dur Paladye Hir (of the long spear or pal)
is associated with his brother, both sons of Eliffer, one of the _thirteen
princes of the north_. Peredur is one of seven brothers; there were seven
profound mysteries of Druidism, _i. e._ seven divisions of the
reverberations of the Word, emanating from Ced, and the seven Tattaras or
seven rays.

SCANDINAVIA.

According to the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturlesson, whose opinion was
the re-echo of ancient traditional beliefs, Odin and his eight sons and
four companions, twelve in all, were earthly kings and priests of a
sacerdotal caste, who had emigrated from Asia--perhaps from Troy--and who
conquered and ruled over various parts of Scandinavia and Northern Germany
where, after their death, they were regarded by the people as deities
(Chambers' Encyclopaedia).

O'Neil states "that Odin was named Mith-Odinn (Mid-Odin?) by Saxo
Grammaticus," and quotes the following: "Odinn died in his bed, in Sweden,
and when he was near his death he made himself be marked with the point of
a spear and said he was going to Godheim" (Ingliga Saga). "The twelve
_godes_ or diar or drotnar of Odin were obviously cognate to our _god_ as
a name of a deity. They (or the priests who represented them) directed
sacrifices and judged the people, and all the people served and obeyed
them" (O'Neil I, p. 76).

A strange reality is given to Odin and his twelve "godes," when it is
realized that at Mora, near Upsala, Sweden, there exists the ancient stone
throne on which the ancient kings of Sweden were crowned and this central
stone is surrounded by twelve lesser stones, just as the Irish
"Mound-chief" was surrounded by twelve idols.

While the above facts suffice to indicate that, in remotest antiquity, the
government of the state was vested in one supreme and twelve minor chiefs,
the following brief extracts from the Eddas reveal the cosmical beliefs of
the Norsemen: "In the cold north existed Niflheim in the middle of which
was a well from which sprang twelve rivers. In the south existed the warm
Muspelheim. There was a contention between both of these worlds.... The
union of heat and cold produced Oergelmer or Chaos, and the first human
being, Ymir. The revolving eye of the Norse world-millstone was directly
above Oergelmer and through it the waters flowed to and from the great
fountain of the Universe waters." Ymir drew his nourishment from four
streams of milk proceeding from the mythical cow Aedhu