Alberich Hollow: tunnel road of the Bay of Bounty

Alberich Hollow was a tunnel region in the north of the Bay of Bounty in Svartalfheim, the world of the Dwarves. It was entered from the enormous wooden walkway that stretched above Dragon Beach, a climb Kratos could not make until he carried the Draupnir Spear, though a narrow shoreline at the hollow's northern end also met the waters of the bay. Within the tunnel the leavings of dwarven industry lay among veins of gold rock and vents of molten stone, watched over by Grims, Wretches, and Bergsras, and at its far end nested a Grim of dreadful strength called Ormstunga. Among the things hidden in its depths were half of the seed that opened the road to Muspelheim, a tear into the branches of Yggdrasil, and one of the watching ravens of Odin.

Geography and approach#

The Bay of Bounty, the great body of water at the heart of Svartalfheim, was divided in two by The Watchtower and Radsvinn's Rig. The southern waters held the docks of Nidavellir, Modvitnir's Rig, and Dragon Beach, while the northern waters held Althjof's Rig, Lyngbakr Island, Alberich Island, and Alberich Hollow. Where its neighbors were open shores and islands, the hollow was a passage through the rock itself, a tunnel running from south to north beneath the heights above Dragon Beach.

The main way in lay along the enormous wooden walkway that extended over Dragon Beach. Reaching that walkway meant climbing a gold chain up a tall wooden structure on the beach and crossing a gap that only the Draupnir Spear made passable, so the hollow stayed closed to Kratos until the days after the spear was forged. A second approach existed at the northern end, where a small beach met the bay; a coffin rested on that shore, sealed away behind a wall of ice. Inside, a huge statue of a dwarf stood near the entrance, and the ground fell away downhill to its left toward the tunnel proper. Deeper in, a fallen pillar of rock partly blocked the way, low enough that a traveler could pass beneath it only unburdened, and at the far northern end a wooden balcony looked out from the tunnel mouth.

Beasts of the tunnel#

The hollow's inhabitants were the creatures common to Svartalfheim's wild places. Grims scuttled through the passage, Wretches nested in its corners, and Bergsras stalked its slopes. On the downhill ground past the great statue, cursed Grims prowled together with a Bergsra of uncommon ferocity, and any who descended toward the tunnel had to cut through them to go further.

The master of the deep passage was Ormstunga, a dreadful Grim that laired near the tunnel's northern end. Yellowish brown in color, with small and skinny forelimbs, it otherwise resembled the wicked Grims of Svartalfheim, but its strength set it far above the common run of its kind, and it was counted among the notable foes of Svartalfheim alongside creatures such as Blatönn and Miklimunnr. Ormstunga held the ground just before the fallen rock pillar, and no one passed to the hollow's furthest treasures without facing it.

The seed of Muspelheim#

Just inside the tunnel, on the right hand wall of the downhill ground below the statue, a chest sat encased in gold rock, a stone too hard for any ordinary blow. The Dwarves had left dispensers of lava rock along the passage walls, and a burning stone hurled against the golden crust shattered it and laid the chest bare. Within lay half of the Muspelheim Yggdrasil Seed.

The seed's other half rested at Modvitnir's Rig on the western side of the bay, and only when the two halves were joined was the seed whole. Made whole, it opened the way through the World Tree to Muspelheim, the world of fire. Alberich Hollow thus held one of the two keys by which the road to the burning world was restored, a treasure out of all proportion to the hollow's modest size.

The rift and the lindwyrm#

Toward the northern end of the tunnel, past Ormstunga's ground, a ledge rose to the left of the fallen rock pillar. Up that ledge a tear had opened into the branches of Yggdrasil itself, one of the rifts that had split open across the Nine Realms in the days of the Fimbulwinter. A lindwyrm dwelt within it, one of the small serpentine creatures that had strayed into such openings and needed to be found and drawn out. From the rift and its occupant came a gale spark, lindwyrm scales, dust of the worlds, and a weight of hacksilver, materials prized by the smiths of Svartalfheim.

Riches of the northern end#

Beyond the fallen pillar the tunnel ended at a wall of gold rock, and the low gap beneath the fallen stone would not admit anyone carrying a burning lava rock. The way through demanded cunning: a stone taken from the dispenser further back could be carried up the ledge beside the pillar and hurled down at the golden wall from above, breaking it open. Past the shattered wall, a tree grew on the left of the passage, and behind it hid one of Odin's ravens, a spying eye of the All-Father keeping watch over the northern bay until Kratos destroyed it in his long hunt for the Eyes of Odin.

At the end of the wooden balcony on the tunnel's northern mouth lay a treasure map remembered as Fruits of Industry, which pointed the way to riches buried at Modvitnir's Rig across the bay. Beside it stood a second chest, holding a whetstone of Folkvangr fit for honing a companion's blade, together with a great hoard of hacksilver. After the fall of Asgard, a fragment of the shattered world also came to rest in the hollow, one of the many remnants strewn across the surviving worlds.

Errands through the hollow#

Two of the errands that occupied Kratos in Svartalfheim ran through Alberich Hollow's ground. On the heights above Dragon Beach, along the climb toward the hollow, lingered the spirit of an elder wayfarer, a sailor who had come to the land of the Dwarves hunting treasure with his son and died in the venture. His sorrowful account of their lost fortune set Kratos searching the bay on the dead man's behalf, and the trail of that search touched the hollow and its surroundings before it ended.

The hollow also lay on the trail of the ceremonial hammer sought by Durlin, the governor of Nidavellir. The hammer, a relic with no practical use as a tool, was treasured as a symbol of the Dwarven resistance to Asgard's rule, and the hunt to recover it led through the country around the great statue before the relic was restored to the Dwarves. In this way the quiet tunnel in the north of the bay, home to little more than Grims and abandoned works, was bound up with the memory of dwarven defiance and with the road to the world of fire alike.