Lug’s foster-mother), son of Etarlamh, brother of Net and Midir of Uisnech. Nuada elsewhere was son, or grandson, of Lug and ancestor of the Munster princes. The dedicatory name “Mog Nuadat” stands out as that of Eogan Taidleach, the first notable Celtic prince in Munster. The great Munster Óenach was dedicated to Cuil, wife of Nechtan, son of Nuada, and Maynooth (Magh Nuadat) bears his name. The name “Nodent” (but not of a god) is found in Brittany. Under his name “Lludd (Nudd) Lamereint” he looms large in Britain, where Ludgate and probably Lydney, where the temple of Nudens was unearthed,[1] bear his name. He is, of course, the British god Nudens, Nudd Lamereint, or “Silver Hand” (as in Ireland). It is enough to refer to his temple at Lydney on the Severn, and to note that the only Irish trace of the Brito-Gaulish god-name Segomo is found in his descendant, “Nia Segamain, the siabra” or of the god race.[2]
The seven mounds at Tailltiu, besides the great earthwork of Lug, included two of Ollamh Fodla, the Irish Numa, and Eithne, wife of Conn of the hundred battles. The geasa or “tabus” of Tailltiu were “to cross without alighting, to look over the left shoulder when leaving; to cast unprofitably after sunset.”[3] The triads name it as one of the three chief Assemblies of Ireland.
2. The Marriage of the Sun.
The euhemerist easily got rid of gods by making them human ancestors and heroes, but one divine phenomenon
- ↑ “Roman Antiquities in Lydney Park” (Bathurst, 1879), plate xiii.
- ↑ Coir Anm. p. 295. Could the British gods Segomo and Nuada have come in with the Brigantes who were settled on S. E. coast of Ireland on Ptolemy’s map? There we find the Dergthene, “Maqi mucoi Netta Segamonas,” in the ogham monumental inscriptions, and in earliest Munster legend, their traditional pedigree marking their veneration for Net (Mog Neit), Nuada (Mog Nuadat), Lug (“mucoi Luga” ogham at Dromore, Waterford) and Segomo (Nia Segamain).
- ↑ “Rennes Dind S.” Rev. Celt. xvi. p. 51.
