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"I recall nine homes..."

níu man ek heima

The designation "Nine Worlds" is a well-known staple of Old Norse mythology, but what are the nine worlds exactly? Can anyone name all nine?  Where are they located? These are natural questions.

*íviðjur, "wood giantesses", also known in the singluar from Hrafnagaldur Odins 1, where it seems to refer to the Old One in the Ironwood, breeding Fenrir's kin (Voluspa R39-40), perhaps referring here to Heimdal's nine mothers. (Larrington), or nine wooden spindles, or 9 types of wood, used to kindle friction-fire on a wheel (the world-mill), as described by Jacob Grimm in Deutsche Mythologie s.v. need-fire. In the epic system, Heimdall appears to represent the Tree and the holy fire at the same time.

Mjötvíðr, the Measuring Tree, is commonly understood to be the world-tree, Yggdrassil, so-named in Völuspá 20. Yet the nine worlds are nowhere enumerated. Exactly what the völva means when she says 'nine worlds' here is never clarified. There is no master-list of the 9 worlds.

Nine Worlds— the concept is easy enough to grasp. The universe consists of nine homes or "worlds", each primarily inhabited or ruled by a unique tribe of beings. The names of at least a few of the worlds probably have already sprung to mind.

Over the years, there have been several attempts to list the nine worlds. The following chart provides the lists compiled by Finnur Magnússon, the first scholar to undertake the endeavor; Gustav Legis, Karl Simrock, and lastly the one presented by Marvel Comics in their popular Thor series. The first three are the oldest representative lists, often repeated by others, and the fourth is a modern popular view, also representative of other similar models:   

First and Second Worlds:
HEL AND NIFLHEL 

Notice in the verse above that the world known as Hel is distinguished from Niflhel. Men "die from Hel" into Niflhel. It's a second death, most likely for the worst of sinners. From Völuspá 38-39 we know that terrible punishments await those who transgress the heathen moral code  in a land "far from the sun" known as the ná-strands (the corpse-beaches). There condemned men wade in venom inside a hall braided from serpents' backs.  Völuspá 39 informs us that the dragon Niddhögg tarries there eating nair (corpses). In agreement with this, Grímnismál 34 says many serpents lie below Yggdrasill, and the following verse adds that Nidhögg rends Yggdrasill from beneath. Völuspá informs us that the doors of this hall face north, and a passage in Saxo Grammaticus' Danish History, book 8,  tell us that this hall can be reached by sailing due north from Denmark, across dark waters, leaving the sun behind.

Other passages in the Poetic Edda also support this separation. In Baldurs Draumar, Odin rides "to Niflhel", and once there, as he continues to ride, apparently toward the border between these two realms, since in Niflhel he sees a dog with a bloody breast, "coming out of Hel". Long it howled at the father of spells, as he rode further to "Hel's high hall". The ground now "thunders" (v. 10)  beneath the weight of a living rider, just as it did when Hermod crossed this same way on Sleipnir, Odin's own horse (Gylfaginning 49).

We cannot be certain if the use of the word Hel in the last line (hávu Hels ranni) is a a personal name or a place name— in other words, we don't know whether the hall belongs to Hel or simply is found in Hel. One thing is certian, however, the description of the hall in the following verses, as an opulent, well-adorned hall with sparkling mead served in goblets prepared for Baldur's arrival stands in stark contrast to the hall of Loki's daughter, whom Snorri names "Hel" in Gylfaginning 37. In Gylfaginning 3, Snorri also distinquishes between the worlds of Hel and Niflhel, and identifies Niflhel as "the ninth world":

Elsewhere, Snorri states that Loki's half-livid daughter, whom he names Hel, was given power over "nine worlds" after she was thrown into "Niflheim" by Odin. In Gylfaginning 34, he writes:

This description of Hel's hall, the abode of Loki's daughter, is the exact opposite of hávu heljar ranni, the "high hall of Hel", seen by Odin in Baldurs Draumar:

Instead of a plate of hunger and a knife of famine in a dreary hall, Odin sees a rich feast spread for his beloved son.  Loki's daughter is nowhere to be found. Arguably, she does not appear in the poems of the Elder Edda.

The place-name Niflheim is unique to Snorri's work. The older Eddic poems instead use the term Niflhel. So, Niflhel, is most likely the same as Snorri's Niflheim, and one of the nine worlds. As shown above, he uses the terms interchangably. Being distinct from it, Hel is most likely another world. Niflhel appears to be a world especially for the wicked dead (adulterers, murderers, and seducers of other men's wives, and their ilk), leaving the world Hel for the remaining dead, not worthy of ascending to Valhalla. According to Vafþrúðnismál, men die "out of Hel" into "Niflhel". The passage from Hel to Niflhel is thus equivilent to the passage from Midgard, the world of living men, into Hel. It constitutes a second death.

In the poems of the Poetic Edda, the word Hel is a place-name referring to the land of the dead, distinct from Niflhel. In Snorri's Edda, Hel is the personal name of Loki's daughter, a terrible being best fit to rule over Niflhel. Snorri calls her realm Niflheim. This explains the confusion among scholars regarding the names and natures of these worlds.

In Gylfaginning 4, Snorri introduces Niflheim as one of two opposing elemental worlds, existing before the creation of the ordered universe:

Before Odin and his brothers arranged the created worlds, Niflheim, the primordial northern world of ice, was the natural home of the ancient frost-giants. Surt ruled over a southern world of fire.

In Skirnismál 25, after Gerd refuses to accept 11 golden apples and the ring Draupnir, burned on Baldur's breast, Skirnir draws his sword, the blade he got from Frey, and threatens to dispatch the giant maid to the underworld. There, Skirnir says, she will dwell among hrim-thursar ("frost-giants"), joyless and subject to "endless horrors" (v. 30).  This place is so horrible, he predicts, she will climb a mountain each morning and look toward Hel (v. 27), but there will be no escape. Naturally this place is identical to Niflheim, the home of the ancient frost-giants.

Skirnir elaborates on the threat. After he kills her with the sword, instead of a bliss-filled life with the lord of  harvests, Gerd will be wed to a three-headed thurs (31 cp. 35), but she will never know a man's pleasure (v. 34) for like Ymir, these giants reproduce asexually. Under Ymir's arm, a man and maid sprang together; and together his feet begot a three-headed son. To underscore this point, Skirnir threatens to carve for Gerd the runes thurs, ergi and othala (cold-heartedness, sexual deviancy, and burning lust). She finally relents to his threats and agrees to meet Frey.

Taken together, these statements paint Niflhel (or Niflheim) as a dismal place inhabited by monsters and dead men. Snorri confirms this view in his Edda. He calls the primordial world of ice Niflheim. This appears to be the same realm that the Poetic Edda designates as Niflhel, after the creation of the nine worlds. Thus, before Odin and his brothers created the worlds, there existed a world of ice to the north and  a brilliant world of fire to the south, later guarded by Surt (Soot, Black). Between them yawned a great abyss called Ginnungagap, into which the rivers of Niflheim flowed. 

The Third World: 

A SOUTHERN WORLD OF FIRE

As one of the first worlds, Surt's homeland must now be at the very base of the created world structure— i.e. "buried" under the subsequent created worlds. As a foundational world, it lurks at the base of the pyramid. For this reason, the heathen skald Eyvind refers to it as Surts sökkdalir, Surt's sunken-dales. It is located in the deep south.

As shown above, the spring Hvergelmir, which waters the northern root of Yggdrassil, flows out of Niflheim into Ginnungagap. To the south of the great abyss, we find Surt's home. In a verse by the newly-coverted Christian skald Eilífr Guðrúnarson preserved in Skáldskaparmál 65, Christ is said to sit in the judgment seats of the old heathen gods "south at Urd's well" (sunnr at Urðarbrunni).  Thus, it would seem that Urd's warm well, in which swans swim, is located in the same direction as Surt's fiery homeland. When Mimir's well Oðrerir, which lies "where Ginnungagap once was" (Gylfaginning 9) is threatened by the "mightest winter" (mestum þorra), Urd is appointed its protector (Hrafnagaldur Óðins 2) The southern position of Urd's well can be confirmed in another way.

Grímnismál 29 warns us why Thor cannot cross over the Bifröst bridge to join the other gods in their daily journey to Urd's well.

Should he try to cross Bifröst in his goat-drawn chariot, the bridge would burn and the holy waters (or Urd's well) would boil. Haustlöng's account of Thor's chariot in flight provides a vivid explanation of why this is true:

In motion, Thor's chariot causes the sky to burn and the ground below to tremble. Thus, it can only be ridden through wide-open spaces. If Thor attempted to drive his fiery chariot across Bifröst, the delicate span would burn and break.

At Ragnarök, we see that this is precisely what happens. When Surt arrives from "the south" with the "bane of branches" [fire]. His men ride with him, and the rainbow bridge breaks under the weight of riders, causing the horses to swim in the stream. Fáfnismál 15 says:

Grimnismal 21 tells us that this stream is too rapid for the battle-slain to wade, thus they need the steady road of "Throdvitnir's fish" (Heimdall's bridge, Bifröst):

*Þjóð-vitnir = "the one with mighty senses" [i.e. Heimdall]; the phrase is usually translated as "the mighty wolf" and scholars have struggled to understand its meaning. The word vitnir, "wolf", however, literally means "one with sharp senses" [see Sveinbjörn Egilsson's Lexicon Poeticum vitnir= ulv egl  'med (skarpe) sanser': wolf literally 'with (sharp) senses']

 fiskr = metaphorically "a bridge", since a bridgehead is called a brúar-sporðr, "bridge's fish-tail."

Here, the atmosphere is concieved of as a mighty river, and the shimmering bridge is compared to a fish at rest in the stream. Although the horses of the gods can swim in these 'waters' (i.e. fly), the bridge is necessary to efficiently cross the heavy currents.

In the poems of the Elder Edda, Surt and his men do not ride downward from above through a crack in the sky to reach Asgard, as Snorri describes in Gylfaginning. He likely got this idea from Völuspá 52 cited above. Instead, they most likely pour out from their sunken volcanic homes, far below the surface of the earth and ride upward over Bifröst, the same span that the gods ride down daily to reach Urd's well, according to Grímnismál 29, 30, where they sit in judgment of dead men's souls, determining who can stay in Hel and who must proceed onward to Niflhel. Thus Surt's men ride in the opposite direction that the gods normally do, using Bifröst to reach Asgard from Urd's well, located in Hel near the southern root of the world-tree. On this occasion, the bow breaks leaving them to swim in the fierce currents of the atmospheric sea. The following diagram illustrates this scene:

Heimdall guards the northern span, preventing Frost-giants from reaching Asgard. The gods ride from Asgard to Urd's well daily on the southern span. At Ragnarök, Surt and his men ride up over this same span to reach Asgard. Bifröst forms a complete arc, just as a natural rainbow would, with bridgeheads in the north and south of the underworld.

Many modern scholars equate Surt's men with Muspel's Sons. This because, Snorri tells us that they arrive together, through a hole in the sky in Gylfaginning 51. Snorri equates them with the "light-elves" who live in Gimli!  But in Völuspá 51-52, we find that "Muspel's sons arrive with Loki from the east", while "Surt arrives with the bane-of-branches ['fire'] from the south." According to Völuspá, Surt and Muspel's sons arrive to the battle separately, from two different directions.

In contrast to this in Gylfaginning 51, Snorri says that Muspel's sons arrive with Surt, riding through a crack in the sky. In Gylfaginning 5, he calls the southern world of fire, variously: Múspell, Múspellsheim ('Muspel's world') and Múspellheim ('Home of Muspel'), as if he was unable to decide on a name for it. According to his own usage, Múspell seems to be the name of a giant whom some scholars identify with Surt. In Gylfaginning 43, Snorri says of the ship Naglfari, built of deadmen's nails, that "Muspel has it". [En Naglfar er mest skip. Þat á Múspell.] This ship best belongs in Niflhel.

In Gylfaginning 51, it's almost as if Snorri portrays Surt and his men as Christian angels of light who have come to destroy worship of the old pagan gods. Considering the Christian thrust of both the Formáli (Prologue) and Gylfaginning, this may have been Snorri's purpose at the final chapter of  Gylfaginning. It cannot, however, have been the intent of the heathen poet who composed Völuspá.

Remarkably, this interpretation, based on a literal reading of Snorri's text, led some of the earliest modern scholars to  place Muspelheim above Asgard and to identify Muspel's sons with the light-elves! As an older and more reliable source of heathen mythology, Völuspá says: 

We find evidence in Lokasenna 42 and in a German poem titled Múspelli that the word múspell is an ancient Germanic word associated with the end times.  Nevertheless, the place-name(s) Múspell, Múspellsheim and Múspellheim are unique to Snorri's text and may simply be a back-formation of the tribal names muspels lýðar and muspels sonar, "Muspel's people" and "Muspell's sons" found in the Poetic Edda. Their designations are sometimes translated as "sons (or people) of Destruction". In the Poetic Edda,  the term "Muspel's sons" seem to refer to the packs of werewolves born of "the old one in the Iron wood" (Völuspá 40) by Fenrir, Loki's son. They are "Fenrir's children," wolves. Loki himself brings them to the battlefield by ship "from the east" to meet the Aesir. In contrast, Surt and his followers arrive over Bifröst from the south.

Snorri's identification of Surt's men with the Light-elves is found in Gylfaginning 17. There Snorri provides more information about the homes of the Light-elves and the Dark-elves. He doesn't use the terms Ljósalfaheim (Light-elf Home) and Svartalfaheim (Black-elf Home) however. Snorri simply says that Light-elves live in Alfheim, and that Dark-elves live below ground. He writes:

 The placename Ljósálfaheim never occurs in the lore. It is a term invented by and carried forward by modern scholars (beginning with Finnur Jónsson, see below), based on the term Svartálfaheim found several times in Snorri's Edda. I shall discuss Snorri's use of the term Svartálfaheim, as the home of dwarves, below (see "The Last World— Svartálfaheim?") 

In Gylfaginning, Snorri says that the Light-elves live in Alfheim, which he places in the highest heaven, where the hall Gimli is located.

The idea that Surt's realm "Muspellheim" and Alfheim are higher worlds clearly comes from Gylfaginning 54's account of the battle of Ragnarök. Here, the Sons of Muspel arrive with Surt after the sky is rent in two (inspired by Völuspá 52). As Finnur Magnússon (1825) and Gustav Legis (1829) illustrate, Snorri's text seems to place Muspellheim and Alfheim above Asgard.  Accordingly Snorri says that Surt and Muspel's sons  ride together through the crack in the sky, presumably downward from above. This contradicts the testimony of Völuspá, which Snorri cites as evidence of his own correctness!  There they ride from opposite directions.

Gylfaginning 54:

The Fourth World

ÁLFHEIM

In Gylfaginning 17, Snorri informs us that only Light-elves live in Álfheim. Dark-elves he says abide beneath the earth. He does not use the modern term Ljósálfaheim to designate their home. As confirmation, we also find Álfheim as a place-name in older poetry. It occurs once in the Poetic Edda in Grímnismál 5. The preceding verse, Grímnismál 4, informs us that Thrudheim, Thor's home in Asgard, lies closest to the Æsir and the Alfar:

When Thor travels from Asgard to meet the giant Hymir in Jötunheim, Hymiskviða 7 (cp. 38) gives us some sense of direction: 

On the way from Asgard (located 'up' in the sky) to Jötunheim ('in the east'), Thor stops and leaves his goat-team and chariot at the home of a person named Egill. The exact location of Egill the goat-keep’s, house is not stated in the surviving lore. However, the available clues provide some indication of where it was thought to be. When Thor leaves his goat-team behind, safe at Egill's, he heads east on foot toward Hymir's hall. Hymir, we are told, lives “east of the Elivagor” at “the edge of heaven.” (Hymiskviða 5/1-4).

If Hymir's home is 'east of the Elivagor' (Ice-waves) and we know that Thor regularly crosses a body of water to enter Jötunheim then Egill's must be west of these same waters, on the opposite shore as Jötunheim, on the Midgard-side of the boundary waters.

In the Poetic Edda, the only other Egill we find is the brother of the famous smith Völund. In Völundarkviða, Völund and Egil are "elf-princes" and "sons of a Finnish king". In fact, the Lapps (Saami) are often equated with the elves in the Icelandic sources. Geographically, Finland is north-east of Scandinavia, and continuing the same direction one encounters the Arctic Ocean. The mythic worlds of Jötunheim and Niflhel lie to the east and to the north respectively. Both lands are inhabited by giants hostile to the gods.  Once in Jötunheim, Thor and Hymir fish for the Midgard serpent.  The Snake circles the known world biting its own tail. His home is the great river which rings the world. Thor crossed these waters to reach Hymir's, and will flee over them with Hymir's kettle when he leaves. His belt of strength gives him the power to "grow as high as heaven" so that he may wade these waters safely. (See Ásmegin: Thor's Might and the Belt of Strength)

In Hymiskviða, Thor leaves his goats on the opposite shore, safe with Egill in Álfheim before crossing over with Tyr, then he and the giant venture out on the same waters to fish for the Midgard Serpent.  Thus, its head and tail were thought to lie in the northern Arctic waters. In a poetic metaphor found in Þórsdrápa 5, these waters are said to be as cold as venom. in Skáldskaparmál 25, when Thor carries his friend Aurvandill across these waters in a basket on his back, one of his toes is left exposed to the venomous liquid. As a result, the toe turns black from frost-bite. Thor breaks it off and makes a star of it. Völuspá informs us that at Ragnarök, Thor will succomb to this same venom, stepping back nine paces before falling. 

Grímnismál 4 informs us that Thor's home Thrudheim lies closest to the land of the Aesir and the Alfar. Egill, the "peasant" (bondi) who keeps his goats, is an elf-prince and the son of a Finnish king according to Völundarkviða. In Hymiskviða 37 (cp. Gylfaginning 44), we discover that Egill's home is where Thor gained his servant Thjálfi, whose very name contains the word alf. For this reason, he is often identified as such in modern scholarship.

From the available evidence, Alfheim seems to be a way-station for Thor on his journey from Asgard to Jötunheim. Thor leaves his goat-car there and enters the land of giants on foot, first crossing a great body of water. It should come as no surprise then that Váfthrúðnismál 16 speaks of boundary waters located between Jötunheim and Asgard.

In Hymiskviða, it is apparent that Hymir lives near the 'river' that circles Midgard. We know this, because he and Thor go fishing on it, and Thor catches the Midgard Serpent in its waters. Therefore, it is probable that Elivagor ('Icy-waves') is another name of Ifing, the river that rings the world. It is bitter-cold, but never freezes over. Like all mythic things, it is known by more than one name. This river is the Arctic ocean. Jötunheim lies beyond its waters (within the Arctic Circle). From there, the way to Niflhel is "north and down".  In Saxo Book 8, the adventurer Thorkill arrives there by ship, sailing due north into the murky darkness, leaving the sun and stars behind. In real world geography, these turbulent icy waters were known as The White Sea, and as Gandvik, the 'Magic-bay'.

In Váfthrúðnismál 16, we discover that at Ragnarök, the sea-god Njörd will return to his homeland Vanaheim, westward across the sea.

I believe that the evidence for Midgard, Asgard, and Jötunheim (the homes of men, gods and giants respectively) are too well established to require explanation.

Midgard, the home of Men, is found as a placename in Völuspá (4, 56), Harbarðsljóð 23, and Hyndluljóð (11, 16), as well as being attested in various forms in several later Germanic works. 

In the Poetic Edda, Asgard appears as a place-name in Þrymskviða 18 and Hymiskviða 7. In the skaldic poem Sonnatorrek, preserved in Egils Saga, we are told that Goðheim ('Home of the Gods') is located above Midgard. The poet, whose son died young, expresses his hope that Odin has taken him to Valhalla, "up in Godheim"  (es upp of hóf í Goðheim).

Jötunheim, the home of the Jötuns, is named in a number of Eddic poems including Völuspá (8, 48), Skírnismál 40, and Þrymskviða (7, 12, 13, 20, 21, 26, 28). Occassionally, some illustrations of Yggdrassil will include Utgard, a place-name found in Gylfaginning, either as a separate world or as a city in Jötunheim. For example, the map of Yggdrassil in Kevin Crossley-Holland's The Norse Myths (1988) lists Utgard as "a citadel of the giants" in the world of Jötunheim. Yet, he lists Asgard as "the world of the gods." Using the logic applied to Utgard, Asgard might best be described as a "citadel of the Æsir" located in the world called Goðheim.

Numerous models of the 9 worlds have been patterned on this illustration.

Based on evidence found in the tale of Utgard-Loki as told by Snorri in Gylfaginning 45 and 46 and references to the same myth in Harbarðsljóð 26 (compared to Hávamál 12 and 104-110), Utgard is best understood as another name for Surts sökkdalir, the southern world of fire. Utgard-Loki appears to be the fire-giant Suttung, also called Fjalar. He commands Logi (wildfire) and is a master of "eye-spells" (heat mirages). The fire that consumes the world at Ragnarök is known as Surtarlogi, Surt's wildfire, and the name Suttung may be interpreted as a condensed form of Surts ungr, Surt's son. Surts sökkdalir is the only name the old poems give us for the fiery realm that Snorri calls Muspell.  Snorri calls this same place Utgard later in Gylfaginning.

For reasons that are unclear to me, some accounts of the nine worlds in modern scholarship identify Utgard as the underworld. In regard to location, I would tend to agree, placing it directly below Hel, not for the same reasons, but rather for those which I have already given above. As one of the primoridal worlds, "Surt's sunken dales" lies at the very base of the created worlds. When he destroys the upper worlds with fire at Ragnarök, his flames burn up the created worlds, leaving the lower world (the original plain) as a "new earth" in its place. Thus, the fields that the gods tread upon in their youth (Idavellir, Völuspá 7) are found again in the "new" world (Völuspá 58). There the surviving Æsir find the golden game-pieces that their parents played with in the earliest days. Properly it is Mimir's realm, "where Ginnungagap once was" (Gylfaginning 9). Thus, the human survivors Lif and Lifthraisir, emerge from Hoddmimis holt, "Hoard-Mimir's grove" when the fire subsides.

So without further speculation, I think we can safely name most of the nine worlds as found in the surviving lore. In no particular order, we have:

 That brings our count to eight worlds. These are the ones that appear by name in the lore. Most notably, we are lacking a home for the dwarves, and we have an additional place-name to account for found only in Snorri's Edda, i.e. Svartálfaheim, home of the black-elves.

In most all of the models of the nine worlds, we find the world  Svartálfaheim, a term found only in Snorri's Edda. As shown above, instead of Ljósalfaheim, "home of the light-elves", we simply find Alfheim,  home of the elves. Snorri informs us that only "light-elves" live in Alfheim, but that "dark-elves" (dökk-alfar) live "below the earth."  Noticeably absent from these lists is a home for the dwarves (dvergr), beings well-known in the lore. Instead we find Svartálfaheim, home of svart or black-elves (cp. dökkalfar). Oddly, time and again, Snorri identifies Svartálfaheim as the home of dwarves. This lack of clarity on Snorri's part has understandably lead to much confusion in modern times.

Because, Snorri says in Gylfaginning 17 that the dökk-álfar (dark-elves) "dwell down in the earth" and that they are "black as pitch," the dökk-alfar (dark-elves) are commonly understood to be identical with the svart-alfar (black-elves) in modern scholarship and in turn are commonly interpreted as dwarves, based on additional statements in Snorri's Edda. This use of multiple terms for a single class of beings suggests confusion on Snorri's part regarding the dwarves, or perhaps that his idea developed as he wrote the text.

Anthony Faulkes in his Glossary to Skáldskaparmál (1998) remarks "svartálfar are not mentioned in sources older than Snorri and were possibly conceived of as identical to dwarfs." Snorri's text supports this view. In Gylfaginning 34, he states: 

And again in Skáldskaparmál 36: 

If we accept that the dark-elves (dökk-alfar) and the black-elves (svart-alfar) are identical then their home Svartálfaheim must be a subterranean. Their home appears to be located under the northern root of Yggdrassil according to Hrafnagaldur Odins 25:

This verse, however, appears to distinquish between dark-elves and dwarves. Snorri on the other hand seems to equate dwarves with black-elves.  In Skáldskaparmál 43, after Loki has cut off the golden hair of Thor's wife Sif, the Thundergod  threatens him, until Loki promises to persuade artisans to replace what he has damaged:

Earlier in Gylfaginning 43, Snorri identifies Ivaldi's sons are dwarves:

However, using passages from the eddic poetry, we have reason to believe that Ivaldi's sons were originally conceived of as elves (Alfar). In Hrafnagaldur Odins 6, the goddess Idunn is said to be their sister.

In Grimnísmál 5, we learn that Alfheim was given to Frey upon cutting his first tooth. Thus, the elves are subject to him. Lokasenna 2 speaks of the Æsir and Álfar gathered in the hall, when Loki bursts in and insults the gathered gods. Among those seated inside we find Idunn, as well as servants of Frey named Byggvir and Beyla. Thus indeed we find Alfar (elves) mingled with the Æsir in the hall.

I suggest that Snorri's confusion between the "álfar" (elves) and "dvergr" (dwarves) was likely caused, at least in part, by the so-called dwarf-list of Völuspá, which contains the names of both dwarves and elves. This list, however, is not considered to be an original part of the poem, and is generally thought to have been interpolated with additional names by copyists.

In Gylfaginning 14, Snorri speaks of the creation of the dwarves, citing Völuspá 10 and 11 as support.

Immediately following this, Snorri begins reciting the so-called "dwarf-list" from Völuspá 11-16, a þula which includes obvious names of elves such as Álfr, Gandálfr, and Vindálfr.  In the midst of this, Snorri says: "And these also are dwarves and dwell in stones, but the first in mould" (En þessir eru ok dvergar ok búa í steinum, en inir fyrri í moldu). Yet, in Gylfaginning 15, Snorri clearly distinquishes between elves and dwarves, citing a verse from the the Eddic poem Fafnismál as support:

Another possible name for the home of dwarves found in older poetry is Nidavellir (No Moon Plains), a geographical term used in Völuspá 36. Worthy of remark, in some of the more recent models which combine Hel and Niflhel into a single world, we also find the "world" Nidavellir listed among the nine. However, these maps also frquently include the redundant world Svartálfaheim. From Völuspá, we learn that Nidavellir contains a golden hall which is the home of "Sindri's race." Sindri is the name of a famous dwarf who created Thor's hammer, with help from his brother Brokk (Skáldskaparmál 43). Thus, like Svartálfaheim in the Prose Edda, Nidavellir is inhabited by artisan dwarves in the Poetic Edda.

Mentioned alongside Sindri's hall, we find the "beer-hall" of a giant named Brimir. Earlier the same poem informs us that the dwarves were created from "Brimir's blood" and "Blainn's limbs." Brimir and Blainn are commonly taken to be alternate names of Ymir, the primeval giant whose body was used to create the world. I'd like to suggest another possibility.

Snorri tells us that the dwarves first grew as maggots in Ymir's flesh. Thus, Blainn (the Blue One) is likely a poetic name for Ymir, who was slain by Odin and his brothers and whose body was used as raw material to build the upper worlds. Brimir, however, seems to be associated with Mimir. As one of the oldest beings, older than Odin, Mimir must be one of the first created beings. As such, he could be a son of Ymir himself. Since Odin is the third generation from Ymir, Mimir must be among the first or second generations. The choices are limited. Vafþrúðnismál 33 says us that "a boy and a girl together" were born under Ymir's arm. As some of the first beings, Mimir and Urd may well be that boy and girl. The evidence is simply too slight to base any conclusions on.

The association between Brimir and Mimir is most apparent in Sigrdrifumál 14:

Odin also speaks with Mimir's head, just before the battle of Ragnarök in Völuspá 45, and pawns an eye for a drink of Mimir's well in Völuspá 28. The expression "Brimir's sword" may be a poetic metaphor meaning "Brimir's head" as Snorri says a head could be called "Heimdall's sword" since he was killed with a man's head. If so, then the verse simply says that when Odin stood on a cliff with "Brimir's sword" (i.e. Brimir's head), then "Mimir's head" spoke to him wisely. It is not uncommon in eddic poems to restate the same thing which appears in the first half of the stanza using poetic metaphor, in the second half of the stanza more plainly. As it stands Brimir's blood is associated with Blainn's (Ymir's) limbs as components in the creation of the dwarves, and the giant Brimir has a beer-hall in the vicinity of a hall for dwarves. In the same poem, Mimir is said to drink mead "every morning" from his well, the same spring in which Odin pawned his eye.  The name Brimir is also directly associated with Mimir's head in Sigrdrifumal 14, which speaks with Odin, as it does in Völuspá 45. 

"Brimir's blood" suggests a liquid. Here it is used in a creative process, along with "Blainn's limbs" (Ymir's flesh) to create the dwarves. In poetic language, any type of liquid can be substituted for any other. For example, in Fafnismál 14, blood is called "the liquor of the sword" (hjörlegi). I suggest that "Brimir's blood" here refers to  the creative liquid in Mimir's well. Thus Mimir may have had a hand in the creation of the dwarves. Völuspá 10-11 suggest as much. (See Commentary on Völuspá 10-11).

We have good reason to associate Mimir with the dwarves:

—Motsognir ('Mead-sucker', 'Mead-drinker') is said to be the foremost or master of the dwarves in Völuspá 10, taking part in their creation.
—In the same poem, Mimir is said to drink mead each morning from his well (Völuspá 28)
—Óðrerir is both a name for the poetic mead and for Mimir's mead-well, from which Odin pawns an eye for a drink. (Gylfaginning, Hávamál, Hrafnagaldur Óðins)
— The poetic mead is also known as Dvalinns drykkr, the drink of the dwarf Dvalinn (Skáldskaparmál 10).
—Mime der Alt ('Mimir the Old') is the master of the dwarves in Germanic mythology. (Þidreks saga af Bern)
—The dwarves are makers of weapons and valueable treasures such as Odin's spear, Thor's hammer, the ring Draupnir, and Freyja's necklace Brisingamen.
—Mimir is the famous keeper of treasures such as Heimdall's horn (Völuspá 27). In Vafþrúðnismál 44, he is called Hoddmimir, Hoard-Mimir. The living human beings Lif and Lifthrasir emerge from his holt, "grove" after Surt's fire has slackened.  The U manuscript of Gylfaginning 53 says instead that they hid themselves in Mimis holdi (Mimir's flesh),  a parallel formation to Ymis holdi (Ymir's flesh), used in Grímnismál 40-41. This suggests a conceptual relationship between these two ancient giants, both of whom were beheaded.

So it's no stretch to consider Mimir's realm to be the home of the dwarves. Gylfaginning 9 tells us that Mimir's realm is located "where Ginnungagap once was." In other words, it is situated directly between the southern world of fire and the northern world of ice which existed before the creation of the upper worlds by Odin and his brothers.

Ginnungagap was the birthplace of Ymir, and the origin of all life. Here, when the sparks from the south met the ice-floes from the north, life quickened from the venomous drops, developing into Ymir and Audhumbla, the primoridal giant and the primeval cow, the source of all life. Mimir's well is located at the physical and spiritual center of all creation. As such, Yggdrassil is called Mimameiðr, 'Mimir's Tree' (Fjölsvinnsmál 24).  Rising up the trunk of the tree, we find Midgard and Valhalla in Asgard as other central points along the vertical axis of the Tree.

In several of the Icelandic Fornaldarsagas and in Saxo's Danish History Books 1 and 8, we encounter the giant Gudmund who is the ruler of the "Glittering-Plains" (Glæsisvellir). He is a giant and champion of the heathen faith. His is a rich, fertile country, a neighbor of the realm of the giants.   Gudmund of Glæsisvellir appears to be a historic memory of the mythic Mimir, the treasure-hoarder, Odin's life-long counsellor.

As the physical and symbolic centre of the universe, Mimir's realm is the DNA of the entire universe, the seed inside the World-Tree. It is a world onto itself. Gylfaginning 9 informs us that Mimir's well stands where Ginnungagap once was. From this same place, all life in the universe sprung from its "living drops" (kvikkdroppar). Hávamál assures us that "no one knows from what root it springs." His home, Hoddmimis holt is conceived of as a grove, and serves as the divine archetype of the earthly sacred grove where men gather in worship.

Mimir is called Hodd-Mimir, Hoard-Mimir. He is known for keeping treasures, and is a king of the dwarves, the tireless artisans of Norse mythology. In Grimnismal 17, this place is referred to as hodd goða, 'the hoard of the gods', all the rivers of Hel wind round it, making the place impregnable. As the archetypal 'sacred grove', Mimir's holt is a  physical and spiritual paradise at the heart of the organized universe. In a sense, it acts as a seed within Yggdrassil, which will replenish the worlds with new life, after the fires of Ragnarök have died out.