Monaghan Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore
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scholars to presume this figure to have been
divine. Nemetius was honored at one site on the
west bank of the Rhine. The name is connected
to Celtic words for “sacred grove,” found also in
NEMETON and NEMETONA.
nemeton Ritual site. The Celts worshiped not
indoors but outside, in groves of
TREES and at
other sacred sites. There are many evidences
that trees played an important part in Celtic reli-
gious life, never more so than when rituals were
held in forest clearings called nemetons, a name
related to words in other Indo-European lan-
guages (Greek némos, “glade,” Latin nemus,
“sacred”) and may connect with the ancient Irish
root, nem-, which meant “heaven” but referred
symbolically to anything sacred.
Ancient classical authors made much of the
outdoor location of Celtic rituals; Strabo
described the OAK groves in which the
Galacians met, while Pliny the Elder and
Tacitus both spoke of the same among conti-
nental Celts. Lucan, in a vivid passage,
described groves “untouched by men’s hands
from ancient times, whose interlacing boughs
enclosed a space of darkness and cold shade,”
wherein “images of gods grim and rude were
uncouth blocks formed of felled tree-trunks.”
He reported a legend that the trees would
sometimes appear on FIRE or stricken by earth-
quake but would in reality be untouched and
unharmed. Lucan also offhandedly mentioned
that this sacred grove was leveled by Caesar
because it was too near some buildings the
Romans were erecting.
After Romanization, the word nemeton was
sometimes used of a stone TEMPLE, when such
buildings replaced the sacred groves that gave
way to Roman axes. The word became part of
the names of many Celtic settlements; thus we
have Drunemeton near Ankara, Turkey, where
the Celtic Galacians lived; Nematacum and
Nemeton in Gaul, Nemetobrigia in the Celtic
region of Spain called Galacia, Vernemeton in
England, and Medionemeton in Scotland.
Sources: Cunliffe, Barry. The Ancient Celts. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 198; Lonigan,
Paul R. The Druids: Priests of the Ancient Celts.
Contributions to the Study of Religion, No. 45.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996, p. 3.
Nemetona Continental Celtic and British
goddess. The name of this goddess derives from
NEMETON, the Celtic word for “sacred grove,” for
the Celts never worshiped indoors but rather in
the open air, especially in groves of TREES that
were considered to embody the sacredness of
nature. Nemetona’s name, which has been trans-
lated as “she of the sacred grove” or “the goddess
of the shrine” may be related to that of the
Germanic tribe, the Nemetes, whose ancestral
goddess she may have been; she has also been
connected etymologically to the Irish war-god-
dess NEMAIN, suggesting that part of the role of
the warrior was to protect sacred sites. There is
some evidence that in parts of Gaul, Nemetona
was honored as a god rather than a goddess.
Nemglan Irish god. This relatively obscure
god appears in only one Irish myth, that of the
heroine MESS BUACHALLA, to whom he appeared
as a BIRD and whom he then seduced. Their son
CONAIRE, the king of TARA, was told never to
injure a bird because of his descent from that
species, which has suggested to some scholars an
ancient belief in animal TOTEMS. Nemglan came
to Conaire before his INAUGURATION as king,
revealing to him the secret requirements for his
selection and success.
Nentres (Nentres of Garlot) Arthurian hero.
This minor figure in the stories of the great king
ARTHUR opposed the king at the beginning of his
reign but later married ELAINE, Arthur’s half sis-
ter, and became an ally.
neo-pagan (neo-Pagan) Modern religion.
This term, which means “new pagan,” is used to
describe those who attempt to reconstruct
354 nemeton
ancient religion in ways appropriate to today’s
world. Some neo-pagans claim that their rites
were transmitted in secret for many generations,
but there is little proof of such claims; rather,
they may refer to family traditions that mix
CHRISTIANITY, Celtic religion, and pre-Celtic
beliefs, traditions that continue even today in
parts of Europe and that are often derided there
as
SUPERSTITION. Other neo-pagans make no
claims of secret information but describe their
religion as a reconstruction of ancient beliefs. In
both categories one finds groups and individuals
involved in the CELTIC REVIVAL.
Nera (Neara mac Niadhain) Irish hero. One
of the great literary and mythological texts of
Ireland is the Adventure of Nera. The tale is set
at CRUACHAN, the great palace of the goddess-
queen MEDB of CONNACHT, on the magical
night of SAMHAIN (November 1), the Celtic
feast when the doors to the OTHERWORLD were
believed to open. When king AILILL mac Máta
asked that someone attend to a hanged corpse,
Nera volunteered, only to find the dead man
able to speak. The corpse asked for a drink of
water, and so Nera hoisted it upon his back to
find it a drink, but turning toward Cruachan,
saw the palace ablaze. He chased the arsonists
to the cave of OWEYNAGAT, where to his won-
derment he learned that he had foreseen an
attack that would occur the following year on
Samhain.
The woman who offered this information
became Nera’s Otherworld wife, but before set-
tling down with her, Nera returned to Cruachan
to warn Medb and Ailill of the attack he had fore-
seen. The queen and king raided Oweynagat,
destroying the army that would have burned
their palace. The adventures of Nera were not
yet over, for the great war goddess MÓRRÍGAN
stole a COW from the herd that Nera’s FAIRY wife
had given him and took it to the upper world to
be bred with the great DONN CUAILNGE, the
finest brown BULL in Ireland. When the calf was
born, it fell into a fight with the white bull of
Connacht, FINNBENNACH, who killed the young
bull. When Medb overheard people saying that
the fight would have been different had it been
the calf’s sire fighting, she swore she would
someday see such a battle—which indeed came
to pass after her raid upon ULSTER, related in the
great Irish epic, TÁIN BÓ CUAILNGE.
Source: Cross, Tom Peete, and Clark Harris
Slover, eds. Ancient Irish Tales. New York:
Henry Holt and Co., 1936, pp. 248 ff.
Nerbgen Irish heroine. This obscure figure,
known as “the vehement,” is named in the BOOK
OF INVASIONS as one of the FIVE wives of the hero
PARTHOLÓN, the others being Aife, Elgnad (or
DEALGNAID), Cichban, and Cerbnat. She is oth-
erwise unknown.
Nerthus Germanic goddess. There is no
doubt that Nerthus is a Germanic goddess, but
some aspects of her cult influenced the rituals of
Celtic goddesses as well, suggesting that there
was a shared source for these rituals or that the
geographically close cultures influenced each
other. The Roman general and geographer
Tacitus describes the worship of Nerthus on a
sacred ISLAND to which no human was permitted
entry; such islands are found commonly in
Celtic lore as an image of the OTHERWORLD. At
intervals, however, Nerthus was stricken by a
desire to leave her sacred isle to travel among
her followers. She was hauled forth on an OX-
drawn cart and was greeted with great festivity.
All warfare ceased while the goddess was abroad
in the land. She was believed, by her passing, to
bring FERTILITY to the fields. When her progress
was over, Nerthus was conveyed back to her holy
island, where those who attended her were put
to death, apparently in the belief that no one
could be permitted to live who had looked upon
the face of the goddess. The image of the god-
dess drawn upon a CART is found in Celtic con-
texts as well; HUMAN SACRIFICE, too, may have
been practiced by the Celts.
Nerthus 355
Source: Tacitus. The Agricola and the Germania.
Trans. H. Mattingly. New York: Penguin
Books, 1948, pp. 134–135.
Nessa (Ness, Nes, Assa) Irish goddess. The
mother of the great king CONCOBAR MAC NESSA,
Nessa was originally called Assa, “gentle one.”
Her father was
EOCHAID, king of ULSTER, who
brought up his daughter in dignity and comfort.
She was a studious and quiet girl of great personal
charisma and beauty who drew the eye of the lust-
ful DRUID CATHBAD. Realizing that she was never
without her 12 protective tutors, Cathbad had
them all killed one night so that he could gain
access to her. Cathbad underestimated the gentle
girl: Appalled and infuriated by the violence done
her beloved tutors, she gathered a company of
warriors and set out to discover who was respon-
sible and to wreak vengeance upon them.
She had never carried arms before, but anger
made the girl strong, whence she became known
as Nessa, “ungentle.” She wandered across
Ireland, waging battle wherever she saw wrong
done, but she did not find who had killed her
tutors. Then, one day as she bathed in a wilder-
ness spring, the culprit found her. Cathbad
sprang upon the unarmed, unguarded naked girl
and drew his sword on her. “Better to consent to
you than be killed without my own weapon,” she
said. Cathbad forced himself upon her; some
legends say that in that moment Concobar was
conceived, while others say that Nessa outwitted
her rapist by conceiving through magical means.
Though she lived with him as a sexual hostage,
she did not give birth despite prophecies that she
would bear a hero. An OMEN came to her one
day: Two WORMS appeared in a pail of water
from a holy WELL. Nessa drank them down, thus
becoming pregnant (see PREGNANCY THROUGH
DRINKING), but through her magical power she
assured that the child was born clutching one of
the worms, so that no one would mistake the
future hero for Cathbad’s son.
After Cathbad died, Nessa married again,
this time by her own choice. Her husband was
FACHTNA, another king of Ulster, but he soon
died too, whereupon she was courted by the
impressive warrior FERGUS mac Róich, her late
husband’s half brother, who had assumed the
throne. As she had a son already, Nessa worried
that Concobar, not being of royal blood, could
never become king. So she entreated Fergus to
give up his throne at EMAIN MACHA for a year, to
allow Concobar to reign in his stead; thereafter
all of Concobar’s descendants could claim to be
of the blood of kings. Nessa was more loyal to
her son than to her husband, and after a year
Fergus returned to discover that she had con-
spired to keep him from regaining his throne.
Furious, he left Ulster and joined forces with the
queen of the neighboring province,
MEDB, who
soon waged war on Concobar’s territory.
Nessa’s name has been traced to the language
of the PICTS, a people who preceded the Celts in
Ireland and Scotland. Some scholars argue that
the Picts were matrilineal, tracing a child’s fam-
ily line through the mother’s rather than the
father’s family as in patrilineal descent. The fact
that Nessa’s father gave his daughter land, in a
region where the Picts were strong, seems evi-
dence for this theory. Whether Pictish or not,
Nessa’s child bore her name, being called
Concobar mac Nessa, “son of Nessa,” rather
than after his father, whether that was Cathbad
or a magical worm.
Source: Hull, Eleanor. The Cuchullin Saga in Irish
Literature. London: David Nutt, 1898, pp. 4–5.
Nét (Néit) Irish god. An obscure Irish divin-
ity known only as the mate of the war goddess
NEMAIN and therefore presumed to be a god of
war, Nét may be one of the rare Celtic war gods,
for Celtic lands were usually under the power of
goddesses. Or Nét may be the same figure as
NEMED, the husband of MACHA, a goddess with
whom Nemain is sometimes confused or con-
flated. Legends about Nét are contradictory:
some name him as a member of the monstrous
FOMORIANS, while others say he was one of the
356 Nessa
magical TUATHA DÉ DANANN. Nét is often con-
nected with the Irish site of GRIANÁN AILEACH, a
great stone fortress in the far north of the island
whose mythological importance is unarguable
although interpretations of its meaning vary.
Neton Continental Celtic god. This obscure
god of the Celtic tribe called the Accetani, identi-
fied by the Romans with their war god
MARS, may
be connected to the Irish warrior divinity NÉT.
Nevydd See NEVYN.
Nevyn Welsh folkloric figure. This gorgeous
Welsh MERMAID was the beloved of a young man
named Ivan Morgan, who lived on the
Carnavonshire coast. Like others of her kind,
she made a wonderful wife, sensuous and loyal to
her human mate. She bore him a son, Nevydd,
and a daughter, Eilonwy, and the family lived
happily until she grew homesick for the land-
under-wave in which she had been reared. While
his mother and father were visiting the OTHER-
WORLD under the seas, their son Nevydd learned
the truth of his heritage and died of shame,
whereupon Eilonwy committed suicide out of
grief—or at least, she tried, throwing herself
into the water. She did not drown, for she was
rescued by a handsome merman prince who took
her off to live with him in the Otherworld
beneath the sea. Nevyn went back to land to
claim the body of her son, which she took away
with her on a beautiful ship that magically
appeared. The legend does not record what hap-
pened to the bereaved Ivan. Nyved’s name is
similar to the Irish FAIRY QUEEN, NIAMH of the
Golden Hair; they may originally have been the
same figure.
Source: Spence, Lewis. The Minor Traditions of
British Mythology. New York: Benjamin Blom,
Inc., 1972, p. 42.
Newgrange See BRÚ NA BÓINNE.
Niall (Niall of the Nine Hostages, Niall
Níoganach, Niall Naoi-ghaillach) Irish hero.
One of the greatest of kings of TARA, Niall ruled
for more than a quarter century. The meaning of
his first name is not known, although it has been
translated as “cloud”; no earlier heroes bear it, so
the name Niall appears to originate with this
heroic figure. The latter part of his name,
Níoganach or “of the nine hostages” comes from
his agreement to take on as foster sons one boy
from each of the five
PROVINCES of the land, as
well as four from Britain. (Some sources say one
was from Britain and one each from Scotland,
France, and Wales.) A STONE monument on
Tara, still standing today, is said to cover his
grave. He is a quasi-historical figure, one of the
earliest recorded HIGH KINGS of Ireland and
father of the important king Loegaire; Niall is
believed to have ruled in the fifth century C.E.
His descendants became the Uí Néill (O’Neill)
family, one of Ireland’s most powerful for more
than half a millennium.
Niall was known as a raiding captain who took
many captives, following in the footsteps of his
father Eochu Muighmheadhon (“lord of slaves”)
who captured Niall’s mother CAIRENN, a British
princess, on one of his raids. Eochu already had a
wife, MONGFHINN, who naturally favored her own
four sons. She persecuted Cairenn and her son
until the BARD TORNA foresaw the child’s illustri-
ous future and offered assistance to the woman
and her baby. It is unclear whether Niall’s father
was king of Tara or whether Niall was the first of
his family to hold that title.
Irish history at that time was thickly
encrusted by myth, and so we find stories about
Niall that have more legendary than historical
accuracy. In one of these, Niall and his four
brothers went hunting one day, only to find
themselves in a region without game and grow-
ing very thirsty. The only water they could find
was in a WELL guarded by a HAG so unsavory in
appearance that the young men fell back in dis-
gust when she demanded a kiss of them. Only
Niall stepped forward to bestow a kiss, and other
favors, upon the hag—who, pleased with his
Niall 357
performance, revealed herself to be a beautiful
young woman in disguise. She told Niall that her
name was Flaith or SOVEREIGNTY and bestowed
upon him the KINGSHIP of the land.
Sources: Cross, Tom Peete, and Clark Harris
Slover, eds. Ancient Irish Tales. New York:
Henry Holt and Co., 1936, p. 518; O’Rahilly,
Thomas. Early Irish History and Mythology
.
Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced
Studies, 1946, p. 208.
Niamh (Neeve, Niamh of the Golden Hair,
Niave, Niam, Niau) Irish mythological figure.
One of the great FAIRY QUEENS of Ireland,
Niamh was so beautiful that no human man
could resist her: stately, fair of feature, and
crowned with cascading golden locks. Indeed,
her very name means “beauty.” Daughter of the
ocean god MANANNÁN MAC LIR, Niamh lived far
out to sea on a magical ISLAND, TIR TAIRNGIRI
(“land of promise”), to which she would take her
captive and captivated lovers.
The most famous of Niamh’s lovers was OISÍN,
BARD of the band of heroes called the FIANNA,
who left his comrades behind to follow Niamh to
her OTHERWORLD. There they lived in a swoon of
happiness made even more blissful by the birth of
their daughter PLUR NA MBAN (“flower of woman-
hood”). Eventually, however, Oisín grew home-
sick and begged to go back to Ireland. Niamh had
not tired of her lover and was reluctant to let him
go into the danger she knew awaited him there,
but he persisted, and she relented. She warned
Oisín that under no circumstances should his foot
touch the ground. Then she put him on a fairy
horse and sent him home.
Alas for Oisín, he returned to an Ireland
utterly changed, for time passes more slowly in
FAIRYLAND than on our earth. The warriors of
the Fianna were long deceased, and Ireland had
lost its old gods with the coming of CHRISTIAN-
ITY. The poet was so shocked that he fell from
his horse. All his years came upon him, and he
quickly died of advanced old age. One famous
poem is based on the conceit that, before dying,
Oisín was able to converse with ST. PATRICK, who
despite the Fianna poet’s great eloquence about
ancient pagan ways, was able to convert him and
baptize him just before death. In any case, Oisín
never saw his beloved Niamh again.
Two less important figures also bear the
name of Niamh. One is the mistress of the great
ULSTER hero CÚCHULAINN; the other married
the son of king CONCOBAR MAC NESSA, whom
Cúchulainn served.
Source: Joyce, P. W. Ancient Celtic Romances.
London: Parkgate Books, 1997, pp. 390 ff.
Nicnevin Scottish folkloric figure. In some
sources, we find this as the name of the figure
elsewhere called HABETROT, a beautiful FAIRY
QUEEN in a malevolent guise as the leader of the
WILD HUNT that steals people from their homes
to become entertainments for the fairies.
night Cosmological concept. Unlike our way
of beginning day with dawn, the Celts began it
at sundown the night before. Thus Celtic feast
days were celebrated on the evening of what we
would call the previous day. Hallowe’en is still
celebrated at sundown on October 31, the day
before the Celtic feast of SAMHAIN, from which it
is derived, and BELTANE began with May Eve cel-
ebrations on April 30.
Nimue Arthurian heroine. This Welsh name is
sometimes offered as the personal name of the
mysterious figure called the LADY OF THE LAKE,
the OTHERWORLD sponsor of king ARTHUR who
lived on an ISLAND of women somewhere in the
fairy mists. The name is also occasionally used of
the lover of the magician MERLIN, who otherwise
appears as Arthur’s half sister MORGAUSE, who in
turn has been assumed to be the Lady of the Lake.
Even more confusingly, Merlin’s lover is called
VIVIANE in some texts. Such confusions are com-
monplace where mythologies are orally transmit-
ted and later written down by imaginative writers.
358 Niamh
One common story of Nimue was that she
was the daughter of the Roman goddess DIANA,
her father having been a human man named
Dinas. As the daughter of the woodland divinity,
she was naturally raised in the forest, where
Merlin first met her. Her first request of him was
to teach her to make a tower out of thin air; he
did so, not realizing that his life would end when
she fashioned just such a prison for him.
Nisien (Nissien, Nisyen) Welsh hero or god.
The Welsh god BRÂN THE BLESSED had two half
brothers who were opposite in temperament.
Gentle Nisien wished only the best for every-
one, but his evil brother EFNISIEN did nothing
but cause trouble. It was Efnisien who caused
the great war that led to Brân’s death in Ireland,
by a random act of cruelty that caused the king
of that land to be set against Wales forever.
Nisien tried to intervene, searching for a diplo-
matic solution and offering apologies for his
brother’s behavior, but to no avail. Nisien plays a
relatively small part in the story, found in the
Welsh tales recorded as the MABINOGION, and
may be simply a positive foil for his evil brother.
Nodens (Nodons) British god. Relatively lit-
tle is known about this god, whom the invading
Romans said was the same as their warrior divin-
ity MARS. A huge temple was devoted to him on
the banks of the Severn River at Lydney in
Gloucestershire, with a dormitory and several
HEALING sites; thus Nodens may have been envi-
sioned as warring against disease. Nodens was
also associated with the woodland god SILVANUS,
suggesting that healing was believed to occur
most effectively in the peace of a natural setting.
Never represented in human form, Nodens
may have been pictured as a large DOG—often a
healing symbol to the Celts, although also a
guardian of the dead—although the canine
sculptures found in his sanctuaries may have
been intended to represent the god’s attendants.
His name has not been translated with certainty
but may mean “cloud-maker,” “wealth-producer,”
or “fisherman.” Because of the size and impor-
tance of his sanctuary, Nodens is considered one
of Britain’s most significant Celtic gods; he is
sometimes said to be parallel to the similarly
named Irish god NUADU and has been linked as
well to the Welsh god LLUDD, whose alternative
name is Nudd.
Noínden Ulad See DEBILITY OF THE
ULSTERMEN
.
Nóine (Nóindiu, Noidhiu) Irish folkloric fig-
ure. Several curious legends feature this boy who
was born after a nine-year gestation. In some, he
is said to have been conceived by his mother after
a water spirit seduced her when she was frolick-
ing on the seashore; in another, she was made
pregnant by the god of poetry, AONGHUS Óg.
Upon his birth, Nóine uttered nine mysterious
sayings, after which his grandfather died; this
motif seems to have come from the more com-
mon story of the hero LUGH and his malevolent
grandfather, BALOR of the Evil Eye. Some schol-
ars believe that Nóine’s tales provided a source
for stories about the hero FIONN MAC CUMHAILL.
Noísiu (Naeshe, Naisii, Naoise, Noise, Noaise)
Irish hero. One of Ireland’s most romantic and
tragic legends surrounds this young man, one of
the SONS OF UISNEACH and lover of the beautiful
heroine DEIRDRE. Doomed by a prophecy to be
both immensely beautiful and the cause of war,
Deirdre was held hostage by the king of ULSTER,
CONCOBAR MAC NESSA, who wished to defy fate
and have her for his bride despite the many years
that separated them. Although she was brought
up without ever seeing a man, Deirdre dreamed
of the existence of Noísiu. One day she saw a
RAVEN’s feather and blood on snow, and she
wished aloud to have a man with hair that black,
lips that red, skin that white.
Her nurse, the BARD LEBORCHAM, took pity
on the girl and introduced her to the man she
knew fit that description: Noísiu. Together with
Noísiu 359
his brothers, Ardán and Ainnle, the pair eloped,
running from the powerful king Concobar, who
pursued them relentlessly. Finally the brothers
and Noísiu’s beloved Deirdre found peace in the
wilderness of Scotland, where they lived a hard
but healthy life until Concobar lured them back
with promises of forgiveness. Deirdre suspected
treachery, but Noísiu yearned for home. As soon
as they arrived, Concobar had Noísiu and his
brothers killed. Deirdre thwarted his attempt to
take her, however, by committing suicide in grief
over the loss of her true love, Noísiu.
Noísiu and his brothers were the children of
an otherwise obscure man named UISNEACH;
some have argued a connection with the impor-
tant mythological site of Uisneach in Co.
Westmeath. Their mother was Elbha, the
daughter of the nefarious druid CATHBAD; thus
they would have been half brothers to king
Concobar himself, according to tales that have
Cathbad fathering the king on the gentle scholar
Assa, who after his assaults on herself and her
household became the warrior NESSA.
Nollaig (In Welsh, Nadolig) Folkloric holi-
day. Although the Celts did not celebrate the
SOLSTICES and EQUINOXES, centering their wor-
ship instead on the central days of each season
(IMBOLC, February 1, in winter; BELTANE, May 1,
in spring; LUGHNASA, August 1, in summer; and
SAMHAIN, November 1, in fall), various pressures
caused the addition of other seasonal feasts to
the Celtic calendar. Earlier cultures had marked
the solstices as is evidenced by the orientation of
pre-Celtic stone monuments to the sunrise and
sunset of those days. With the coming of
Christianity, the winter solstice became espe-
cially important, for it was the date on which
Jesus Christ was said to have been born. This
alleged birthday of the savior was, in fact,
adopted by the Christian church as a way of
adapting the preexisting winter solstice festivals
that the new converts were loath to abandon.
Thus Celtic lands developed their own win-
ter solstice rituals, which were called in Scotland
“Nollaig,” apparently from the Latin natalis
(“birth”) as passed through Welsh. That this fes-
tival is not necessarily devoted to the birth of
Christ, but is more generically a midwinter feast,
can be detected by the fact that it is only some-
times celebrated on Christmas; in some regions
it occurs on New Year’s Day, while still other
regions celebrated the entire week between
Christmas and New Year as Nollaig. In Scotland
processions of youngsters used to walk from
house to house, reciting nonsense rhymes whose
words seem to refer to Celtic heroic figures;
householders rewarded the singers with food
and drink, with the climax of the festivities on
HOGMANY or New Year’s Day. In Ireland boys
hunted WRENS that were then carried around the
village to singing and elaborate pageantry. In
Irish tradition, if one died during this period, it
was a sign of being blessed.
Sources: Campbell, John Grigorson. Witchcraft and
Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of
Scotland. Detroit: Singing Tree Press, 1970, p.
229; Gardner, Alexander
. Popular Tales of the
West Highlands. Vol III. London: J. F. Campbell,
1892, p. 28; Hyde, Douglas. Abhráin atá Leaghta
ar an Rechtúire: Songs Ascribed to Raftery
. New
York: Barnes & Noble Books, n.d., pp. 28, 53.
Noreia Possible continental Celtic goddess. In
Roman times this obscure goddess was worshiped
in the lands around today’s Slovenia, which was
settled by both Celts and Illyrians; it is not certain
to which ethnic group this goddess belonged.
north (tuasiceart) Of the four DIRECTIONS,
this one had the most sinister implications for
the ancient Irish and, possibly, for other Celtic
peoples as well. The SUN was seen to move south
on its daily path, as though retreating from the
north (a direction geographically defined as the
opposite from the Sun’s daily position at noon).
Because the sunrise direction (deosil) was sym-
bolically connected with correctness and the
natural order, moving to the left or to the north
360 Nollaig
had the opposite connotations. Words con-
nected with north have, even in modern Irish,
negative connections, as with words for “fore-
boding,” “curse” and “anguish,” all of which
derive from the word for “north.” The northern
province, ULSTER, is most associated with war in
ancient epics.
Source: Dames, Michael. Mythic Ireland. London:
Thames and Hudson, 1992, p. 46.
Northumbria Celtic region. In Celtic times,
the climatically harsh part of Britain, now
known as Northumbria, was called Bernicia; the
more fertile southern part was called Deira.
Nothain Irish heroine. Like other mad
women and men of Irish legend (see MIS, SUIB-
HNE), Nothain was driven mad by war.
According to the DINDSHENCHAS, the place-
poetry of Ireland, Nothain was a WARRIOR
WOMAN who, driven insane by an attack that left
her family dead, wandered the countryside,
becoming shaggy and wild. Her father, the only
one to survive the assault, searched for more
than a year before he found her, speechless with
grief. After a night spent in his comforting pres-
ence, she finally spoke, only to ask if anyone else
had survived. Hearing the sad news that the fam-
ily was all dead, Nothain died of sorrow.
See also MADNESS.
Source: Gwynn, Edward. The Metrical Dindshenchas.
Royal Irish Academy, Todd Lecture Series.
Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, and Co., Ltd.,
1906–1924, pp. 29–31.
Nuada (Nuada of the Silver Hand, Nuada of
the Silver Arm, Nuadu, Nuadhu, Nuada
Argatlám) Irish god. Leader of the TUATHA DÉ
DANANN, the people of the goddess DANU, at the
time when they contested with the malevolent
FOMORIANS for possession of Ireland, Nuada was
a great warrior and fine leader. In the fury of the
first battle of MAG TUIRED, his right hand or arm
was sliced off by an opponent. Thus even though
victorious, Nuada forfeited his throne, for a
BLEMISHED KING could not rule.
The half-Fomorian BRES replaced him but
turned out to be so stingy he would not even
feed the poet CAIRBRE—an offense against HOS-
PITALITY that lost Bres his realm, for the BARD
cast a SATIRE upon him that raised boils upon his
face, thus making Bres too blemished to rule. In
the meantime, a silver hand had been crafted for
Nuada by the healing god
DIAN CÉCHT. Even
such a marvelous appurtenance did not satisfy
the needs of kingship, for it still constituted a
defect. Then MIACH, a brilliant physician and
son of Dian Cécht, used his medical and magical
skills to cause real skin to grow over the silver
arm—thus entitling Nuada to reassume the
throne. For his efforts, Miach lost his life, killed
by his envious father.
When the Tuatha Dé left the surface of this
world to live beneath the earth in their magical
swellings or sídhe, Nuada became the lord of
ALMU, an important early ritual site and magical
center of the PROVINCE of LEINSTER. Other
sources place his palace at the great tumulus on
the River Boyne, the BRÚ NA BÓINNE, claiming
that he was the consort goddess of the region,
BÓAND. Deceived by her with the god DAGDA,
Nuada was further deceived when the son of that
affair, AONGHUS Óg, tricked him out of the great
palace; NECHTAN, the name sometimes given for
Bóand’s deceived husband, may be an alternative
name for Nuada. Nuada was later euhemer-
ized—made human—in stories that make him an
earthly king who fought with the hero FIONN
MAC CUMHAILL for control of Leinster. At Almu,
Nuada was said to keep one of the great treas-
ures of his race, a sword that could not be
escaped once it had been unsheathed.
A minor figure by this name was a human, a
DRUID who served the king CATHAÍR MÓR.
Source: O’Conor, Norreys Jephson. Battles and
Enchantments: Retold from Early Gaelic
Literature. Freeport N.Y.: Books for Libraries
Press, 1970, p. 7.
Nuada 361
Nuala Irish heroine. This name is often used
as a shortened version of FIONNUALA, but it is
also given to the FAIRY QUEEN otherwise known
as ÚNA, who was the lover of the king of the
FAIRIES, FINNBHEARA.
nuckelavee Scottish folkloric figure. On
Orkney, the islands northeast of Scotland, peo-
ple occasionally reported being set upon by
this monstrous centaur, whose one-eyed
human head was mounted on a
RED-fleshed
HORSE’s body that had flippers instead of legs.
It lived in the sea and from there leapt out to
kill humans or CATTLE as its whim took it. The
only escape was to dash across fresh water,
which this sea-being could not tolerate. The
nuckelavee was related to the more commonly
known WATER HORSE, or possibly to the NYGEL
of Shetland.
Source: Douglas, George. Scottish Fairy and Folk
Tales. West Yorkshire: EP Publishing, 1977, pp.
160 ff.
Nudd (Lludd) British god. A great temple of
the Roman era was dedicated to a god called
NODENS, who is believed to be the same as the
Welsh god Nudd or LLUDD. Given the location
of the temple and the depiction of Nudd as sur-
rounded by tritons, symbols of the sea, he has
been interpreted as the god of the RIVER’s
mouth or estuary and possibly the headlands
around it.
In Welsh mythology, the god called Nudd
(more commonly, Lludd), was the ruler of
Britain and brother of the king of the Continent,
LLEFELYS. He built London, but his reign was not
entirely happy nor successful. A race of demons
attacked the land, then two DRAGONS, then a
gigantic magician. With the help of his brother,
Nudd was able to conquer all of the plagues.
numbers Cosmological symbols. As in many
other cultures, the Celts saw numbers as myste-
rious, powerful, even magical. The most impor-
tant were the numbers THREE and FIVE, but
other numbers had significance as well. The
Celtic numerical system ended with 10—the
number that could be counted on two hands—
with larger numbers expressed in terms of mul-
tiples (10 times 10) or, more commonly, as a
“vast” host or “innumerable” army. In Old Irish
we find indications that numbers may have been
originally counted in a system of fives, reflected
in both mythology and family organization.
Although there is no written evidence of a
numerological system whereby each number was
given a specific mystical meaning, the repetition
of certain numbers suggests such a belief. The
iteration of the numbers three and five in various
mythological contexts is an especially strong
indication that such numerology originally
existed and has been lost. Comparison of various
myths suggests the following meanings for fre-
quently occurring numbers:
Two—Connected with service or commit-
ment, found in legends of enchanted women
chained together in pairs, in pairs of oracular
RAVENS that accompany the hero CÚCHULAINN,
and in the two loyal hunting DOGS of FIONN
MAC CUMHAILL.
Four—Connected with wholeness. Because a
hidden fifth was implied (see PROVINCES), four is
seen as a diminished version of five.
Seven—Connected with MAGIC, an interpre-
tation that may have been adopted from non-
Celtic, possibly Middle Eastern, sources; the
most common usage shows typical Celtic multi-
plication, in the belief that the SEVENTH SON of a
seventh son (less frequently, the seventh daughter
of a seventh daughter) was especially likely to be
magically gifted. In myths about transformation,
a span of seven years is common; thus the god-
dess ÉTAIN was forced to live for seven years as an
insect, and the magical LOUGH GUR dries up
every seven years to reveal its secrets.
nygel (Noggle, nuggle) Scottish folkloric fig-
ure. On the Shetland Islands, this magical being
362 Nuala
appeared as a sweet gray pony. But if you
mounted it, beware, for it would take you on a
fast ride to the sea and dunk you there. Attack by
a nygel was far less threatening than that of the
invariably fatal WATER HORSE, of which the nygel
seems a variant, or of its neighboring MONSTER
the NUCKELAVEE. The nygel loved millraces—the
streams that ran from the old water-powered
grain and woolen mills—and grew angry if they
were accidentally left running at night; the
FAIRY
beast forced the wheel to a stop, which wreaked
havoc on its machinery.
Nynnyaw (Nynniaw) Welsh hero. This rela-
tively obscure king was a son of the god BELI
and, with his brother Peibaw, once waged a war
in which all the land was destroyed. The reason
for the war: They disagreed on astrological
interpretations. Few wars ever were begun for
such meager cause, and so the two brothers were
turned into animals to teach them a lesson.
Ny Shee Manx folkloric figure. This term, in
the language of the Isle of Man, refers to the
FAIRY folk called the SÍDHE in Irish.
Ny Shee 363