Which dwarf is the first named in the Völuspá?

The first named dwarf in the Völuspá is Mótsognir.

Mótsognir appears in the poem’s Dvergatal, or “Dwarf-List,” in stanza 10. The stanza presents him as the greatest or foremost of all dwarves and names Durinn immediately afterward. This ordering is the basis for identifying Mótsognir as the first named dwarf in the poem.

The Völuspá’s surrounding creation material says the gods deliberate over the making of the dwarf race. It associates them with Brimir’s blood and Bláinn’s bones, names that are commonly connected with the primordial giant Ymir. Later, Snorri Sturluson’s Gylfaginning interprets dwarves as beings that first took shape like maggots in Ymir’s flesh before receiving intelligence and human form.

Readers often confuse Mótsognir with Durinn because Durinn is also an important early dwarf and later became especially famous through Tolkien’s use of the name. In the Norse poem’s stated order, however, Mótsognir comes first; Durinn is second.