Prose Edda — Old Norse facing a living language
Gylfi konungr réð þar löndum er nú heitir Svíþjóð. Frá honum er þat sagt at hann gaf einni farandi konu at launum skemmtunar sinnar eitt plógsland í ríki sínu þat er fjórir öxn drægi upp dag ok nótt. En sú kona var ein af ása ætt, hon er nefnd Gefjun.
King Gylfi ruled the land now called Sweden. The story goes that he gave a traveling woman, in payment for her entertaining him, as much plowland in his kingdom as four oxen could turn up in a day and a night. But this woman was of the Aesir's kin — her name was Gefjun.
Hon tók fjóra öxn norðan ór Jötunheimum, en þat váru synir jötuns nökkurs ok hennar, ok setti þá fyrir plóg, en plógrinn gekk svá breitt ok djúpt at upp leysti landit, ok drógu öxnirnir þat land út á hafit ok vestr ok námu staðar í sundi nökkuru. Þar setti Gefjun landit ok gaf nafn ok kallaði Selund. Ok þar sem landit hafði upp gengit var þar eftir vatn.
She took four oxen from the north, out of Jotunheim — they were her sons by a certain giant — and yoked them to the plow, and the plow cut so wide and so deep that it tore the land loose, and the oxen hauled it out into the sea and west, and came to rest in a strait. There Gefjun set the land down, named it, and called it Selund. And where the land had been torn away, water stood in its place: that is now called the Log, in Sweden, and its bays match Selund's headlands one for one.
Þat er nú Lögrinn kallaðr í Svíþjóð, ok liggja svá víkr í Leginum sem nes í Selundi. Svá segir Bragi skáld gamli: 1. Gefjun dró frá Gylfa glöð djúpröðul óðla, svá at af rennirauknum rauk, Danmarkar auka. Báru öxn ok átta ennitungl, þars gengu fyrir vineyjar víðri valrauf, fjögur höfuð
So says old Bragi the skald: Gefjun drew gladly from Gylfi / a bright stretch of ground — / till sweat rose off the straining team — / and grew Denmark's shore. / The oxen bore eight shining eyes / as they went before, / dragging off the island's wide plunder: / four heads in the team.