World

Whatever happened to old Zealand?

by YankeeJim | September 4, 2010 at 06:18 am

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New Zealand is in the news with the earthquake and all. As everyone knows, it is an island nation in the Southern Hemisphere, a sister to neighboring Australia. From anything I know, it has geography similar to Indonesian islands and is beautiful.

How many people know what happened to “old” Zealand? Where is it, the place after which New Zealand was named?

“Mythology origins

In Norse mythology, the island was created by the goddess Gefjun after she tricked Gylfi, the king of Sweden, as told in the story of Gylfaginning. She removed a piece of land and transported it to Denmark, and it became the island of Zealand. The vacant area was filled with water and became Mälaren.[1] However, since modern maps show a similarity between Zealand and the Swedish lake Vänern, it is sometimes identified as the hole left by Gefjun.”