Re: Names of a few Celtic Deities

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Christopher Gwinn" <sonno3@...>
wrote:

> Aydan writes:
> >1st possibility: In her work "Pagan Celtic Britain", Anne Ross
> > proposes the name Nodens to mean "Cloud Maker", and to stem from

the

> > same root as the name Nuada. Thus both derize from *(s)neudH-

"mist,

> > cloud"; Latin nu:bes 'nuance'; hence "Cloud Maker".
>
> Probably not correct - both Pokorny and Watkins do not list the

root as

> having an optional initial s-, reconstructing it instead as *sneudh-

. Since

> Irish preserves s- and Welsh loses s- in initial clusters like

this, the

> root *sneudh- should give us OIr *snuad and Old Welsh *nud. Pokorny

suggests

> that *sneudh- may be a derivative of *sna: "to flow" and in fact we

find in

> OIr the words snuad "blood" and snuad "stream". I think we still

have to

> look to a PIE *neu-d[h]-/*neud[h]- to explain OIr Nuadu and Welsh

Nud.

>
> > 2nd possibility: Dumezil has attempted to link Nuada to the root
> > *nedh-, 'to bind' (Mitra-Varuna pg 99) Also the root of nodus,
> > `knot', Sanskrit naddha-, `fastened', Irish naidim, `I bind'. The
> > second edition of the American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-

European

> > Roots expresses the root as *ned to bind, tie. The O-grade form is
> > *nod-. and is the root of such words as knot and net.
>
> Seems a little shaky to me - I don't think any o-grade versions of

the root

> even appear in any Celtic languages (could be wrong, though), and

you would

> need to propose a lengethened o-grade version of the root at the

very

> least..
>
> - Chris Gwinn

So to clarify, Nuada and Mars Nodens appear to be stemming from *neu-d
[h]-/*neud[h]

Mars Neton, Neitin, Netoni, Neto, and Netus cannot stem from the
same root.
Considering that they are all found in Spain & Portugal (Iberia and
Lusitania); I am inclined to *assume* that within this second group
all the names refer to the same deity...

And that while the 2nd group of Mars Neton, Neitin, Netoni, Neto,
and Netus bear a superficial similarity to the Insular Nuada and Mars
Nodens, they are in fact linguistically unrelated.

Does this seem reasonable to you all?

Regards,
Aydan

PS: Yes, Nuada's hand was removed by Sreng mac Sengainn (meaning,
String/wire, son of ____) "String" seems suspisciously close to
fetter/Gleipnir.... hence my previous posts trying to determine the
meaning of Sengainn!