Sons of Ivaldi

Connections

• Weeks after Orion's arrival to Asgard, they presented a suit of dazzling gold armor to the gods (presumably for Orion to use)
• Ulgrim is one of the sons of Ivaldi

Context

In Norse mythology, Loki decided it would be funny to cut off the lovely golden hair of Sir, Thor's wife. Of course, this made Thor furious. Loki led Thor to the Svartalfheim (aka Nidavellir) where the Sons of Ivaldi lived to ask them to create new hair, more beautiful than before, for Sif. The dwarfs accomplished the task, and also created Skidbladnir (a ship given to Frey that could be folded up to fit in a pocket and always had favorable winds) and Gugnir (Odin's deadly spear).

After that, the story you read in Ulgrim's lore about "upstart Dwarven smiths" is quite consistent with known Norse mythology. After dealing withthe Sons of Ivaldi, Loki decided to stay and have fun with some other dwarfs. He claimed these dwarfs (named Brokkr and Sindri) couldn't make three new objects as great as those made by the Sons of Ivaldi. Of course, these two dwarfs were up for the challenge. Loki even bet his own head against their skill.

Not wanting to lose, Loki changed into an insect and kept stinging the dwarfs as they worked, causing them to make mistakes. Despite these efforts, the gods were impressed by what the brothers created: Gullinbursti, the golden-bristled boar who could run faster than horses through earth, sea, and sky; Draupnir, a golden ring that created eight more duplicates of itself every ninth night; and the famous Mjollnir, the hammer that always came back, but the handle was a bit short due to Loki's stinging (thus Ulgrim's remark that "the handle is the only part of hammer crafting that takes any real skill anyway").

Of course, these three gifts were accepted gladly by the gods (Frey took the boar, Odin the ring, and Thor the hammer). Loki got out of losing his head, however, when he pointed out that he never offered his neck, just his head. The dwarfs then sewed his mouth shut and went on their way.