Gefion fountain
Encyclopedia
Fountain
A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....
on the harbour front in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. It features a large-scale group of animal figures being driven by the legendary Norse goddess
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
, Gefjun. It is located in Langelinie Park next to Kastellet
Kastellet, Copenhagen
Kastellet, located in Copenhagen, Denmark is one of the best preserved fortifications in Northern Europe. It is constructed in the form of a pentagram with bastions at its corners...
and is the largest monument in Copenhagen and used as a wishing well
Wishing well
A wishing well is a term from European folklore to describe wells where it was thought that any spoken wish would be granted. The idea that a wish would be granted came from the idea that water housed deities or had been placed there as a gift from the gods, since water was a source of life and...
.
History
The fountain was donated to the city of Copenhagen by the Carlsberg Foundation on the occasion of the brewery’s 50-year anniversary. It was originally supposed to be located in the main town square outside city hall, but it was decided instead to build it near the Øresund in its current location near KastelletKastellet, Copenhagen
Kastellet, located in Copenhagen, Denmark is one of the best preserved fortifications in Northern Europe. It is constructed in the form of a pentagram with bastions at its corners...
("The Citadel").
It was designed by Danish artist Anders Bundgaard, who sculpted the naturalistic figures 1897-99. The basins and decorations were completed in 1908. The fountain was first activated on July 14, 1908.
The fountain underwent extensive renovations starting in 1999. The fountain was out of commission for many years, and was re-inaugurated in September 2004.
Iconography
The fountain depicts the mythical story of the creation of the island of Zealand on which Copenhagen is located. The legend appears in RagnarsdrápaRagnarsdrápa
Ragnarsdrápa is a skaldic poem composed in honour of the Scandinavian hero Ragnar Lodbrok. It is attributed to the oldest known skald Bragi Boddason who lived in the 9th century, and composed for the Swedish king Björn at Haugi. Bragi describes the images on a decorated shield which Ragnar had...
, a 9th century Skald
Skald
The skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...
ic poem recorded in the 13th century Prose Edda
Prose Edda
The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda or simply Edda, is an Icelandic collection of four sections interspersed with excerpts from earlier skaldic and Eddic poetry containing tales from Nordic mythology...
, and in Ynglinga saga
Ynglinga saga
Ynglinga saga is a legendary saga, originally written in Old Norse by the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson about 1225. It was first translated into English and published in 1844....
as recorded in Snorri Sturluson's
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
13th century Heimskringla
Heimskringla
Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
.
According to Ynglinga saga, the Swedish king Gylfi
Gylfi
In Norse mythology, Gylfi, Gylfe, Gylvi, or Gylve was the earliest king in Scandinavia recorded. The traditions on Gylfi deal with how he was tricked by the gods and his relations with the goddess Gefjon.-The creation of Zealand:...
promised Gefjun the territory she could plow in a night. She turned her four sons into oxen, and the territory they plowed out of the earth was then thrown into the Danish sea between Scania
Scania
Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
and the island of Fyn
FYN
Proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase Fyn is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the FYN gene.This gene is a member of the protein-tyrosine kinase oncogene family. It encodes a membrane-associated tyrosine kinase that has been implicated in the control of cell growth...
. The hole became a lake called Lögrinn and Leginum (locative). Snorri identifies the lake Löginn, as the lake of Old Sigtuna
Fornsigtuna
Fornsigtuna , Old Sigtun, Sithun, Signildsberg or Signesberg is located in the parish of Håtuna ca 4 km west of the modern town of Sigtuna, by lake Mälaren, in Sweden...
west of Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, i.e., Lake Mälaren
Mälaren
Lake Mälaren is the third-largest lake in Sweden, after Lakes Vänern and Vättern. Its area is 1,140 km² and its greatest depth is 64 m. Mälaren spans 120 kilometers from east to west...
, an identification that he returns to later in the Saga of Olaf the Holy. The same identification of Löginn/Leginum as Mälaren appears in Ásmundar saga kappabana
Ásmundar saga kappabana
Ásmundar saga kappabana is the saga of Asmund the Champion-Killer, a legendary saga from Iceland, first attested in the manuscript Stockholm, Royal Library, Holm. 7, 4to, from the first half of the fourteenth century...
, where it is the lake by Agnafit
Agnafit
Agnafit or Agnefit was the name of a location where Lake Mälaren met the Baltic Sea. In the 14th century, an addition to the Historia Norwegiae described Agnafit as being where Stockholm had been founded...
(modern Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
), and also in Knýtlinga saga
Knýtlinga saga
Knýtlinga saga is an Icelandic kings' saga written in the 1250s, which deals with the kings who ruled Denmark since the early 10th century....
.
In spite of Snorri's identification, tourist information about the fountain identifies the resultant lake as Vänern
Vänern
Vänern is the largest lake in Sweden, the largest lake in the EU and the third largest lake in Europe after Ladoga and Onega in Russia. It is located in the provinces of Västergötland, Dalsland, and Värmland in the southwest of the country.- History :...
, Sweden's largest lake, citing the fact that modern maps show that Zealand and the lake resemble each other in size and shape.
Snorri, however, was well acquainted with Vänern as he had visited Västergötland
Västergötland
', English exonym: West Gothland, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden , situated in the southwest of Sweden. In older English literature one may also encounter the Latinized version Westrogothia....
in 1219. When he referred to this lake he called it Vænir