Norse Mythology

Creatures & Beings

Dwarves in Norse Mythology

Explore the dwarves in Norse mythology: their origin, their role as master smiths, the great magical objects they forged, and the dwarves of the Eddas and sagas.

The dwarves (Old Norse dvergar, singular dvergr) are one of the most important classes of beings in the Norse cosmos. They are small, subterranean beings who live in Svartalfheim (also called Nidavellir), and they are the master smiths of the Norse world. According to the Völuspá of the Poetic Edda, the dwarves were created by the gods from the maggots that bred in the body of the primeval giant Ymir; according to the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, they were created by the gods from the earth and the blood of Ymir, in the form of small maggot-like beings that the gods endowed with reason. Either way, the dwarves are a created class of beings, endowed with reason by the gods, and they are the makers of the great magical objects of the Norse cosmos.

This page is an encyclopedic account of the dwarves: their origin, their world, their role as smiths, the great magical objects they forged, the named dwarves of the Eddas and the heroic poetry, and their place in the Norse imagination.

The Origin of the Dwarves

The Völuspá of the Poetic Edda gives one account of the origin of the dwarves:

“Then the gods sat in their high seats and took counsel together; they remembered the dwarves who had come into being from the blood of the slain, and the bones of the giant.”

The reference is to the dwarves being created from the maggots that bred in the body of the primeval giant Ymir, whom the sons of Borr had slain at the beginning of time. The maggots, given form by the gods, became the dwarves — small, subterranean beings with great skill and great wisdom.

The Prose Edda gives a slightly different account. According to the Gylfaginning, the gods, having killed the primeval giant Ymir, had his flesh become the earth, his bones the mountains, his blood the seas, his teeth the rocks, his hair the trees. The maggots that bred in his body became the dwarves, endowed with human reason by the gods. The dwarves were at first small maggot-like beings, but the gods gave them the form of men, and they multiplied in the earth and in the rocks.

The image of the dwarves as created beings is consistent across the sources. The dwarves are not primordial in the way the giants are; they are a created class, brought into being by the gods out of the body of the slain giant. The dwarves are, in this sense, the maggots of the primeval giant, given form and reason by the gods. The image is a striking one, and it connects the dwarves to the giants in a structural way: the dwarves are the offspring of the slain giant, and they are endowed with reason by the gods.

The World of the Dwarves

The dwarves live in Svartalfheim (the “home of the black elves”) or Nidavellir (the “dark fields”), a subterranean realm of smithies and forges. The location of Svartalfheim is not clearly specified in the sources, but it is generally understood to be a realm below the earth, in which the dwarves have their forges, their halls, and their places of working. The dwarves are also said to live in rocks and mountains, and they are sometimes described as the inhabitants of particular places in the Norse landscape.

The principal hall of the dwarves is Mótsognir (mentioned in the Völuspá as the chief of the dwarves), and the principal named dwarves of the Völuspá’s Dvergatal (catalogue of the dwarves) include Dáinn, Bifurr, Bömburr, Nóri, Án, Ónarr, Mótsognir, and many others. The Völuspá lists the dwarves in a long catalogue, and the catalogue is the basis for the gnomic tradition of the dwarves in later Scandinavian folklore.

The Svartalfheim of the dwarves is closely related to the Nidavellir, but scholars have debated whether the two are the same place or two different names for the same place. The most common reading is that they are the same place viewed from different perspectives: Svartalfheim is the home of the dark elves (dökkálfar) of the Prose Edda, while Nidavellir is the home of the dwarves proper. The Prose Edda sometimes uses the two names interchangeably, but in the most detailed passages, the two are distinguished: Svartalfheim is the home of the dark elves, and Nidavellir is the home of the dwarves.

The Dwarves as Master Smiths

The dwarves are the master smiths of the Norse cosmos. The greatest of the great magical objects of the gods are the work of the dwarves:

  • Mjölnir — Thor’s hammer, forged by the dwarves Sindri and Brokkr
  • Gungnir — Odin’s spear, forged by the dwarves
  • Draupnir — Odin’s gold ring, forged by the dwarves
  • Skíðblaðnir — Freyr’s ship, which can be folded up and put in a pouch, forged by the dwarves
  • Gullinbursti — Freyr’s golden boar, forged by the dwarves
  • The golden hair of Sif — forged by the dwarves to replace the hair that Loki had cut off
  • Brísingamen — Freyja’s necklace, forged by the dwarves
  • Grotti — the magic mill of the Grottasöngr, forged by the dwarves
  • Tyrfingr — the cursed sword of the Hervarar saga, forged by the dwarves
  • Andvaranaut — the cursed ring of the Völsunga saga, forged by the dwarf Andvari
  • The sword Gram — the sword of Sigurd in the Völsunga saga, reforged by the dwarf Regin from the broken pieces of his father’s sword

The list of great magical objects is a mythic technology, a catalogue of the great gifts of the underground to the gods and the heroes. The dwarves are the makers of these objects, and they are the source of the gods’ power. The image of the dwarves as smiths is a fundamental one in the Norse imagination, and it is the basis for the dwarves-as-craftsmen archetype in the later Scandinavian and German traditions.

The Greatest of the Dwarves

The named dwarves of the Eddas and the heroic poetry include:

  • Mótsognir — the chief of the dwarves according to the Völuspá
  • Durin — the founder of the line of the long-beards in the Prose Edda
  • Sindri (or Eitri) — the great smith-brother who forged many of the great objects of the gods, including Mjölnir
  • Brokkr — the other brother, who worked the bellows while Sindri forged
  • Andvari — the dwarf who lived in a waterfall in the form of a pike, and from whom Loki took the cursed ring Andvaranaut
  • Fjalar and Galar — the two dwarves who killed the wise being Kvasir and made mead from his blood
  • Regin — the dwarf of the Völsunga saga who raised Sigurd and who taught him the arts of war
  • Alvíss (“all-wise”) — the dwarf of the Alvíssmál who comes to claim Thor’s daughter; the poem consists of Thor questioning the dwarf about the names of things in the various worlds
  • Brokkr and Eitri’s descendants — including the dwarves who forge the great objects of the gods

The dwarves are often described in the Völuspá in a long catalogue of names, and the catalogue is one of the most striking passages in Old Norse poetry. The dwarves are named in groups of three, with each group led by a chief, and the catalogue goes on for many stanzas. The image of the dwarves as a community with leaders and structure is a strong one, and it is the basis for the dwarven society of the later Scandinavian and German traditions.

The Cursed Treasure of the Dwarves

Several of the great magical objects of the Norse cosmos are cursed, and the curse is a fundamental feature of the dwarves’ creations:

  • Andvaranaut — the ring taken by Loki from the dwarf Andvari, who cursed the ring (and all the gold that Loki took) to bring death and ruin to whoever possessed it. The ring passes through several hands and is the source of the tragedy of the Völsunga saga.
  • Tyrfingr — the sword forged by the dwarves for the hero Arngrímr, with the curse that the sword would kill a man every time it was drawn and would be the death of three evildoers. The sword is one of the great cursed objects of the heroic tradition, and the Hervarar saga tells the story of its many owners.
  • Grotti — the magic mill of the Grottasöngr, which the giant Fenja and Menja turn, and which produces gold, peace, and finally destruction.

The image of the cursed treasure of the dwarves is a fundamental one in the Norse imagination. The dwarves are the makers of great objects, but their objects are often dangerous — they bring death and ruin to their owners. The curse is sometimes read as a mythic image of the double-edged nature of technology: the great gifts of the dwarves are also great dangers, and the gods who possess the great objects are also the ones who will be destroyed by them.

The Dwarves in the Heroic Tradition

The dwarves are central figures in the heroic poetry and the sagas of the Old Norse tradition. The most famous of the dwarven stories are:

  • The Fáfnismál and the Sigrdrífumál of the Poetic Edda, in which Sigurd kills the dragon Fáfnir (who was once a man) and is taught by the Valkyrie Sigrdrífa (another name for Brynhildr) the wisdom of the runes
  • The Alvíssmál, in which the dwarf Alvíss comes to claim Thor’s daughter, and Thor questions him about the names of things in the various worlds, delaying him until the sun rises and turns him to stone
  • The Grottasöngr, in which the giantesses Fenja and Menja turn the magic mill Grotti, producing gold and peace and finally destruction
  • The Hervarar saga, in which the dwarf Dvalinn (or, in some readings, the smith Dvalin’s son) forges the cursed sword Tyrfingr for the hero Arngrímr
  • The Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar, in which the hero encounters a dwarf who is bound under a stone and who gives him a magic sword

The dwarves are also central to several skaldic poems, including the Húsdrápa of Úlfr Uggason and the Þórsdrápa of Eilífr Goðrúnarson, both of which describe the great magical objects of the gods in detail.

The Dwarves in the Cult of the Norse

The cult of the dwarves is closely related to the cult of the underground and the cult of the dead. The dwarves are the inhabitants of the underground, and the cult of the dwarves is in some sense a cult of the underground itself. The dvergablót (“dwarf-sacrifice”) is attested in several sources, and the sacred stones and burial mounds of the Norse world are sometimes understood to be the homes of dwarves.

The dwarves of the local cult are the dwarves of a particular mountain or rock or river, the dwarves of a particular place. The place-names of Scandinavia are full of references to dwarves: the Dvergasteinn (“dwarf-stone”) in Iceland, the Dverghamrar (“dwarf-rocks”) in Norway, the Dvärgesund (“dwarf-strait”) in Sweden, and many others. The dwarves of the local cult are the inhabitants of the local landscape, and they are propitiated by the local cult.

The dwarves are also connected to the cult of the ancestors, in the sense that the ancestors of a great family are sometimes understood to dwell in the underground with the dwarves. The mound of a great ancestor is sometimes understood to be the home of both the ancestor and the dwarves who serve him, and the draugr of the ancestor is sometimes understood to be in the company of dwarves.

The Dwarves and the Alvíss Tradition

The Alvíssmál of the Poetic Edda is one of the most distinctive of the Eddic poems, and it is closely related to the Alvíss tradition of Norse culture. The word alvíss means “all-wise,” and the dwarf of the poem is so named because of his great wisdom. The poem consists of Thor’s questioning of Alvíss about the names of things in the various worlds (the heavens, the clouds, the moon, the sun, the winds, the sea, the fire, the trees, the mountains, the earth, the rocks, the dwarfs themselves, the gods, the giants, the elves, the Aesir, the Vanir), and Alvíss answers each question with a different name in each world. The dwarf, in his answers, displays an encyclopedic knowledge of the various worlds, and Thor, in his questions, displays a cataloguing intelligence that matches the dwarf’s.

The poem ends with a striking image: Alvíss has been answering Thor’s questions all night, and the dawn arrives, the sun rises, and the dwarf is turned to stone by the sun’s rays. The image is one of the most famous in Old Norse poetry, and it is the basis for the elves-and-sun tradition of the later Scandinavian folklore, in which elves and dwarves and trolls are vulnerable to sunlight. The image is also a mythic one: the dwarf, who is a being of the underground, is destroyed by the sun, the bringer of light and life.

The Dwarves and the Dwarven Society

The dwarves of the Norse sources are not just individual figures; they are also a society. The Völuspá’s catalogue of the dwarves presents them as a community with leaders and structure, and the Prose Edda’s accounts of the great objects of the gods present them as a community of craftsmen with great skill and great rivalry. The dwarves are also a political community, with kings and chiefs, and the Dvergatal of the Völuspá is a kind of mythic genealogy of the dwarven community.

The dwarven society of the Norse sources is the archetype of the dwarven society in the later Scandinavian and German traditions. The dwarves of Tolkien’s Middle-earth, the dwarves of the Nibelungenlied, and the dwarves of Wagner’s Ring Cycle are all descendants of the Norse dwarves, and the structural features of the Norse dwarven society (the great smiths, the cursed objects, the underground halls, the kings and chiefs) are preserved in the later traditions.

The Dwarves and the Later Scandinavian Folklore

The dwarves of the Norse sources are the ancestors of the little people of the later Scandinavian folklore. The nisse (or tomte) of the Scandinavian farm, the tusser of the Danish countryside, the underjordisk (“subterranean”) of the Norwegian tradition, and the dvärg of the Swedish tradition are all descendants of the older Norse dwarves, and the stories of the later folklore (the nisse who brings gifts, the underjordisk who guards treasure, the tusser who builds churches at night) are the descendants of the older Norse stories.

The transformation is a complex one, and it involves the Christianization of the older dwarf-figures, the assimilation of the older dwarf-figures to the Christian idea of the devil or the demon, and the domestication of the older dwarf-figures as the small and useful beings of the Scandinavian farmhouse. The nisse of the Scandinavian farm is in some sense a descendant of the older Norse dwarf, but the two are not the same figure: the nisse is a household spirit, while the older Norse dwarf is a cosmic figure of the underground.

The Dwarves and the Dwarven Society

The dwarves of the Norse sources are not just individual figures; they are also a society. The Völuspá’s catalogue of the dwarves presents them as a community with leaders and structure, and the Prose Edda’s accounts of the great objects of the gods present them as a community of craftsmen with great skill and great rivalry. The dwarves are also a political community, with kings and chiefs, and the Dvergatal of the Völuspá is a kind of mythic genealogy of the dwarven community.

The dwarven society of the Norse sources is the archetype of the dwarven society in the later Scandinavian and German traditions. The dwarves of Tolkien’s Middle-earth, the dwarves of the Nibelungenlied, and the dwarves of Wagner’s Ring Cycle are all descendants of the Norse dwarves, and the structural features of the Norse dwarven society (the great smiths, the cursed objects, the underground halls, the kings and chiefs) are preserved in the later traditions.

The Dwarves and the Norns

The relationship between the dwarves and the Norns is a complex one. The Völuspá distinguishes between Norns of the gods, Norns of the elves, and Norns of the dwarves, suggesting that each of the principal classes of beings has its own kind of fate. The dwarves, in this sense, are subject to a dwarven fate, distinct from the fate of the gods, the giants, or the elves. The dwarven fate is a subterranean fate, the fate of the underground, and it is governed by the dwarven Norns.

The image of the Norns of the dwarves is one of the more obscure in the Völuspá, but it is suggestive: the dwarves are subject to a kind of fate that is distinct from the fate of the gods, and the dwarven Norns are the weavers of this dwarven fate. The image matches the broader structure of the Norse cosmos, in which each class of beings has its own kind of fate and its own kind of Norns.