of the Severn; moreover, an ugly band of red, within the lines of the inscription, surrounded the mouth of a funnel leading into the ground beneath; this hole is supposed to have been used for libations to the god.[1] Further, a small plaque of bronze found on the spot gives us probably a representation of the god himself. The principal figure thereon is a youthful deity crowned with rays like Phoebus: he stands in a chariot drawn by four horses, like the Roman Neptune. On either side the winds are typified by a winged genius floating along, and the rest of the space is left to two Tritons; while a detached piece probably of the same bronze represents another Triton, also a fisherman who has just succeeded in hooking a salmon.[2] Moreover, the site on a hilly ground near the tidal bed of the Severn makes likewise for the divinity's connection with the world of waters. The temple to whose remains I have alluded was undoubtedly constructed under Roman auspices, but it is equally probable that the god was worshipped and consulted on the spot long before the Romans first crossed the Severn.
The oldest form of the god's name known to epigraphy is, as we have seen, Nodens, for which we have in Welsh the two forms Nûᵭ: and Lluᵭ; but Welsh literature, it must be admitted, recognizes no connection between them. Nevertheless, the original identity of the names warrants us in combining the attributes of the personages called Nûᵭ and Lluᵭ: respectively, in the attempt to reproduce the character of the god in something like its original
