Gefion Fountain

Gefion Fountain

Introduction Located in Langelinie Park by the harbor of Copenhagen, besides the famous Little Mermaid statue, there is also the world-renowned “Gefion Fountain.” The fountain was created by Danish sculptor Anders Bundgaard based on a legend from Zealand and took ten years to complete, finishing in 1908. Gefion is a goddess in Norse mythology who remained unmarried but bore four sons with the god Thor. Legend has it that in ancient times, King Gylfi of Sweden promised the goddess Gefion that she could take as much land as she could dig from Swedish territory within one day and one night. So, Gefion turned her four sons into oxen and used a plow to tear away a large piece of land from Sweden and move it into the sea. Since then, a lake called Lake Vänern was left in Sweden, and the excavated land became what is now the island of Zealand, where Copenhagen is located. Seen on a map, the coastline of Zealand does indeed resemble the shape of Lake Vänern. This is the legendary origin of Zealand. The fountain consists of a group of bronze sculptures featuring the goddess Gefion, her four oxen, and the plow. Gefion is depicted holding the plow with her left hand and a whip in her right, driving the four bronze oxen as they pull the plow with all their might. The four bronze oxen are bent over, horns straining, pulling the plow with varying postures that are strikingly lifelike. Water sprays from the nostrils of the oxen, resembling a cascading waterfall. The base is surrounded by granite that follows the slope of the pathway, forming a pool where all the water collects. On both sides of the pool, two giant bronze serpents are coiled, with jets of water shooting from both directions directly toward the oxen. In 1959, when Guo Moruo visited Denmark, he wrote a poem praising Copenhagen that included the lines “On Four Sons’ Island (i.e., Zealand), they speak of oxen plowing” and “Fountains spout clouds where seawater levels,” which describe the Gefion Fountain.

Copenhagen, Denmark