According to the myths and folklore of the Kran people of Liberia, Gonzuole is a woman who lived alone at the beginning of time, farming her land without any help. Despite the fact that no man ever had sex with her Gonzuole gave birth to beautiful daughters one after the other. The women built a village for themselves in the middle of a forest and guarded it very carefully.

But a group of men soon tricked the women into the open by placing appealing mushrooms outside the village, thus leading to their capture. In the ensuing negotiations, Gonzuole agreed to let her daughters be married to the men, but she declared herself “unfit for a husband” and returned to the forest to live alone. The women couldn’t forget that the men had kidnapped their mother and used witchcraft to wreak havoc in their lives. Similar legends of a secret and closely guarded land of women can be found throughout the world.

See Gefion for a Norse patron of unmarried female virgins.