Yggdrasil · Gods and Their Allies

Freyr’s Tooth-Gift

The gift of Álfheimr to Freyr by the gods, as told in Grímnismál.

Myth and literature · Quotation

In Thorpe’s translation

4. “Holy is the land, which I see lying to Æsir and Alfar near; but in Thrûdheim Thor shall dwell until the powers perish.”

5. “Ydalir it is called, where Ullr has himself a dwelling made. Alfheim the gods to Frey gave in days of yore for a tooth-gift.”

Myth and literature

What the sources say

Grímnismál is Odin’s speech to a captive king, and early on it lists the dwellings of the gods. Stanza 4 describes a holy land near the Æsir and the elves, and says Thor will live in Þrúðheimr. Stanza 5 names Ýdalir as Ullr’s home and says that the gods gave Álfheimr to Freyr as a tooth-gift long ago.

That is all the poem says. It does not say who the elves of Álfheimr are, what the land looks like or whether Freyr rules it. Snorri’s Gylfaginning names Álfheimr as a heavenly dwelling of the light elves but does not mention the gift.

Myth and literature · Context

Names and background

A tooth-gift, in Old Norse tannfé, was a present made to a child when its first tooth came through. Reading the stanza that way makes Álfheimr a present to Freyr as a child. The reading comes from Bellows’s edition, and Thorpe’s translation simply says “for a tooth-gift”, so editors differ in how much they make of it.

The page for Alfheim covers the realm.

Historical evidence

Where the sources attest it

The tooth-gift is attested once, in Grímnismál (stanza 5 in Thorpe’s numbering; other editions may number it differently). Álfheimr itself is named in only a small number of Old Norse texts, and Snorri’s Gylfaginning, which lists it among the heavenly dwellings, is the other. No archaeological or pictorial evidence is known. The surrounding stanzas of Grímnismál list the dwellings of other gods in the same way, so the gift belongs to a catalogue and is not told as a story.