InkScape SVG Editor
I don’t currently feel the need to create or edit any SVG files, but if I did, I would use InkScape. InkScape is a free (open source) direct manipulation editor for SVG. Create, move, resize, union, intersect, paint, fill, and more. Builds are available for various flavors of Linux, the Mac, and Windows. Check out the screen shots. The full distribution includes some great sample illustrations.