Nodens
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Nodens or Nodons was a Celtic deity worshipped in Britain. He had a shrine in Gloucester on the river Severn. In Roman times he was equated with Mars, probably as a healer rather than a warrior, and Silvanus, the god of hunting.
The Irish deity Nuada and the Welsh Nudd are derived from Nodens.
Etymological Clues to Fundamental Character
The reconstructed lexis of the Proto-Celtic language as collated by the University of Wales [1] (http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/pcl-moe.pdf) suggests that the name is likely to be ultimately derived from the Proto-Celtic *Noudant- . This Proto-Celtic word connotes the semantics of moisture (cf. Welsh nodd). So this mythological character may fundamentally have been a personification of moisture deemed a lord of the British Isles and the Severn, and necessary for healing and good singing voice.
Bibliography
- Ellis, Peter Berresford, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology(Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994): ISBN: 0195089618
- MacKillop, James. Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0192801201.
- Wood, Juliette, The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art, Thorsons Publishers (2002): ISBN: 0007640595
External Links
- [2] (http://www.mythome.org/celtic.html)
- [3] (http://www.paralumun.com/celticgod.htm)
- [4] (http://www.daire.org/names/deities.html)
- [5] (http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/pcl-moe.pdf)
Nodens is also a fictional deity in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.