There are reasons for assuming that the ancient artisan _Sindre_ is identical with _Dvalinn_, the ancient artisan created by Mimer. I base this assumption on the following circumstances:
_Dvalinn_ is mentioned by the side of _Dáinn_ both in Havamál (43) and in Grimnersmal (33); also in the sagas, where they make treasures in company. Both the names are clearly epithets which point to the mythic destiny of the ancient artists in question. _Dáinn_ means "the dead one," and in analogy herewith we must interpret _Dvalinn_ as "the dormant one," "the one slumbering." (cp. the Old Swedish _dvale_, sleep, unconscious condition). Their fates have made them the representatives of death and sleep, a sort of equivalents of Thanatos and Hypnos. As such they appear in the allegorical strophes incorporated in Grimnersmal, which, describing how the world-tree suffers and grows old, make _Dáinn_ and _Dvalinn_, "death" and "slumber," get their food from its branches, while Nidhog and other serpents wound its roots.
In Hyndluljod (6) the artists who made Frey's golden boar are called _Dáinn_ and _Nabbi_. In the Younger Edda (i. 340-342) they are called _Brokkr_ and _Sindri_. Strange to say, on account of mythological circumstances not known to us, the skalds have been able to use _Dáinn_ as a paraphrase for a rooting four-footed animal, and _Brokkr_ too has a similar signification (cp. the Younger Edda, ii. 490, and Vigfusson, Dict., under _Brokkr_). This points to an original identity of these epithets. Thus we arrive at the following parallels:
Dáinn (-Brokkr) and Dvalinn made treasures together; (Dáinn-) Brokkr and Sindri made Frey's golden boar; Dáinn and Nabbi made Frey's golden boar;
and the conclusion we draw herefrom is that in our mythology, in which there is such a plurality of names, _Dvalinn_, _Sindri_, and _Nabbi_ are the same person, and that _Dáinn_ and _Brokkr_ are identical. I may have an opportunity later to present further evidence of this identity.
The primeval artist Sindre, who with his kinsmen inhabits a golden hall in Mimer's realm under the Hvergelmer mountains, near the subterranean fountain of the maelstrom, has therefore borne the epithet _Dvalinn_, "the one wrapped in slumber." "The slumberer" thus rests with his kinsmen, where Paulus Diaconus has heard that seven men sleep from time out of mind, and where Adam of Bremen makes smithying giants, rich in treasures, keep themselves concealed in lower-world caves within walls surrounded by water.