lfheim (Old Norse lfheimr 'Elf-home') is the abode of the lfar 'Elves' in Norse mythology and appears also in northern English ballads under the forms Elfhame and Elphame. It is also an ancient name for the territory between what is now the Glomma river in Norway and the G lv river in Sweden.

The Elven abode

In Old Norse texts

The eddic poem Gr mnism l describes twelve divine dwellings beginning in stanza 5 with:

Ydalir call they     the place where Ull
A hall for himself hath set;
And lfheim 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 lfheim is one, where dwell the peoples called Light-elves [Lj lfar]; but the Dark-elves [d lfar] 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 Giml 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 V in [V inn '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 lfheim or distinct. Some texts read Vindbl in (Vindbl inn 'Wind-blue') instead of V in.

Modern commentators speculate (or sometimes state as fact) that lfheim was one of the nine worlds (heima) mentioned in stanza 2 of the eddic poem V lusp .

In English text

In several Scots and English ballads about the fairies 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 Rhymer:

'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.'

Used by J. R. R. Tolkien

The twentieth century fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien Englished the Old Norse name lfheim as Elvenhome which is imagined in his tales as lying in a coastal region of the Undying Lands in the far west. The High King of the Elves in the west was Ingw , an echo of the name Yngvi often found as a name for Frey, whose abode was in lfheim according to the Gr mnism l.

The region in Scandinavia

About the region and its folk

The Ynglinga saga, when relating the events of the reign of King Gudr d (Gu r) the Hunter relates:

lfheim, at that time, was the name of the land between the Raumelfr ['Raum Elf river', the modern Glomma river] and the Gautelfr ['Gaut Elf river', the modern G lv].

The words "at that time" indicates the name for the region was archaic or obsolete by the 13th century. The element elfr is a common word for 'river' and appears in other river names. It is cognate with Middle Low German elve 'river' and the name of the river Elbe. The Raum Elf marked the border of the region of Raumar ki and the Gaut Elf marked the border of Gautland (modern G taland). It corresponds closely to the historical Swedish province of Bohusl n.

The name lfheim here may have nothing to do with lfar 'Elves', but may derive from a word meaning 'gravel layer'.

However the Saga Thorsteinn V kingsonar claims that the two rivers and the country was named from King lf the Old ( lfr hinn gamli) who once ruled there, and that his descendants were were all related to the Elves and were handsomer than any other people except for the giants, a unique and possibly corrupt reference to giants being especially good looking. The S gubrot af Nokkrum also mentions the special good looks of the kindred of King lf the Old.

Traditions of lf the Old

According to Saga Thorsteinn V kingsonar, King lf the Old was married to Bryngerd (Brynger r) the daughter of King Raum of Raumar ki.

But according to the Hversu Noregr byggdist, lf, also called Finn lf, was a son of King Raum who inherited from his father the land from the Gaut Elf river (the modern G lv river) north to the Raum Elf river (the modern Glomma river), and that the land was then called lfheim.

Finn lf married Svanhild (Svanhildr) who was called Gold-feather (Gullfjǫ r) and was the daugher of Day (Dagr) son of Dayspring (Dellingr) by Sun (S l) daughter of Mundilfari. Dag as a personification of day and the sun-goddess S l are mentioned elsewhere, but only the Hversu mentions their daughter. Svandhild bore Finn lf a son named Svan the Red (Svanr inn Rau r) who was father of S fari, father of lf ( lfr), father of lf, father of Ingimund (Ingimundr) and Eystein (Eysteinn).

According to the eddic poem Hyndlulj d (stanza 12), ttar, whose genealogy is the subject of this poem, was son of Innstein (Innsteinn), son of lf the Old, son of lf, son of S fari, son of Svan the Red. So the Innstein of the Hyndlulj d and Eystein of the Hversu are presumably identical.

Later kings of lfheim

Stuff of Legend

Later kings are mentioned in some sagas.

According to Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum (Book 8), the sons of King Gand lf the Old joined King Harald for the battle of Br valla. The S gubrot names the sons of Gand lf as lfar ( lfarr) and lfarin ( lfarinn) and makes them members of King Harald's bodyguard. Presumably they died in the battle. But the kingdom of this Gand lf is not identified in these texts.

The S gubrot also relates that Sigurd Hring (Sigur Hringr), who was Harald's viceroy on the Swedish throne, married lfhild, the daughter of King lf the Old of lfheim. But in a later passage she appears as a descendant of King lf. The Hversu Novegr byggdist provides instead a lineage of King the Old of lfheim who was father of lfgeir the father of Gand lf the father of lfhild the mother of the famous Ragnar Lodbrok (by Sigurd Hring). That lfhild's father was the same Gand whose sons were at the Battle of Bravalla makes good sense in legendary chronology. But this genealogy may have resulted from misidentification of Gand lf the Old of the battle of Br valla with Gand lf son of lfgeir of the Ynglinga saga who is discussed below. Or if the two Gand lfs may be rightly identified then the chronology is badly garbled.

In all these accounts, the son of Hring and lfhild was supposedly the famous Ragnar Lodbrok, husband of slaug ( slaugr) the mother of Sigurd Hart (Sigur r Hjǫrt) whose daughter Ragnhild (Ragnhildr) married Halfdan the Black and bore to him Harald Fairhair, the first historic king of all Norway.

On the borders of history

The Ynglinga saga, Saga of Halfdan the Black, and Saga of Harald Fairhair, all included in the Heimskringla, tell of kings of lfheim at the end of the legendary period:

• lf: His daughter lfhild ( lfhildr) married King Gudr d the Hunter of Raumar ki and Westfold who brought with her half of the territory of Vingulmork as her dowry. She bore to Gudr d a son named f ( fr) who was afterwards named Geirstada- lf (Geirsta lfr) and was the elder half-brother of Halfdan the Black.

• lfgeir: He as son of lf. He regained Vingulmork and placed his son Gand lf (Gand lfr) over it as king.

• Gand lf: He was son of lfgeir. Since this Gand lf was an older contemporary of Harald Fairhair and since the historical Viking leaders identified as sons of Ragnar Lodbrok in some traditions were also contemparies of Harald Fairhair, it is not impossible that lfhild, the supposed mother of Ragnar Lodbrok, was the daughter of this Gand lf as the Hversu Noregr byggdist states. What is told in the Heimskringla is that after many indecisive battles between Gand lf and Halfdan the Black, Vingulmork was divided between them, Halfdan regaining the portion which had been the dowry of his grandfather's first wife lfhild. Two sons of Gand lf named H sing (H singr) and Helsing (Helsingr) later led a force against Halfdan but fell in battle and a third son named Haki fled into lfheim. When Halfdan's son Harald Fairhair succeeded his father, Gand lf and his son Haki were both part of an alliance of kings who attacked Harald. Haki was slain but Gand lf escaped. There was further war between Gand lf and Harald. At last Gand lf fell in battle and Harald seized all of Gand lf's land up to the Raum Elf river, at that time not taking lfheim itself.

But later parts of his saga show Harald in full control of the land west of the Gaut Elf river showing that lfheim did soon become part of his kingdom. From that point it ceased to be an independent region. The Saga of Harald Fairhair relates that it was first conquered by the Swedish king Eirik Eymundsson (Erik Anundsson) who lost it to Harald Fairhair.

Variant spellings

Variant Anglicizations are: lf: Alf ; lfar: Alfar ; lfarin: Alfarin ; lfgeir: Alfgeir ; lfheim: Alfheim ; lfhild: Alfhild ; slaug: Aslaug ; Finn lf: Finnalf ; Frey: Freyr ; Gand lf: Gandalf ; Giml : Gimle ; Gr mnism l: Grimnismal ; Gudr d: Gudrod, Guthr th ; Haki: Hake ; Halfdan the Black: H lfdan the Black ; Raumar ki: Raumarike, Raumarik, Raum's-ric ; S fari: Saefari ; Sigurd Hart: Sigurd Hjort, Sigurth Hart ; Sigurd Hring: Sigurd Ring, Sigurth Hring ; S l: Sol ; lf: Ulf ; Ull: Ullr ; V lusp : Voluspa.