Norse PantheonRealm
Alfheim
The radiant realm of the light elves, beautiful beings associated with fertility and given to Freyr as a tooth-gift.
About Alfheim
Frey's tooth-gift
Alfheim is the light-elves' realm. Grimnismal says the gods gave it to Frey as a tooth-gift in the morning of time. Snorri distinguishes light elves in Alfheim from dark elves below. That is nearly all the surviving description: brightness, Frey, elves. No ritual calendar for Alfheim survives. The place exists to lodge a people adjacent to the Vanir and to contrast with the underground smiths.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Poetic Edda, Grimnismal
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
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