Svartalfheim- Norse LocationLocation · Realm"Land of the Dark Elves"

Born from Ymir

The dwarves came from death. When Odin, Vili, and Vé killed the primordial giant Ymir and shaped the world from his body, maggot-like creatures stirred in the dead flesh. The gods gave them consciousness and humanoid form. So Snorri tells it in the Gylfaginning. The Völuspá offers an older version: the dwarves were shaped from Brimir's blood and Bláinn's limbs, and the seeress recites over sixty of their names in the Dvergatal, a catalogue that includes Durinn ("the Sleepy One") and Nýði ("the Dark One").

However they began, the dwarves made their home underground. Snorri calls it Svartálfaheimr, "home of the dark elves." The Völuspá names it Niðavellir, the "Dark Fields," where a golden hall stands and Sindri's kin dwell. Down there, in the lightless earth, they built their forges.

The Forging Contest

Loki started it. After cutting off Sif's golden hair, the trickster needed replacements, and only dwarf-smiths could make hair that grew. He went to the Sons of Ivaldi, who forged not only Sif's new hair but also the ship Skíðblaðnir and the spear Gungnir. Loki, pleased with himself, then wagered his own head with the dwarf Brokkr that Brokkr's brother Sindri could not forge three treasures to match.

Sindri set to work. He placed a pig's skin in the furnace and told Brokkr to work the bellows without stopping. Loki, transformed into a fly, stung Brokkr's hand. Brokkr kept pumping. Out came Gullinbursti, the golden boar with bristles that lit the dark. Sindri placed gold in the furnace. Loki stung Brokkr's neck. Brokkr kept pumping. Out came Draupnir, the ring that drips eight copies of itself every ninth night. Sindri placed iron in the furnace. Loki stung Brokkr between the eyes, and blood ran into them. Brokkr faltered at the bellows for just a moment.

Out came Mjölnir. The handle was shorter than Sindri intended because of that single flinch. The gods judged the hammer the finest treasure of all, and Brokkr won the wager. He came to collect Loki's head. Loki conceded the head but argued that Brokkr had no right to his neck, and without cutting the neck, the head could not be taken. Brokkr, furious, settled for sewing Loki's lips shut with an awl and leather thong.

The Six Impossible Things

When the gods needed to bind the wolf Fenrir, ordinary chains failed. Fenrir snapped Laeðingr and burst Drómi. The gods sent a messenger to Svartalfheim. The dwarves made Gleipnir, a ribbon as smooth and soft as silk, from six ingredients that do not exist: the sound of a cat's footsteps, a woman's beard, the roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear, a fish's breath, and a bird's spit. The Gylfaginning adds that this is why cats make no sound when they walk and mountains have no roots: the dwarves used them up.

Gleipnir held. Fenrir strained against it and could not break free. A ribbon softer than silk, stronger than any chain, forged from things the world no longer has.

Blood and Verse

The dwarves Fjalar and Galar killed Kvasir, the wisest being in the world, born from the mingled spit of the Æsir and Vanir at their peacemaking. They drained his blood into two vats called Són and Boðn and a kettle called Óðrörir, mixed it with honey, and brewed the Mead of Poetry. Whoever drank it could compose verse or speak wisdom.

When the gods asked what had become of Kvasir, Fjalar and Galar said he had choked on his own knowledge, for no one was learned enough to question him. The lie held. The mead passed from the dwarves through a chain of violence: the giant Suttungr took it after they killed his parents, and Odin eventually stole it from Suttungr in eagle form. But the first drops of poetry were brewed in Svartalfheim, in kettles slick with a wise man's blood.