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So, Im familiar with the pagan/gaelic/midsummer's night's dream fae stuff (to some extent) but Im currious about norse belief concerning the fae. Would it be accurate to believe that Alfheim is the fae realm? If so, what could you tell me about it, the veil and its interaction/history with Earth/Midgard?

Alfheim or Álfheimr is a word which here means Elf Home or Land of the Elves or Elfland. It was once known as Ljosalfheim, meaning Home of the Light-Elves.The place is mentioned only twice in Nordic texts, specifically the Grímnismáland theGylfaginning. Many modern human scholars have speculated that Alfheim was one of the Nine Worlds mentioned in the Völuspá. However in said text not all the worlds were mentioned or described.As to how Alfheim connects to the Folk. It is indeed one of the many names given to our world. But in truth it describes only a very small area of a much larger Otherworld and is layered in human beliefs. The same can be said for the Nine worlds. Nine worlds is all their people knew of, so they assumed that that was all there was. Whether worlds, realms, planes of existence, or something else entirely…its difficult to explain. Many of the other places mentioned in the old texts were references to our world as well, or worlds beyond ours.As for the Veil. The Veil is an old name given to the boundaries between worlds or realms. We called it that because like an actual piece of cloth it could be stronger in some areas or much thinner and easier to tear or slip through a loose weave. Certain times of year marked when the veil would be thin and the worlds would grow close together, enough so that many could slip across and perform mischief or humans accidentally stumbled through and were unable to return for various reasons. Think of instead the boundaries of the world like a tide. Ebbing and flowing, changing with the seasons and the turning of the celestial bodies. Never quite the same, but having patterns that it follows so that many things are similar.The Norse people saw and learned much, but no one is all knowing. That is the nature of things.