Dan Clore
2006-09-15 21:17:17 UTC
[Formatting lost here includes small caps, boldface,
italics, centering, etc., and letters with diacritical marks
might get screwed up as well.--DC]
Nodens, Nodons, Nudens, pr.n. [see quotation from Puhvel] In
Celtic mythology, a deity pertaining to healing, hunting,
and the sea. Roman ruins found in Lydney Park,
Gloucestershire, dating from the fourth century CE, include
a number of votive tablets bearing well-known inscriptions
to this deity. Based on his appearance in H.P. Lovecraft's
"The Strange High House in the Mist" and The Dream-Quest of
Unknown Kadath, August Derleth made Nodens into the head of
his pantheon of benignant Elder Gods.
[Not in OED.]
Titles: J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Name 'Nodens'" in Report on the
Excavation of the Prehistoric, Roman, and Post-Roman Sites
in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire (1932)
Dr. McCaul quotes from a letter from Meyrick to Lysons that
"Deus Nodens seems to be Romanised British, which correctly
written in the original language would be Deus Noddyns, the
'God of the abyss,' or it may be 'God the preserver,' from
the verb noddi, to preserve; both words being derived from
nawdd, which signifies protection." Prof. Jarrett, a
profound Celtic scholar, to whom I applied for a translation
of "Deus Noddyns" without mentioning Meyrick's explanation,
at once rendered it as "God of the deeps," a sense that
every circumstance confirms.
Roman Antiquities at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire: Being a
Posthumous Work of the Rev. William Hiley Bathurst, M.A. (1879)
The name of the god, as given in the inscriptions, varies
between Nudons and Nodens, the cases actually occurring
being the dative Nodonti, Nodenti, and Nudente, and the
genitive Nodentis, so I should regard ō or ū as optional in
the first syllable, and o as preferable, perhaps, to e in
the second, for there is no room for reasonably doubting
that we have here to do with the same name as Irish Nuadu,
genitive Nuadat, conspicuous in the legendary history of
Ireland.
John Rhŷs, Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx (1901)
Underlying the stories of Nūadu (genitive Nūadat) and Lug
and that of Lludd and Lleuelys we may thus discern a Celtic
myth of Lugus bringing relief to Nōdons; the latter is
attested in dedications from Lydney (cf. Lludd!) in
Gloucestershire bordering South Wales (Deo Nodonti) and
seems to mean 'Fisher' (cf. Gothic nuta 'fisherman', from
*nudōn[s]), the probable ancestor of the Arthurian "Fisher
King" of the Grail legend, whose maiming resulted in the
Waste Land.
Jaan Puhvel, Comparative Mythology (1987)
After I had seen most of the sculptured stones, the coffins,
rings, coins, and fragments of tessellated pavement which
the place contains, I was shown a small square pillar of
white stone, which had been recently discovered in the wood
of which I have been speaking, and, as I found on inquiry,
in that open space where the Roman road broadens out. On one
side of the pillar was an inscription, of which I took a
note. Some of the letters have been defaced, but I do not
think there can be any doubt as to those which I supply. The
inscription is as follows:
DEVOMNODENTIi
FLAvIVSSENILISPOSSVit
PROPTERNVPtias
quaSVIDITSVBVMBra
"To the great god Nodens (the god of the Great Deep or
Abyss) Flavius Senilis has erected this pillar on account of
the marriage which he saw beneath the shade."
Arthur Machen, "The Great God Pan" (1890)
Down the valley in the distance was Caerleon-on-Usk; over
the hill, somewhere in the lower slopes of the forest,
Caerwent, also a Roman city, was buried in the earth, and
gave up now and again strange relics -- fragments of the
temple of "Nodens, god of the depths."
Arthur Machen, Far Off Things (1922)
"By Nodens," said Caswallon drily, "your prayer was granted.
Tros --"
Talbot Mundy, Tros of Samothrace: Lud of Lunden (1925)
A sea-god of the Britons, later confused with Neptune by the
Romans.
Talbot Mundy, note to Tros of Samothrace: Lud of Lunden (1925)
Trident-bearing Neptune was there, and sportive tritons and
fantastic nereids, and upon dolphins' backs was balanced a
vast crenulate shell wherein rode the grey and awful form of
primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss.
H.P. Lovecraft, "The Strange High House in the Mist" (1926)
He spoke, too, of the things he had learnt concerning
night-gaunts from the frescoes in the windowless monastery
of the high-priest not to be described; how even the Great
Ones fear them, and how their ruler is not the crawling
chaos Nyarlathotep at all, but hoary and immemorial Nodens,
Lord of the Great Abyss.
H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1927)
And with his hideous escort he had half hoped to defy even
the Other Gods if need were, knowing as he did that ghouls
have no masters, and that night-gaunts own not Nyarlathotep
but only archaick Nodens for their lord.
H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1927)
Dear, shall I pray the gulf's great deity,
Nodens, to bring once more for you and me
Some love-relinquished hour we could not save
That westered all too swiftly to the wave,
Ebbing between the cypress and the grass?
Clark Ashton Smith, "Sea Cycle"
Double doors of green bronze stood open against the wall,
and portrayed in high relief the primal allegory of Nodens,
the Lord of the Great Abyss: an anthropomorphic god with a
beard of tentacles, now hunting winged octopi with a
trident, now enthroned in a scallop shell.
Gary Myers & Marc Laidlaw, "The Summons of Nuguth-Yug"
I come upon a granite pillar. At first I make it for a
tombstone, but a tombstone wouldn't be here on the site of
an ancient landfill. I flashlight it to read the inscription.
Three parallel inscriptions (shades of Rosetta). Latin,
English, and (maybe) Iroquois. English one says:
I ERECT THIS PILLAR TO THE
GREAT GOD NODENS
ON ACCOUNT OF THE MARRIAGE I SEE
UNDER THE SHADE.
The dog whimpers and backs away. Straight from a B movie. In
the shade of the pillar some mushrooms grow. Golden yellow
caps, white gills, about seven inches tall. Pantheria
amanita. Deadly fly agaric. Panthers of the night of the Gods.
Don Webb, "Metamorphosis No. 40" in Uncle Ovid's Exercise
Book (1988)
The magician commenced to walk around the central hearth,
emptying his mind of distracting thoughts and images while
reciting an invocation in the secret priestly tongue of the
British: "Coblyanau inniskea baile medb Nodens, Pwyll gwawl
connla ballysadare airmid."
Richard Tierney & Glenn Rahman, The Gardens of Lucullus
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1587154838/ref=nosim/thedanclorenecro
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/clorebeast/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"
italics, centering, etc., and letters with diacritical marks
might get screwed up as well.--DC]
Nodens, Nodons, Nudens, pr.n. [see quotation from Puhvel] In
Celtic mythology, a deity pertaining to healing, hunting,
and the sea. Roman ruins found in Lydney Park,
Gloucestershire, dating from the fourth century CE, include
a number of votive tablets bearing well-known inscriptions
to this deity. Based on his appearance in H.P. Lovecraft's
"The Strange High House in the Mist" and The Dream-Quest of
Unknown Kadath, August Derleth made Nodens into the head of
his pantheon of benignant Elder Gods.
[Not in OED.]
Titles: J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Name 'Nodens'" in Report on the
Excavation of the Prehistoric, Roman, and Post-Roman Sites
in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire (1932)
Dr. McCaul quotes from a letter from Meyrick to Lysons that
"Deus Nodens seems to be Romanised British, which correctly
written in the original language would be Deus Noddyns, the
'God of the abyss,' or it may be 'God the preserver,' from
the verb noddi, to preserve; both words being derived from
nawdd, which signifies protection." Prof. Jarrett, a
profound Celtic scholar, to whom I applied for a translation
of "Deus Noddyns" without mentioning Meyrick's explanation,
at once rendered it as "God of the deeps," a sense that
every circumstance confirms.
Roman Antiquities at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire: Being a
Posthumous Work of the Rev. William Hiley Bathurst, M.A. (1879)
The name of the god, as given in the inscriptions, varies
between Nudons and Nodens, the cases actually occurring
being the dative Nodonti, Nodenti, and Nudente, and the
genitive Nodentis, so I should regard ō or ū as optional in
the first syllable, and o as preferable, perhaps, to e in
the second, for there is no room for reasonably doubting
that we have here to do with the same name as Irish Nuadu,
genitive Nuadat, conspicuous in the legendary history of
Ireland.
John Rhŷs, Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx (1901)
Underlying the stories of Nūadu (genitive Nūadat) and Lug
and that of Lludd and Lleuelys we may thus discern a Celtic
myth of Lugus bringing relief to Nōdons; the latter is
attested in dedications from Lydney (cf. Lludd!) in
Gloucestershire bordering South Wales (Deo Nodonti) and
seems to mean 'Fisher' (cf. Gothic nuta 'fisherman', from
*nudōn[s]), the probable ancestor of the Arthurian "Fisher
King" of the Grail legend, whose maiming resulted in the
Waste Land.
Jaan Puhvel, Comparative Mythology (1987)
After I had seen most of the sculptured stones, the coffins,
rings, coins, and fragments of tessellated pavement which
the place contains, I was shown a small square pillar of
white stone, which had been recently discovered in the wood
of which I have been speaking, and, as I found on inquiry,
in that open space where the Roman road broadens out. On one
side of the pillar was an inscription, of which I took a
note. Some of the letters have been defaced, but I do not
think there can be any doubt as to those which I supply. The
inscription is as follows:
DEVOMNODENTIi
FLAvIVSSENILISPOSSVit
PROPTERNVPtias
quaSVIDITSVBVMBra
"To the great god Nodens (the god of the Great Deep or
Abyss) Flavius Senilis has erected this pillar on account of
the marriage which he saw beneath the shade."
Arthur Machen, "The Great God Pan" (1890)
Down the valley in the distance was Caerleon-on-Usk; over
the hill, somewhere in the lower slopes of the forest,
Caerwent, also a Roman city, was buried in the earth, and
gave up now and again strange relics -- fragments of the
temple of "Nodens, god of the depths."
Arthur Machen, Far Off Things (1922)
"By Nodens," said Caswallon drily, "your prayer was granted.
Tros --"
Talbot Mundy, Tros of Samothrace: Lud of Lunden (1925)
A sea-god of the Britons, later confused with Neptune by the
Romans.
Talbot Mundy, note to Tros of Samothrace: Lud of Lunden (1925)
Trident-bearing Neptune was there, and sportive tritons and
fantastic nereids, and upon dolphins' backs was balanced a
vast crenulate shell wherein rode the grey and awful form of
primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss.
H.P. Lovecraft, "The Strange High House in the Mist" (1926)
He spoke, too, of the things he had learnt concerning
night-gaunts from the frescoes in the windowless monastery
of the high-priest not to be described; how even the Great
Ones fear them, and how their ruler is not the crawling
chaos Nyarlathotep at all, but hoary and immemorial Nodens,
Lord of the Great Abyss.
H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1927)
And with his hideous escort he had half hoped to defy even
the Other Gods if need were, knowing as he did that ghouls
have no masters, and that night-gaunts own not Nyarlathotep
but only archaick Nodens for their lord.
H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1927)
Dear, shall I pray the gulf's great deity,
Nodens, to bring once more for you and me
Some love-relinquished hour we could not save
That westered all too swiftly to the wave,
Ebbing between the cypress and the grass?
Clark Ashton Smith, "Sea Cycle"
Double doors of green bronze stood open against the wall,
and portrayed in high relief the primal allegory of Nodens,
the Lord of the Great Abyss: an anthropomorphic god with a
beard of tentacles, now hunting winged octopi with a
trident, now enthroned in a scallop shell.
Gary Myers & Marc Laidlaw, "The Summons of Nuguth-Yug"
I come upon a granite pillar. At first I make it for a
tombstone, but a tombstone wouldn't be here on the site of
an ancient landfill. I flashlight it to read the inscription.
Three parallel inscriptions (shades of Rosetta). Latin,
English, and (maybe) Iroquois. English one says:
I ERECT THIS PILLAR TO THE
GREAT GOD NODENS
ON ACCOUNT OF THE MARRIAGE I SEE
UNDER THE SHADE.
The dog whimpers and backs away. Straight from a B movie. In
the shade of the pillar some mushrooms grow. Golden yellow
caps, white gills, about seven inches tall. Pantheria
amanita. Deadly fly agaric. Panthers of the night of the Gods.
Don Webb, "Metamorphosis No. 40" in Uncle Ovid's Exercise
Book (1988)
The magician commenced to walk around the central hearth,
emptying his mind of distracting thoughts and images while
reciting an invocation in the secret priestly tongue of the
British: "Coblyanau inniskea baile medb Nodens, Pwyll gwawl
connla ballysadare airmid."
Richard Tierney & Glenn Rahman, The Gardens of Lucullus
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1587154838/ref=nosim/thedanclorenecro
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/clorebeast/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"