Svartalfheim – the World of the Dwarves

Deep beneath the earth, in the half-dark of shafts and forges, lies Svartalfheim – the world of the black elves, as the dwarves are also called. From here come the greatest treasures of the gods: the spear Gungnir, the ring Draupnir, the hammer Mjölnir and Sif's golden hair.

The name (Svartálfaheimr, ‘home of the black elves’) is closely bound to the dwarves and their underground workshop Niðavellir, the ‘dark fields’. In the sources, dwarves, ‘black elves’ and ‘dark elves’ often blur into a single group of skilful beings of the deep.

The forge of the world-order

Without Svartalfheim the power of the Æsir would not exist in this form. Here the sons of Ivaldi made the ship Skidbladnir and the spear Gungnir; here the brothers Sindri and Brokkr won, in a wager, the boar Gullinbursti, the ring Draupnir and Thor's hammer. And here Freyja's famous necklace, the Brisingamen, was dwarf-wrought. Whoever wants the finest work must go down to the dwarves.

“Then sought the gods their assembly-seats, / the holy ones, and council held, / to find who should raise the race of dwarfs / from Brimir's blood and the legs of Blain.”Völuspá 9, translation after Henry Adams Bellows (public domain)

The world of the dwarves

Svartalfheim – "home of the dark elves" – is in Norse cosmology the underground world of the dwarves. In their halls deep beneath the earth lies the realm of the greatest smiths and craftsmen of the nine worlds.

Masters of smithing

From Svartalfheim come the most precious treasures of the gods: Thor's hammer Mjölnir, Odin's spear Gungnir, his ring Draupnir and the golden boar Gullinbursti. The dwarves are the most ingenious craftsmen of mythology.

Dwarves and dark elves

Snorri distinguishes light elves and dark elves; the latter he often equates with the dwarves. This order is not quite clean – but it shows that the underground beings were regarded as skilful and mysterious.

A realm beneath the earth

Svartalfheim lies in the worldview "below", in stone and darkness – there where ore and precious metal are hidden. Thus the dwarf world mirrors the real importance of mining and smithing for the people of the north.

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Mjölnir – Thor's hammer · Midgard · Jötunheim · The Norse pantheon · The Nine Worlds.

Sources & literature

Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál (c. 1220). Völuspá (Dvergatal), English public domain: Henry Adams Bellows (1923). Scholarship: Rudolf Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology; John Lindow, Norse Mythology.

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