to have a strong
connection with agriculture and especially with plowing. Carvings from the
Viking Age have been found showing a female, assumed to be Gefjon, with her plow
and four oxen. Her connection with oxen or bulls also suggests a fertility
deity, although in her case dealing specifically with fertility of the soil. She
may have been associated with plow-blessing rituals, such as the old Anglo-Saxon
charm to make the land fertile, a thinly Christianized spell performed when
plowing the first furrow of the season, which includes the following invocation:

Erce, Erce, Erce, Erce, Earth Mother
,
Be fruitful now in God's embrace
,
Be filled with food for the use of men
.

The plow was blessed and rubbed with various herbs and all the
types of seeds that would be planted during that year's sowing. Next, the plow
was taken out into the fields and and used to turn the first ritual furrow, into
which a cake made from every kind of grain grown in that region would be
planted. This was done presumably to let the powers that be see the expected
goal.

In Germany people held plow processions, accompanied by dancing and bonfires,
to promote the health of the crops. In some places the young men yoked all the
dancing maidens to the plow and had them draw their piper, who sat on the plow
still piping away, into a lake or river. In other areas they set the plow on
fire and drew it through the fields, a practice similar to the use of burning
sunwheels at Midsummer. Still other regions practiced the custom of allowing
young men to accost unmarried women and make them either pay a ransom or be
yoked to the plow.
²
This also ties in with Gefjon's relationship to
maidens, which will be discussed later.

Ties to Fertility

De Vries speculates that Gefjon and Thor may have been
worshipped together in Denmark as gods of fertility, due to the presence of some
of Thor's place-names close by thought to be connected with Gefjon.
³
However, these same place-names could also be related to Freyja, one of whose
bynames,
Gefn,
comes from the same root as
Gefjon
. The etymology
of both names brings to mind Latin inscriptions found in parts of Germany that
are addressed to female fertility spirits called Gabiae, Alagabiae, and Dea
Garmangabis.
⁴
These spirits are similar in function to the dísir,
female fertility deities associated with Freyja.

Another point of similarity between Freyja and Gefjon is that both are said
to possess a necklace or jewel that they received from a lover. In the Lokasenna
(st. 20), Loki accuses Gefjon of obtaining a
sigli
(a “throat jewel”) as
a result of throwing her leg over a young lover. This contradicts the common
assumption that Gefjon is a virgin, which stems from Snorri's description of her
as a
mær
(“maiden”) in the Gylfaginning (ch. 35). He also states that all
women who die maidens attend her in the afterlife. Gefjon's four giant sons and
her fertility functions certainly seem to give the lie to this picture.

The only other evidence of this connection to virginity is in the Völsa þáttr
section of
Oláfs saga hins helga
in the
Flatejarbók,
where a girl
who opposes the phallic cult worshipped by her family invokes Gefjon, but this
could be merely evidence that Gefjon was seen as an alternative fertility deity.
⁵
The word
mær
does not necessarily indicate a virgin but rather any young
maiden; it can even be translated as “daughter” or “wife.”
⁶
Everything else known about Gefjon suggests anything but a chaste maiden, and
even if she is in charge of dead virgins, it doesn't necessarily mean she was
one herself. Young women between puberty and marriage can be said to symbolize
potential,
⁷
and Gefjon's association with them could be part of her
fertility function.

Gefjon has connections with Frigg as well as with Freyja. Snorri lists her as
the fourth of the Asynjur, and, in the Lokasenna (st. 21), Odin claims that
Gefjon knows the fates of people as well as he does; this echoes another verse
where nearly the same thing is said of Frigg. The
Hymskringla
version of
the Gylfi myth also shows Gefjon connected to Odin, going east in search of land
for him. The picture of Gefjon and her plow is reminiscent of Berchte, who was
often pictured traveling throughout the countryside with her plow and who was
thought to ensure the fertility of the crops.

There is also some evidence that Gefjon was invoked when oaths were taken,
with the phrase “
Sver ek vid Gefjon
[I swear by Gefjon].”
⁸
This is a function similar to that of another of Frigg's goddesses, Var, who
hears marriage vows. Tyr, the god of justice, is also called on to witness
oaths, as are Thor and Ull. This role stems from the whole concept of the gift
as a binding element in a promise and agreement.

Despite similarities and connections with other goddesses, it is apparent
that Gefjon was at some point worshipped as a goddess in her own right,
particularly in Denmark. Her main role seems to be that of a deity of the
fertility of the land and a patron of farming. Farming was a major occupation in
Viking times, practiced by all to some extent, despite any other occupations and
activities they engaged in. Even rulers and other members of the upper classes
took part in day-to-day farming activities, and it is not unusual in legends and
sagas to find a queen out in the butter house.

Farming was the basis of survival and required hard work, flexibility, good
timing, skill, and luck. In the Rígsþula (st. 22) there is a list of some of the
activities of farming, including taming oxen, tempering plowshares, making
carts, building wooden houses and barns, plowing, reaping, and threshing. The
Scandinavian growing season was only about five months long or less, and during
the peak periods of work all the people devoted long days, from dawn to sunset,
to the feverish activity required by the season. After the sowing in mid-April,
many men went off trading, exploring, or viking; in their absence the women of
the house were in complete control of the farm and all related business
activities. During autumn, when all hands were again needed, the men returned
for the reaping and harvest, followed by a long and hopefully pleasant winter in
a comfortable hall. A goddess who ruled over such activity would have to be
strong, vigorous, diligent, independent, and hardy.

Trance