Groups of Nine Maidens crop up in the Icelandic tales of Thidrandi[5] and in Brand’s saga, in the story of Svipdagr, as Valkyries [6] and as the daughters of the sea goddess Rán.
In Norse mythology, the watcher god of Valhalla, Heimdallr is said to be born of nine mothers,[7] and they are also associated with the World-Mill which created the known universe from the bodies of the Ice Giants slain by Odin and his companions.
[9] An echo of the daughters of Rán appears in the Irish tale of Ruad, Son of Rig-Donn, in which he is stopped at sea by nine giant maidens with whom he has a child.
[16] Robert Graves in The Greek Myths drew attention to a similarity between groups of ecstatic Maenads and the cave painting form El Cogul Roca Dels Moros near Lerida in Catalonia which has nine women dancing round a spectacularly priapic male.
Similarly known in Ireland Cerridwen – the Welsh Goddess who had a cauldron of poetry and inspiration Monenna – an early Scottish saint who supposedly had chapels on Dumbarton, Edinburgh and Stirling Rocks, and Traprain Law – all important Dark Age sites.