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Ásynjur

Syn

The goddess who keeps the hall door against unwelcome visitors and stands as defence for those who deny a charge at law.

Syn is the eleventh of Snorri's Ásynjur and has two jobs. She "keeps the door in the hall, and locks it before those who should not go in", and she is "set at trials as a defence" against suits she means to refute Gylfaginning 35. Snorri explains the second role with a legal phrase: when a man denies a charge, "syn is set forward".

The word syn means "denial" or "refusal". Snorri's account reads like an explanation built backwards from that phrase: the formal denial at a lawsuit becomes a goddess who stands in front of the accused, and the shut door becomes her other task. That is a reading of the passage, not something Snorri says.

Syn has no story and no part in the Eddic poems. Snorri gives her no family or hall. For the god who actually settles lawsuits in Snorri's account, see Forseti and his hall Glitnir.

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 eleventh is Syn: she keeps the door in the hall, and locks it before those who should not go in; she is also set at trials as a defence against such suits as she wishes to refute: thence is the expression, that syn is set forward, when a man denies.
Gylfaginning 35 Snorri's entire account of Syn, as door-keeper and as the personified legal denial.

Related

Vör A wise and searching goddess from whom nothing can be hidden; she is known only from one sentence in Snorri's list of the Ásynjur. Vár The goddess who hears the oaths of men and women and punishes oath-breakers; in Þrymskviða the giant Thrym wants his bride blessed 'by the hand of Vár'. Snotra A prudent, gentle goddess whose name, Snorri says, gives the word snotr for a wise and moderate person; nothing else is known of her. 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. Forseti Son of Baldr and Nanna, a god of justice whose hall Glitnir, pillared with gold and roofed with silver, is the best court among gods and men. Glitnir Forseti's hall, pillared with gold and roofed with silver, where every quarrel brought before him is settled.