Hitchhiker's Guide to Religion
Celtic

Nuada Airgetlam

The King with the Silver Arm

Celtic Kingship, sovereignty, healing, war, the wholeness required to rule
Portrait of Nuada Airgetlam
Attribute Value
Combat
ATK 88
DEF 80
SPR 75
SPD 78
INT 82
Rank First King of the Tuatha De Danann / Wielder of the Sword of Light (Claiomh Solais)
Domain Kingship, sovereignty, healing, war, the wholeness required to rule
Alignment Celtic Sacred
Weakness Lost his arm at the First Battle of Mag Tuired and was forced to surrender the kingship -- Celtic law required a king to be physically unblemished
Counter The harsh sovereignty rule itself; Bres (the half-Fomorian who replaced him as king and ruled tyrannically)
Key Act Lost his arm fighting Sreng of the Fir Bolg; received a silver replacement from the physician Dian Cecht, then a flesh-and-blood arm from Dian Cecht's son Miach; reclaimed the kingship and led the Tuatha at the Second Battle of Mag Tuired
Source *Cath Maige Tuired* (The Battle of Mag Tuired); *Lebor Gabala Erenn*; *Dindshenchas*

Lore: Nuada is the original sacred king of Irish myth — and the foundational case study in Celtic theology of sovereignty. At the First Battle of Mag Tuired, he loses his arm to the Fir Bolg champion Sreng. Celtic kingship law demands a physically perfect king (his body is a metonym for the land’s wholeness), so Nuada is forced to abdicate. His brother-in-law Bres, half-Fomorian, takes the throne and rules so badly the Tuatha rebel. Meanwhile the chief physician Dian Cecht crafts Nuada a silver arm that moves like flesh — earning him the epithet Airgetlam (Silver-Arm). Dian Cecht’s son Miach goes further, regenerating Nuada’s actual arm; jealous Dian Cecht murders him for outshining the master. Nuada returns to the throne and leads the Tuatha to victory at the Second Battle of Mag Tuired — where he dies fighting Balor. His sword is one of the Four Treasures of the Tuatha De Danann.

Parallel: Tyr (Norse one-handed god — the parallel between two Indo-European one-handed sovereign-gods is central to Georges Dumezil’s “Mitra-Varuna” thesis); the Fisher King of Arthurian legend (whose wound makes the land barren — the same Celtic principle of king-as-land); Jacob wrestling with the angel and walking with a permanent limp afterward (Genesis 32:25-31) — a divinely-mandated wound transformed into authority.


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Combat Radar

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