completeness. Now nothing hardly is known of Nûᵭ: except that a Welsh Triad styles him one of the Three Generous Heroes of the Isle of Britain,[1] and that, according to another Triad,[2] he had a herd of cattle consisting of no less than 21,000 milch-cows, as to which it cannot be considered certain, whether or not they should be interpreted to mean the monsters of the deep; but Nûᵭ's generosity is doubtless to be added to the attributes of the god as represented at Lydney. Nor is it improbable that the name Nodens referred originally to that quality, though it would seem as if it were to be interpreted 'the rich or wealthy' god;[3] but I should prefer supposing it to have had the causative meaning of one who enabled others to enjoy riches and wealth, especially in the matter of cattle—one, in fact, who was supposed to be the giver of wealth, whence his traditional character for generosity. But all this must be considered highly conjectural until a related Celtic word is identified.
The other name representing that of Nodens in Welsh, as already stated, is 'Llûᵭ,' with which, or an earlier form of it, such as Lodens, should be connected the
- ↑ i. 8 = ii. 32 = iii. 30.
- ↑ iii. 85.
- ↑ Nodens looks like a participle belonging to a strong or primitive verb, but no verb that would satisfy the conditions happens to be known to me in Celtic; the Teutonic languages, however, supply one, as will be at once recognized in the German ge-niessen, ge-noss, ge-nossen, 'to eat, drink, enjoy, or have the use of,' Gothic niutan, naut, nutum, of much the same meaning, as was the case also with the Anglo-Saxon neótan and the Norse njóta; and among the related nouns may be mentioned the Norse naut, 'a head of cattle, a horned beast,' English neat, of the same meaning; also German nütze, 'use;' while outside the area of the Teutonic languages we have a Lithuanian naudà, meaning use, profit, proceeds, harvest, possessions or property generally.
