Maiden
What you need to sow
Start the small healing habit today.
Norse / Icelandic
Eir
Best of Healers
Recorded in 13th-century Iceland
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Her story
Historical context
goddess · Recorded in 13th-century Iceland
Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda names Eir among the Ásynjur and calls her the best of physicians. In Fjölsvinnsmál she sits with the maidens of Lyfjaberg, the 'hill of healing'.
Mythology & traditions
Fjölsvinnsmál names Eir among nine maidens who sit on Lyfjaberg, a mountain said to offer relief to sick women who climb it. Scholars debate whether the Eir named among valkyries in skaldic poetry is the same being. The sources are few, but together they preserve healing as skilled presence, elevated sanctuary and mercy.
Domains
- healing
- medicine
- mercy
- protection
Symbols
- healing herbs
- mountain Lyfjaberg
- open hands
In the oracle
Her guidance
Mother
What you need to grow
Grow rest the way a physician would prescribe it for someone you love.
Crone
What you need to know
Know that asking for help is part of the cure.
Her tradition
Icelandic Tradition
Goddesses of story and healing preserved in the Eddas written down in medieval Iceland.
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