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"This story is everything that you would expect a good Norse tale to be"

Albric the Dwarf, or Dark Elf, was not happy in the kingdom of Svartalfheim. He didn't have the skill that his brother, Mimir, did, so it was his job to mine. Svartalfheim is underground and all the Dark Elves live there. They can no longer stand sunlight. Albric finally decides to go away. He knows that he was made for greatness and he also knows that he won't find it in Svartalfheim. He is also looking for a human woman. He follows an impulse and goes down an unused corridor. He finds a ladder and climbs up.

He finds himself by a pool of water. He loves the way that Middle-Earth smells. Everything is so fresh. He starts coming out by the pool every night. Eventually, he runs into Aegir's daughters. They finally tease him into the water. He find's Aegir's gold and steals it from them. He even forswears love for the gold. The gold is very powerful and will give him power. He has his brother make a ring out of the gold. He rules Svartalfheim with the ring.

Odin finally hears of the ring and decides that he needs it. He is worried about Ragnarok, the final battle. He feels that the ring will help him win. So he and Loki go to Svartalfheim and manage to trap Albric, they also get the ring. Albric curses the ring. The curse that he puts on the ring is that everyone will want it and fight over it and it will cause the death of whoever wears it.

Odin loses the ring to a pair of giants. The curse begins working immediately as the brothers engage in a fight to the death of one. The one that is left, Fafnir, also has the magic tarnhelm that Mimir made and turns into a dragon. Odin has also sworn that he will not try and get the ring back.

This is where the story becomes interesting as we watch Odin manipulate mortals as he tries to get a hero to kill Fafnir and retrieve the ring.

This is a wonderful rendition of the Liebelung. This story is everything that you would expect a good Norse tale to be. It is filled with the Gods of Aesir, the Dwarves and other supernatural beings, including the Valkyries. It is filled with people, heroes wonderful and flawed, women beautiful beyond belief, and people that are ugly and twisted in visage as well as soul. It is a tale of good versus evil. Again, this is a wonderful rendition of the Liebelung and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in anything relating to the Norse.

Reviewed by Chere Gruver
Posted January 20, 2004

Reviewed by Chere Gruver
Posted November 17, 2006

For centuries the Norsemen plundered northern Europe, leaving devastation and terror in their wake, but they also created a hero who has lived for over twelve centuries in sagas, epic romance and opera. The story of that hero, The Ring of the Dark Elves, is set in the savage, beautiful world of Norse legend, inhabited by dwarves, sea nymphs, shape-changing giants and mortal men, ruled by the immortal Aesir. It is a tale of valor and avarice, love and vengeance, and the uncanny curse laid on the sea nymphs' golden ring. This is the tale from which Richard Wagner created his great operatic Ring cycle, and from which J.R.R. Tolkien derived many of his most potent plot elements. But it is a tale of courage and enchantment in its own right, worthy of retelling.

The Ring of the Dark Elves is the archetypal ring legend, the tragic tale of the greatest hero of Norse legend, of which William Morris wrote, "This is the great story of the North, which should be to all our race what the tale of Troy was to the Greeks."