The hand on the forehead and the hand on the wound
Warning
She is called for the care and not for the cure
Resonance
The sick those who nurse those who keep a sickroom
Symbols
HerbBowlHillCandle
Mythology Summary
Gylfaginning 35 names Eir third among the asynjur and says only that she is an extremely good physician; Skaldskaparmal 75 lists her among the valkyries instead. In Fjolsvinnsmal she is one of the nine maidens who sit with Menglod on Lyfjaberg, the healing hill, and the poem says that those who make offerings to them are guarded from sickness and peril.
Modern Practice
Eir is the Norse healer to call in a sickroom: modern practice asks her over herbs, water and a clean cloth, and the offering is the care actually given. Hers is one of the few cults with a stated offering formula in the Eddic poems - the maidens of Lyfjaberg accept blot and return protection from pestilence.