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Poetic Edda

  Alvis spake:7. "Thy good-will now  shall I quickly get, And win the marriage word;I long to have,  and I would not lack, This snow-white maid for mine."
  Thor spake:8.[1] "The love of the maid  I may not keep thee From winning, thou guest so wise,If of every world  thou canst tell me all That now I wish to know.
9. "Answer me, Alvis!  thou knowest all, Dwarf, of the doom of men:What call they the earth,  that lies before all, In each and every world?"
  Alvis spake:10.[2] "'Earth' to men, 'Field'  to the gods it is, 'The Ways' is it called by the Wanes;
  1. ↑ Every world: concerning the nine worlds, cf. Voluspo, 2 and note. Many editors follow this stanza with one spoken by Alvis, found in late paper manuscripts, as follows: "Ask then, Vingthor,  since eager thou art / The lore of the dwarf to learn; / Oft have I fared  in the nine worlds all, / And wide is my wisdom of each."
  2. ↑ Men, etc.: nothing could more clearly indicate the author's mythological inaccuracy than his confusion of the inhabitants of the nine worlds. Men (dwellers in Mithgarth) appear in each of Alvis's thirteen answers; so do the gods (Asgarth) and the giants (Jotunheim). The elves (Alfheim) appear in eleven

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