Ancient Britain in the context of "Nodens"

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👉 Ancient Britain in the context of Nodens

*Nodens, *Nodons or *Nudens (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). His name is cognate with that of later Celtic mythological figures, such as the Irish Nuada and the Welsh Nudd.

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.

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Ancient Britain in the context of Agricola (book)

The Agricola (Latin: De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae, lit. On the life and character of Julius Agricola) is a book by the Roman writer, Tacitus, written c. AD 98. The work recounts the life of his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola, an eminent Roman general and Governor of Britain from AD 77/78 – 83/84. It also covers the geography and ethnography of ancient Britain.

The text survived in a single codex ascertained by Poggio Bracciolini to be in a German monastery (Hersfeld Abbey). It was eventually secured by the humanist Niccolò de' Niccoli. In modern times, two manuscripts of the Agricola are preserved in the Library of the Vatican. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, two more manuscripts are said by Duane Reed Stuart to have been brought to light, with one being held by the Chapter Library of the Cathedral at Toledo in Spain and the other being found in 1902 in the private library of Count Balleani of Jesi, in Italy.

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Ancient Britain in the context of Cunobeline

Cunobeline or Cunobelin (Common Brittonic: *Cunobelinos, "Dog-Strong"), also known by his name's Latin form Cunobelinus, was a king in pre-Roman Britain from about AD 9 to about AD 40. He is mentioned in passing by the classical historians Suetonius and Dio Cassius, and many coins bearing his inscription have been found. He controlled a substantial portion of southeastern Britain, including the territories of the Catuvellauni and the Trinovantes, and he was called "King of the Britons" (Britannorum rex) by Suetonius. Cunobeline may have been a client king of Rome, based on the images and legends appearing on his coins. Cunobeline appears in British legend as Cynfelyn (Welsh), Kymbelinus (medieval Latin) or Cymbeline, as in the play by William Shakespeare.

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