Nodens

Tolkien visited the temple of Nodens, a place called "Dwarf's Hill" and translated an inscription with a curse upon a ring. It may have inspired his dwarves, Mines of Moria, rings, and Celebrimbor "Silver-Hand".[1]

*Nodens or *Nodons (reconstructed from the dative Nodenti or Nodonti) is a Celtic healing god worshipped in Ancient Britain. 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. The deity is known in only one other location, in Cockersand Moss (Lancashire). He was equated on most inscriptions with the Roman god Mars (as a healer rather than as a warrior) and associated in a curse with Silvanus (a hunting-god).[2][3] His name is cognate with that of later Celtic mythological figures, such as the Irish Nuada and the Welsh Nudd.[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'. Nodens appears, too, in the works of Arthur Machen, as well as H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Anger 2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b MacKillop 2004, s.v. Nodons, Nudd and Nuadu Airgetlám.
  3. ^ Aldhouse-Green 2008, pp. 208–210.
  4. ^ Carey 1984, pp. 2–3.
  5. ^ Matasović 2009, p. 350.