Nodens

Although no physical depiction of him has survived, votive plaques found in a shrine at Lydney Park (Gloucestershire) indicate his connection with dogs, a beast associated with healing symbolism in antiquity.

[4][2][5] The philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien was invited to investigate the Latin inscription, and scholars have noted several likely influences on his Middle-earth fantasy writings, including the Elvish smith, maker of Rings of Power, Celebrimbor, whose name, like that of Nuada's epithet Airgetlám, means 'Silver-hand'.

[8][9] The origin of the name remains obscure, scholar John Carey noting that "it seems at any rate safe to say that no etymology so far proposed can be accepted with full confidence".

Gothic niutan 'to catch, attain, acquire' and nuta 'catcher, fisherman', Lithuanian naudà 'property'), associating *Nowdont- with the fishing (and possibly hunting) motifs of the Lydney remains and with the silver arms of Nuadu and Lludd.

[11] Although the origin of the association remains difficult to explain, Carey writes that Nodons may be seen "a god of multi-faceted but consistent character: a shining royal warrior presiding over the chaotic in nature, society and the Otherworld (water, war, the devils of Annwn).

')[13] may be interpreted as the euhemerized name of the Celtic deity,[5] with a semantic shift comparable to that conjectured for Proto-Germanic *balþaz > *Balðraz ('white, shining' > 'strong, brave, bold' > 'hero, prince'; cf.

A. D. Mills suggests "island or river-meadow of the sailor, or of a man named *Lida", citing the forms "Lideneg" from c. 853 and "Ledenei" from the 1086 Domesday Book.

This imposing, Romano-Celtic temple building has been interpreted as an incubatio or dormitory for sick pilgrims to sleep and experience a vision of divine presence in their dreams.

A bronze arm whose hand displays the spoon-shaped fingernails characteristic of someone suffering from iron deficiency gives further evidence of the healing attributes of Nodens.

[20][21] Other inscriptions identify Nodens, in various spellings, with the Roman god Mars: A silver statuette, discovered at Cockersand Moss (Lancashire) in 1718 and now lost, had an inscription on its base that reads: Another reads: Nuada Airgetlám was the first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who was disqualified from kingship after losing his hand (or arm) in battle, but restored after he was given a working silver one by the physician Dian Cecht and the wright Creidhne (gaining the epithet Airgetlám, 'silver hand'), and later a flesh and blood one by Dian Cecht's son Miach.

[1][33] The name of the Elven-smith Celebrimbor of Eregion, who forged the Rings of Power in The Silmarillion, means "Silver Hand" in Tolkien's invented Elvish language of Sindarin.

When the protagonist, Thomas Olney, enters the eponymous house, he sees "primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss" riding in a large shell that is carried by dolphins.