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Ásynjur

Eir

A goddess whom Snorri ranks third among the Ásynjur and calls 'the best physician'; a maiden of the same name sits at Menglöð's knees in Svipdagsmál.

Eir is a goddess known almost entirely from one sentence. In Snorri's list of the Ásynjur, the goddesses of Ásgard, she comes third, after Frigg and Sága: "she is the best physician" Gylfaginning 35. Snorri tells no story about her and gives her no family. In the hosted Brodeur translation the name is printed "Fir", evidently a misprint for Eir.

The name turns up once in the poems. In Svipdagsmál, the giant watchman Fjölsviðr lists the maidens who sit at Menglöð's knees, and the last pair are "Eir and Aurbotha" Svipdagsmál 54. These maidens bring aid to anyone who makes offerings to them and guard people from danger Svipdagsmál 56, which fits a helper or healer. Svipdagsmál is a late poem, preserved only in paper manuscripts, and it does not say that its Eir is Snorri's goddess.

So the evidence is thin: a name meaning "mercy" or "help", one line in Snorri, and a namesake in a late poem.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

The third is Fir: she is the best physician.
Gylfaginning 35 Snorri's whole account of the goddess Eir, in his list of the Ásynjur (the hosted text prints her name as 'Fir').
Bjort and Bleik, Blith and Frith, Eir and Aurbotha.
Svipdagsmál 54 An Eir among the nine maidens who sit at Menglöð's knees.
Soon aid they all who offerings give On the holy altars high
Svipdagsmál 56 Those maidens help people who sacrifice to them and guard them from harm.

Related

Frigg Odin's wife and the foremost of the goddesses: she knows the fates of all but never speaks them, and her failed attempt to protect her son Baldr is the hinge of Norse myth. Sága A goddess who drinks with Odin every day from golden cups at Sökkvabekkr, a hall among cool waves; Snorri ranks her second among the Ásynjur. Gefjun The goddess who ploughed the Danish island of Zealand out of Sweden with four oxen, her sons by a giant. Snorri also calls her a virgin who receives women who die unmarried. Fulla Frigg's maidservant and confidante, who carries her mistress's coffer, minds her shoes and knows her secrets; poets called gold 'Fulla's snood'. Hlín In Snorri, a goddess who guards the people Frigg wishes to save; in Völuspá, Hlín seems to be another name for Frigg herself. Svipdagr and Menglöð Svipdagr ok Menglöð The young man who wakes his dead mother for protective charms, then talks his way past the giant guard Fjölsviðr to the maiden Menglöð, who has waited for him.