Dwarves and Elves in Norse Myth — Transcript

Hi, I'm Old Norse specialist Dr. Jackson Crawford, and today I want to talk to you about dwarves in Norse mythology, as well as the elves, which may well be the same thing. Now, for this video, as for so many of my others, you have to kind of leave aside the very Tolkien-inspired fantasy definitions of dwarf and elf that we mostly operate with in our TV shows and movies and games and novels and things like that. Tolkien's dwarves, or our typical fantasy dwarves, are not terribly far, maybe, from the Norse mythical concept of a dwarf, but the elves are so ambiguous in Norse mythology that different fantasy series make up a lot of different meanings for elf, and especially the difference between the so-called light elves and dark elves. And we really find only the ambiguity in Old Norse and none of the solutions that are similar to the fantasy literature of our day. So, to begin with the basic vocabulary here, we have "dvergr," which means dwarf. The plural is "dvergar," and then we have "álfr," which means elf. The plural is "álfar" in Old Norse, and these are cognate; they have the same origin as the English words dwarf and elf, respectively. Now, one of the most interesting, or I should say consequential, maybe not always interesting, monuments to the Norse belief in dwarves is actually in the most important, arguably, it certainly the first and most cosmically significant poem in the Poetic Edda, the main source of Norse mythology, and that is Völuspá. And what we have here is a list of dwarf names, often called the catalog of the dwarves, much like the catalogue of the ships that takes up so much of, I think it's book two of the Iliad. But kind of like that, the catalog of the ships in the Iliad doesn't particularly add much to our appreciation as modern readers of that story; the catalog of the dwarves doesn't add a whole lot, probably even less, to our appreciation of Völuspá's grand story of the creation of the Norse cosmos and its destruction at Ragnarok. But here are the dwarf names that we find there, stanzas 10 to 16. I will read in Old Norse and reconstruct pronunciation, and then follow that with a fairly literal Old Norse to English translation. "Þórr of mót so nær, mástr rúm, órðinn de verga, á Lara, endur ing on ór, þeremin leik on morg, gurú Vergara, ór sama Torrans, ugly yolk, needy nor, þriox, III, Elstree, oak, vestry, all over the wall in peeve or poor, Bombur, Laurie on a corner, oh your veneer, vaguer oak, and over in Dover, throw in sack oak, Thorin drawer, Witter Oakley, nor oak near or new heavy act, verga rare in a crossfitter, Red Room, tall de fili, Kili funded Noli, hefty really on our sphere, for horn bori, frag rock, Lonnie Herr, Vanger, yari, Aiken scale, D ball art, verga, it valance Lee, the leona Hindu, tell overs, Talia, they are so - froze, all are staining, our Vanga, short till your of Allah, Tarver tribe, near oak, dog Rossier, or have spory, slave anger, Khloe, skyriver, fear, fear, scoff, either boy, over Envy, Aikens, County jailer, across T thinner, oak kinara, that mu P, made an old live year-long idiot, all low bars, Hobbit." Now, I follow the Codex Regius version of Völuspá, by the way, and numbering these stanzas, and here they are in my published translation of the Poetic Edda: "Then they made most soaked near, they is gods, the Æsir, the beginning of time. He was lord of all the dwarves, and next they made many men like little creatures, dwarves of the earth, and door, and named them Nýi and Níði, nor þr and c þr, s þr, invest þr." By the way, most of these names are pretty difficult to interpret, but we can interpret some of them. Nor þr, c þr, as the Rivest þr are north, south, east, and west. All over, all thief, Diwali, in delayed B for ball 4, Bambara, Nori on and on are oh, we great-grandfather Joseph, it near, that would be like need witness or mead monster, meat the drink, a vague drink, and Gondala, for that is Gandalf. That is one of the other stations of that name. In Old Norse, it would mean something like magic elf or magic staff elf, perhaps monster elf. Vind over, wind elf. Throw in thicker and foreign to be something like dried-up floor. Vitter and litter, there'd be likewise and color, nor corpse, and near other new advised Regan and Rawls fear, that be like lord and counseled wise. Now, I've named the dwarves correctly, but she keeps Cohen, she being that the Völva, the seeress who's narrating this: Fili, Kili, funda, Noli. Fili could be related to the file, smith tool. Noli to nail, course something smith's make, funding women, found hefty, viele, Hanafi, or floor horn bori, horn bearer, Fragger, and lonely out of anger, yari, it can scale, demeaning Oakenshield. Notice he's not the same as Thor. In here, now the names of Darlene's family, the dwarves ascended from Lófi, our Esmond, tell the ones who left their stone halls for a home on the gyro ball, or these were drought near, and the same name is Odin's ring, and dog Rossi, hugs poori, Clevinger, Chloe, scared of a Revere, bitter skull of a thorough. Some of these repeat from the first list. Over elfin envy, also named God roar, a keen scale, D again, Yeller and rusty theater, and gainer. The names of these dwarves, the descendants of Lófi, will be famous as long as the world exists. Well, maybe they haven't been. And in fact, we're not particularly clear why this long series of dwarf names gets inserted here in the middle of Völuspá, in the middle of the Völva the seeress telling us about the creation. But what were the dwarves like? We've got some examples of their names. Well, there's a fairly common expression in Old Norse: someone is "betri dvergr"—a dwarf with regard to size. That seems to always imply that someone is short, so it does seem that dwarves are shorter than human beings. We also see terms like "manlingr," meaning like it's a little bit of a diminutive, like a thing like a man, a little thing like a man, used for dwarves, including in Völuspá, that list just now. The most comprehensive discussion of what the dwarves are like is actually in the Prose Edda. I'd like to emphasize that the Prose Edda, which is the work of Snorri Sturluson, is in many ways a secondary source that's interpreting the same old poems and the Poetic Edda as we are, but Snorri is a secondary source who's 800 years closer to when those poems originated, so he may sometimes know things that are obscure to us. Anyway, in my upcoming translation of the Prose Edda, this is what Snorri has to say about the dwarves: The gods remembered how the dwarves had come to life in the earth, down in the soil like maggots and flesh. The dwarves had been created first and had come alive in the flesh of the first living being, Ymir, a giant, and they were maggots. But the gods decided to give them human intelligence and human-like form, but to live still inside the earth and inside the stones. And indeed, we do see them living inside of stones quite literally. For instance, in the story "Sörla þáttr," where Þórr sleeps with a few dwarves, she actually finds them living inside of a stone and working in a workshop there. They are great craftsmen. So many of the gods' treasures are made by the dwarves. I've discussed in another video how the dwarves made Mjölnir, for instance, Thor's hammer, as well as that Iðunn's, Odin's ring, Skíðblaðnir, the fabulous ship that can be folded up and put in one's pocket, among other treasures, see this golden hair being another. And they do seem to be mostly presented as all male, so they grow up out of maggots in the earth, out of the flesh of this primordial living being, Ymir. Now and then we see hints about female dwarves. There is a girl dwarf in Ágæla saga, and Enda, the saga of Ágæla, one hand, one of the weird mythical heroic sagas. And Völuspá small falls near the dying dragon said that some of the Norns, the beings that determined fate, are from the family of a dwarf. He says some of them are from the family of elves, old butter, and then he says some are two or the Völva's daughters of fallen, one of the early earth names. But anyway, aside from these small hints that there may be female dwarves...

of my others you have to kind of leave aside the very Tolkien inspired fantasy definitions of dwarf and elf that we mostly operate with in our TV shows and movies and games and novels and things like that tokens dwarves or our typical fantasy

dwarves are not terribly far maybe from the Norse mythical concept of a dwarf but the elves are so ambiguous in Norse mythology that different different fantasy series make up a lot of different meanings for elf and especially the difference between the so

called light elves and dark elves and we really find only the ambiguity and Old Norse and none of the solutions that are similar to the fantasy literature of our day so to begin with the basic vocabulary here we have Baedeker which

means Worf the plural is badda Gadda and then we have over which means elf the plural is although an Old Norse and these are cognate they have the same origin as the English words dwarf and elf respectively now one of the most

interesting or I should say consequential maybe maybe not always interesting monuments to the Norse belief and dwarves is actually in the most important arguably it certainly the first and most cosmically significant poem in the poetic Edda the main source

of Norse mythology and that is volar small and what we have here is a list of dwarf names often called the catalog of the dwarves much like the catalogue of the ships that takes up so much of I

think it's a book two of the Iliad but kind of like that catalog of the ships and the Iliad doesn't particularly add much to our appreciation as modern readers of that story the catalog of the dwarves doesn't add a whole lot probably

even less to our appreciation of Bullis pas the grand story of the creation of the Norse cosmos and its destruction at Ragnarok but here are the dwarf names that we find there stanzas 10 to 16 I will read in Old Norse and reconstruct

pronunciation and then follow that with fairly literal Old Norse to English translation thought of our moat so near master room orden de verga a Lara enduring on our theremin leak on morgue guru Vergara or the same Torrance ugly

yolk needy nor 3ox III Elstree oak vestry all over the wall in peeve or poor Bombur Laurie on a corner Oh your veneer vaguer oak and over in Dover throw in sack oak Thorin drawer Witter Oakley nor oak near or new heavy act

verga rare in a crossfitter Red Room tall de fili Kili funded Noli hefty really on our sphere for horn bori frag rock Lonnie Herr Vanger yari Aiken scale D ball art verga it valance Lee the leona Hindu tell overs

Talia they are so - froze all are staining our Vanga short till your of Allah Tarver tribe near oak dog Rossier or have spory slave anger Khloe skyriver fear fear scoff either boy over Envy Aikens County jailer across T thinner

oak kinara that mu P made an old live year-long idiot all low bars Hobbit now I follow the codex regis version of false bar by the way and numbering these stanzas and here they are and my published translation of the Porta cara

then they made most soaked near they is god's the a seer the beginning of time he was lord of all the dwarves and next they may do it they made many men like little creatures dwarves of the earth

and door and named them nui and nithi nor 3 and c 3 s 3 invest 3 by the way most of these names are pretty difficult to interpret but we can interpret some of them nor 3 C 3 as the Rivest 3 are

north south east and west all over all thief Diwali in delayed B for ball 4 Bambara nori on and on are oh we great-grandfather Joseph it near that would be like need witness or Mead monster meat the drink a vague drink and

gondala for that is Gandalf that is one of the other stations of that name it Old Norse it would mean something like magic elf or magic staff elf perhaps monster elf vind over wind elf throw in thicker and foreign to be something like

dried-up floor Vitter and litter there'd be likewise and color nor corpse and near other new advised Regan and Rawls fear that be like Lord and counseled wise now I've named the dwarves correctly but she keeps Cohen she being

that the vulva the serious whose narrating this fili Kili funda Noli fili could be related to the file Smith tool Noli to nail course something Smith's make funding women found hefty viele Hanafi or floor horn bori horn bearer Fragger

and lonely out of anger yari it can scale demeaning Oakenshield notice he's not the same as Thor in here now the names of Darlene's family the dwarves ascended from low of our Esmond tell the ones who left their stone halls

for a home on the gyro ball or these were drought near and the same name is Odin's ring and dog Rossi hugs poori Clevinger Chloe scared of a Revere bitter skull of a thorough some of these repeat from the

first list over elfin envy also named God roar a keen scale D again Yeller and rusty theater and gainer the names of these dwarves the descendants of lava will be famous as long as the world exists well maybe they haven't been and

in fact we're not particularly clear why this long series of dwarf names gets inserted here in the middle of voles Bob in the middle of the vulva the serous telling us about the creation but what were the drawers like we've got some

examples of their names well there's a fairly common expression and Old Norse someone is better girl-- Vaux a dwarf with regard to size that seems to always imply that someone is short so it does seem that dwarves are shorter than human

beings we also see terms like manly gone meaning like it's a little bit of a diminutive like a thing like a man a little thing like a man used for doors including in full spawn that list just now the most comprehensive discussion of

what the tours are like is actually in the prose edda I'd like to emphasize that the prose edda which is the work of Snorri Sturluson is in many ways a secondary source that's interpreting the same old poems and the poetic Edda as we are but Snorri

is a secondary source whose 800 years closer to Windows those poems originated so he may sometimes know things that are obscure to us anyway in my upcoming translation the pros at him this is what's naughty has to say about the

dwarves the gods remembered how the dwarves had come to life in the earth down in the soil like maggots and flesh the dwarves had been created first and had come alive in the flesh of in their the first living being ayaats and her

giant and they were maggots but the gods decided to give them human intelligence and human-like form but to live still inside the earth and inside the stones and indeed we do see them living inside of stones quite literally for instance

in the story sore left author where Troy sleeps with a few doors she actually finds them living inside of a stone and working in a workshop there they are great craftsmen so many of the gods treasures are made by the dwarves I've

discussed in another video how the dwarves made yeol near for instance Thor's hammer as well as that I hope near Odin's ring ski the block nadir the fabulous ship that can be folded up and put in one's pocket

among other treasures see this golden hair being another and they do seem to be mostly presented as all nailed so they grow up out of maggots in the earth out of the flesh of this primordial living being Amir now and then we see

hints about female dwarves there is a girl dwarf and Aguila saga ain't Enda the saga of a go one hand one of the weird mythical heroic sagas and fourth Nia small falls near the dying dragon said that some of the nornes the beings

that determined fate are from the family of a theatre he says some of them are from the family of elves old butter and then he says some are two or the volumes daughters of fallen one of the early to

earth names but anyway aside from these small hints that there may be female dwarves all of the significant dwarf characters and myths and sagas are male so for example we have probably the most famous making the foster-father see over

there the volsung material is said to be a predator and anagen small or in the pros preceding it in the poetic Edda interestingly he's also called a yo ton in that same poem so that implies that maybe dwarves are considered to be

somehow related to the Oulton are possibly because of the way they grew up in in in the flesh of the original yield center in there or maybe these categories are just really vague and shifting an anomalous and Old Norse and

I think maybe that's more likely we see besides the fact that they're excellent Smith's who make great crafts and tools and weapons that one of the really defining characteristics of dwarves and Norse mythology's they shape-shift into animals or sometimes just live as

animals the volsung legends are full of these with for instance otter who is literally an otter but a dwarf on the body who is a fish but a dwarf and Fafnir who becomes a dragon but is originally a dwarf so there's a there's

something about this and this is these aren't the only dwarves just the ones in in the saga the bull seems but you see several examples of them turning into animals so they have some kind of special magical or other relationship

with animals and often live as then other important dwarves include the aforementioned no authority vested is-3 and su3 north west east and south who hold up the four corners of the earth now what could be the difference between

dwarves and elves so we see like I said a fairly defined idea of what a dwarf is fairly to find him you know for nourishment ology keeping in mind that the poems that are preserved in the poor to get aren't trying to present a very

consistent picture for us even within one poem but certainly between the different poems but we see a fairly consistent picture of craftsmen who are probably short who live inside of rocks who shape-shift and the animals or live as animals elves were much less certain

about most the time that Elle occur as a word that word over l4o Lavater plural it is in alliteration in a poem with a CF so so hot Smith awesome hot Smith all of them what is with the

gods what is with the elves is a question that's asked in two poems and the Porta Quetta and in many places you see these words paired so it often seems like the word is just chosen to alliterate with a theatre to mean some

kind of perhaps broad category of lesser supernatural beings that associated with the gods perhaps including dwarves and then we also see other places where the word elf is used basically just for alliteration but sometimes in distinction to dwarf one of the great

examples of that is actually an oldie small which is said to be the well that is a poem the poetic Edda where Thor comes home and finds a dwarf who wants to marry his daughter through there and he doesn't want to marry his daughter to

this dwarf so he keeps the dwarf talking by constantly asking him what is the name of this thing among different peoples or different beings so he'll say for instance what do different beings call the ocean and all these the store

all-wise and translation will say for example in stanza 24 humans call it ocean God's prefer the name sea veneer to call it restful Harbor Giants a Ile home elves call it or replace the dwarves say deep deep sea but on each one of those

the word for the beings illiterates with the word for the thing that they're calling this so for instance dwarves illiterates with with the cube and deep deep sea both starting with D so it seems like the choice of the word elf at

least in poetry is largely governed by the demands of the meter and alliteration rather than by any kind of specific idea of what an elf is it's kind of interesting if you look at the order of poems in the Codex Regius

you can see some intelligent design and what's put we're fullest ball comes first that's general lower about creation and Ragnarok then here are three poems of Odin's wisdom haul them all Bob through this small good in this small and they have a poem about Freud

for scared Ness then you have four poems of Thor as hero Audemars do you miss Kiva lokasenna and throne Scylla and then you have Boland Erik Rita and all these small between those poems that are clearly about the gods and the helgi

poems the first poems that are clearly about a human hero and the only thing that seems to keep those two poems together Bolander Keitha and all be small is that they're about elves or dwarves I'll be smallest about this

dwarf who I'll come back to in a moment all these who's giving Thor all these illiterate and lists of names but Boland accreta is the only story that I'm aware of for a long time setting the stuff in

which a major character speaking character is an elf it's identified as an over Bolender the great smith right like a dwarf is identified as an OVA or elfin stands at n of all indirect for you but he is also to quote the prose

introduction to Vohland arc freedom Bohlander was as far as men know the most capable with his hands of all the people in the old sagas and he is a great craftsman which implies to me maybe elf and dwarf are fundamentally

the same thing or at least you can call some elves dwarves dwarves are maybe part of this broad category of sort of lesser supernatural beings that are encompassed by elf but Snorri adds kind of a complication of this when he talks

about a difference between so-called light elves and dark elves let me read this to you in Old Norse in addition to in my translation so you can get some of the difficulties with this passage again this is Snorri and his president hon

skull for of sport album affair school Agera of Ghoulies if you had son s Warsaw boxes and anethole afterthought for Loki tell farad verga her hate evil the sin here this is when Loki for evils sake basically for the

lulz has cut off the hair of C of Thor's wife and we read then he had to go to the Dark Elves black else part ovum date of plural of sparked all of our black elves and get them to make sieve a set

of hair made of gold that would grow like other hair and so look he went to the dwarves who were named the sons of Ivaldi so this looks like black else part of our and dwarves are the same

being or they are at least overlapping categories that is in the part of the prose edda that's called scold Scapa normal or Snorri tells that story probably written before the part most people read which is beginning which is

arranged as the first section and in kill beginning nori says this saw at install our air colada air all hamer dark big fearful that helios all of our hata and dick oliver pony tree yoru or arrow their only care fames unum oakna

clue Olek arraignment yo solve our Caro fairy and souls in and Duke all the arrows factory and big there is a place there called elf home old Hamer the people who are called the light elves Yas all of our dwell there

but Dark Elves took all of our nope not the same word as a Spartan bulbar which is used in scolds copper mall dwell further down in the earth and they are not alike in their appearance and even less so in there

pitties the light elves are more beautiful than the Sun but that Dark Elves are blacker than ink so he distinguishes between light elves which live in in elf home old hey Matt then dark elves who live down in the earth

now is it possible that these dark elves or black elves are the dwarves that are vulnerable to sunlight like all feasts and all these small who Thor keeps talking all night just giving all these lists of alliterative names till the Sun

comes up and turns them into stone and our leo olive aren't the ones that can actually stand being out in the sunlight like most wars that we read about because all of these is very unusual in being a dwarf who is vulnerable to

sunlight most the time agreed about the drawers just being out during the day and it's not any issue so is that actually what's going on here again do elf and dwarf mean the same thing or are they at least potentially overlapping

with elf maybe just being a broad category for lesser supernatural being than God maybe not opposed to the gods like the Oulton are I think that's quite a possible scenario so when we think about the treasures of the doors whether

we're thinking about the ol near the the hammer of Thor ghoul in bursty the golden glow in the dark bore that Freud or in Freya seemed to enjoy our GU Munir within spear that will always come back to him no matter where he throws it or

the chain that binds Fenrir the wolf double kill with until Rock broke the chain that is made out of things that don't exist like women's beards and fishes breath and the sinews of bears and the sound of a cat walking how maybe

these and also the great swords of heroes a grommet a cigarette or that's made by I reckon the dwarf and other swords and other weapons made by mini-tours in the mythical heroic august maybe what we're looking at is the work

of Alva meaning broadly supernatural beings that are less than the gods but in some ways especially their ability to just make cool stuff greater than us well I hope you've enjoyed this presentation and if you did there are more than 270 other

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