Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/48

 38 The European Sky -God.

with Niiada a god whose name occurs in Roman in- scriptions from Gloucestershire and Carmarthen under the forms Nodonti, Nodenti, Nudente, Nu\d'\inti. A sanctuary of this deity is still to be seen in Lydney Park some eight miles east of Chepstow. Excavations begun here by the Right Hon. C. Bathurst in 1805 brought to light a precinct bounded by a solid wall and enclosing the foundations of {a) a temple and {b) a large villa or palace built in two wings, apparently of different dates, with a paved court between them. The excavator^ rightly recognised the former as the temple of Nodons or Nodens by means of three inscribed votive tablets found within it ; ^ and conjectured that the latter was the residence of the principal military commander of the district.

The first thing that strikes us in considering this complex of buildings is their unusual, not to say unique, arrangement. A divine temple and a royal house side by side within a single enclosure ! It is only when we remember Nuada the god and Nuada the king, or Nudd the God and Nudd Hael the king, that the combination becomes intelligible. Nodons, a Gaelic deity corresponding to Nuada and Nudd, was presumably represented on the spot by a priestly king, whose wealthy residence was a standing proof of the god's generosity.

Closer inspection of the buildings and of sundry monuments found in them deepens our conviction that

^ Roman Antiquities at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, being a posthumous work of the Rev. W. H. Bathurst, with notes by C. W. King. London 1879 PP- 5, 12.

"^Lydney Park pi. 20, i a bronze plate /£?2«/?7/(' D • M • nodonti | fl •

BLANDINVS | ARMATVRA | V • s • L • yi {Corpus inscriptio7tum Latin .runi\\\.

no. 138). PI. 20, 2 a bronze plate bearing the figure of a wolf (or perhaps

a dog) and inscribed pectillvs | votvm qvod | promissit | dec nvdente

I M • DEDIT [C.I.L. vii. 139). PI. 20, 3 a sheet of lead scratched devo |

NODENTI SILVLANVS | ANILVM PERDEDIT ] DEMEDIAM PARTEM | DONAVIT

NODENTI I INTER QVIBVS NOMEN | SENICIANI NOLLIS | PETMITTAS SANITA

I TEM DONEC PERFERA^ | USQVE TEMPLVM NOJDENTIS (C./.Z. vii. I40).