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Álfheim as an abode of the Elves is mentioned only twice in Old Norse texts.
The eddic poem Grímnismál describes twelve divine dwellings beginning in stanza 5 with:
Ydalir call they the place where Ull
A hall for himself hath set;
And Álfheim the gods to Frey once gave
As a tooth-gift in ancient times.
A tooth-gift was a gift given to an infant on the cutting of the first tooth.
Snorri Sturluson in the Gylfaginning relates as the first of a series of abodes in heaven:That which is called Álfheim is one, where dwell the peoples called Light-elves [Ljósálfar]; but the Dark-elves [dökkálfar] dwell down in the earth, and they are unlike in appearance, but by far more unlike in nature. The Light-elves are fairer to look upon than the sun, but the Dark-elves are blacker than pitch.
The account later, in speaking of a hall called Gimlé and the southernmost end of heaven that shall survive when heaven and earth have passed away, explains:
It is said that another heaven is to the southward and upward of this one, and it is called Andlang [Andlangr 'Endlong'] but the third heaven is yet above that, and it is called Vídbláin [Vídbláinn 'Wide-blue'] and in that heaven we think this abode is. But we believe that none but Light-Elves inhabit these mansions now.
It is not indicated whether these heavens are identical to Álfheim or distinct. Some texts read Vindbláin (Vindbláinn 'Wind-blue') instead of Vídbláin.
Modern commentators speculate (or sometimes state as fact) that Álfheim was one of the nine worlds (heima) mentioned in stanza 2 of the eddic poem Völuspá.
In several Scots and English balladA ballad is a narrative, rhythmic saga of a past affair, which may be heroic, romantic or satirical, almost inevitably catastrophic, which is related in the third person, usually with foreshortened alternating four- and three-stress lines ('ballad meter')s about the fairiesA fairy or faery is a creature from stories and mythology, often portrayed in art and literature as a minuscule humanoid with wings. This word is derived from the name of a place where they were said to live: Faerie, and fairies are sometimes called fairy and their lore, the realm of the those folk is called Elphame or Elfhame. The fairy queen is often called the "Queen of Elphame" in ballads such as that of Thomas the RhymerThomas the Rhymer (also Thomas Rhymer or Thomas Rymer is the better-known name of Thomas of Erceldoune a 13th Century Scottish soothsayer. Many people have encountered him in fictional form as the protagonist in the ballad Thomas the Rhymer ( Child Ballad:
'I'm not the Queen of Heaven, Thomas,
That name does not belong to me;
I am but the Queen of fair Elphame
Come out to hunt in my follie.'
The twentieth century fantasy writer J. R. R. TolkienHe is wearing a WWI-era British Army uniform in this photograph. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien ( January 3, 1892 September 2, 1973) was the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings his most famous work. A former pupil of King Edward's School, Englished the Old Norse name Álfheim as Elvenhome which is imagined in his tales as lying in a coastal region of the Undying LandsIn the fictional writings of J. Tolkien, the Undying Lands are a realm inhabited by immortal beings. It includes the continent of Aman and the island of Tol Eressea. The treacherous Sauron deceived Ar-Pharazon, last king of Numenor, into thinking the rule in the far west. The High King of the Elves in the west was IngwëIn the fictional universe of J. Tolkien's Middle-earth, Ingw is the leader of the first Kindred of Elves called the Vanyar and the brother of Indis, wife of Finwe. He was reckoned as High King of all the Elves. Other versions of the legendarium In early v, an echo of the name YngviYngvi alternatively Yngve was the progenitor of the Yngling lineage, a legendary dynasty of Swedish kings from whom the earliest historical Norwegian kings in turn claimed to be descended. Information on Yngvi varies in different traditions as follows: Yn often found as a name for Frey, whose abode was in Álfheim according to the Grímnismál.