Musing on the deity within popular culture.
(Image description: A photo of an aged iron prosthesis against a white background.) Credit: By Science Museum London / Science and Society Picture Library – Iron artificial arm, Europe, 1560-1600.Uploaded by Mrjohncummings, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28024321
This topic is one that has been in my mind for a while, and I have been letting it brew. The reason it came up in the first place is because I’ve noticed is that Nodens seems to dwell in a sort of limbo between Irish and Welsh mythologies, the antiquity of the Roman Britain period, and pop culture.
I don’t necessarily see pop culture mixing with mythology as a bad thing. I know it can seem as though the gods are being trivialized. However, the days of the week in English (and other languages) have some etymological ties to deities, and I don’t see Pagans and Polytheists in an uproar over that.
If anything, having deities influencing words helps keep them alive in the modern collective consciousness. They exist indirectly, and if someone happens to notice and honor them on a more concrete, religious aspect, all the better for them. By connecting deities to mundane concepts, these links can serve as tethers for whenever we have felt the need to call upon them for varying reasons, including creative ones.
From my perspective, deities (however you wish to define them) have always existed, and humans took notice of them while in nature, through dreams, or through assisted visions. Humans reached out to them in whatever epithet came to mind in when they requested aid for shelter, food, or water. In return, they probably offered whatever they could in thanks. They may have even formed contracts with them for continued support.
Over time, I think humans began making up stories based on what they could understand of the deities’ nature; this might be why there can be multiple versions of a story motif within Welsh and Irish mythologies.
Before there was the internet, television, movies, radio, or even books, these stories were probably favorites with different storytellers’ audiences, and they were eventually recorded by scribes in commissioned manuscripts. This was the popular culture at that time, and they were worth preserving, even if it was simply for a king or a noble.
I’ve read conflicting ideas about whether Nodens was brought over from Ireland or He was transported from Roman Britain. Most recently, I was searching through Ireland’s Immortals, and the author Mark Williams comments, “It is entirely possible, for example, that a mythological figure as important as Núadu of the Silver Arm may have been conveyed into Ireland from Roman Britain. As has long been recognized, Núadu can only go back to an earlier form Nodons, and there is clear evidence for a deity of that name in Britain. Rather than the Irish Núadu representing one branch of a shared, ancient ‘Celtic’ inheritance, his cult could have been imported into Ireland in the third or fourth century AD” (38). Again, this is speculation on the author’s part, so there will probably always be different camps on how connected or unconnected Núada and Nodens are.
Regardless of where the stories originated from, His name(s) and the epithet of Silver-Hand are seen in literature, film, and even video games.
J.R.R Tolkien presented the first explanation into the etymology behind Nodens’ name, after he was invited to Lydney Park to look at the temple remains. This visit would have an impact on his stories through the creation of the Elven smith character Celebrimbor, whose name carries the same meaning as Núada’s epithet.
H.P. Lovecraft was influenced by Arthur Machen’s, The Great God Pan, which mentions Nodens, and he wove the deity into his Mythos, retaining something of Nodens’ defending nature against chaotic forces that would otherwise threaten humanity and His connection to the rivers and the sea.
All three authors have a detached connection to Nodens, as deities from older polytheistic religions were considered dead and could be used as a viable source of inspiration. I’m not sure how Nodens Himself felt about His being included within these stories, but perhaps with keeping a god’s name in the public eye, they aren’t forgotten about, a bit like when we remember those who have passed.
Núada functions as something of a namesake the character Nuada Silverlance in Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. Del Toro tends to play fast and loose with Irish mythlogy, making Balor (Núada’s killer) his father. While I still enjoy the movie, the comparisons between the elven prince and the deity are limited to the similar name and the somewhat cthonic nature they each have in their own way. Silverlance refers to Nuada’s spear, which could be a nod to Nodens’ hunting connections. While Nodens can be requested to fulfill curses, He doesn’t have a vendetta against humanity like Nuada Silverlance does.
Lastly, another character that features Núada’s epithet is Johnny Silverhand, played by Keanu Reeves, from the video game Cyberpunk 2077. I haven’t played this game yet, and the only thing I know is the last name is a reference to his cybernetic arm. However indirectly, Johnny’s arm refers back to when Núada lost His arm in battle and had it replaced with a metal prosthetic. There might have been a mythology buff in the studio behind Cyberpunk 2077, and the name sounded cool enough to give to this character.
With Nodens or Núada, the references to either in different kinds of media don’t seem to hurt Their character or power. The pop culture references could easily be a stealth way of maintaining relevance, even if it’s not as much as the Norse deities in the Marvel franchise are. Even as Ireland and Wales were being christianized, their stories were recited by bards and eventually recorded in The Mabinogi and the Irish Cycles. People have needed entertainment as long as there was a need to fill the time when tasks necessary for survival weren’t being done, and they can also hold deeper meaning on a religious level. Stories don’t have to be an either/or situation and can serve many different and important purposes.
Works Cited
Williams, Mark. Ireland’s Immortals: A History of the Gods of Irish Myth. Princeton University Press, 2016.
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