Lludd Llaw Eraint
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Lludd Llaw Eraint, "Lludd of the Silver Hand", son of Beli Mawr, is a legendary hero from Welsh mythology. As Nudd Llaw Eraint (the earlier form of his name, cognate of the Irish Nuada Airgetlám, derived from the pre-Roman British god Nodens) he is the father of Gwynn ap Nudd. He is probably the source of king Lud from Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain.
In the Mabinogion story of Lludd and Llevelys, he is the ruler of Britain while his brother Llevelys ruled Gaul. Lludd calls on Llevelys to rid Britain of three plagues then afflicting the kingdom. Lludd has been considered a death God. In Celtic mythology, Lludd was also the God of the River Thames, replacing the Goddess Tamesis. #redirect According to legend, there was once a temple to Lludd at the site of St Paul's Cathedral, London, near Ludgate, which is named after him.
Etymology
The reconstructed lexis of the Proto-Celtic language as collated by the University of Wales [link] suggests that the name is likely to be ultimately derived from the Proto-Celtic *Noudant-s (cf. Welsh nodd). This Proto-Celtic word connotes the semantics of ‘sap, moisture.’ and so the fundamental nature of this deity may be a personification of “moisture”, which would account for the associations with a silvery appearance (silver-armed), healing, the Severn and the weather of British Isles.However, another plausible etymology is a Proto-Indo-European compound such as *Nou-da:nt-s meaning ‘nourishment-giving (spirit)’ a possible byword for a deification of the notion of ‘wholesomeness.’ This would tie in well with Nodens’ associations with water, as well as Nuada’s associations with youth, healing, sunlight, warriors and kingship.
*Noudants may also be derived from Proto-Indo-European *sneudh- "fog" (cf. Avestan snaoda "clouds," Welsh nudd "fog," Gk. nython, in Hesychius "dark, dusky"), suggesting that Nodens was the deification of a weather pattern frequent in the British Isles.
See also
Bibliography
- Ellis, Peter Berresford, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology(Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994): ISBN 0195089618
- MacKillop, James. Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0192801201.
- Wood, Juliette, The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art, Thorsons Publishers (2002): ISBN 0007640595
External links
- [Celtic Gods]
- [Some Major Celtic Gods and Goddesses]
- [Proto-Celtic—English]
- [Celtic Gods and Goddesses (L–M) — Llud]
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