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Are there any other mythological beings that got a replacement metal arm, other than Nuada, Lugh Llaw Ereint, and Sigurd?

I found these three from the Mythology section in TV Tropes:

  • The Battle of Magh Tuireadh relates how Nuada, king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, lost an arm in combat and received a functional replacement crafted of silver.

  • The same tale is ascribed to Lugh Llaw Ereint in the Welsh mythological cycle Y Mabinogion and may spring from the same Ur-Root.

  • There is a variation of a Norse myth involving Sigurd and his battle with the dragon Fafnir. During the fight his hand is bitten off, but he afterwards receives a fully articulate metal replacement with intricate wiring in place of tendons.

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    Do Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker count, or no because it was just the hand? Dec 6, 2015 at 21:06
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    @LaurenIpsum Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker do not count because they aren't characters from mythological texts/stories, despite whatever Joseph Campbell has said about them.
    – user62
    Dec 6, 2015 at 22:51
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    @Hamlet Point. :) I think Star Trek is in a better position to be presented as modern mythology than Star Wars. It's more internally coherent and directly addresses any number of moral questions. Dec 7, 2015 at 1:39
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    @LaurenIpsum but what mythology is coherent when you really come down to it. They all have "WTF?" moments, leaps of faiths, and stories that contradict themselves. Jan 21, 2016 at 7:21
  • Captain Hook?
    – Spencer
    May 14, 2018 at 23:24

3 Answers 3

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The Indian solar deity Savitr is said to have had both of his hands cut off. He was then gifted with new hands made of gold. Georges Dumézil devoted a chapter of his book Mitra-Varuna: An Essay on Two Indo-European Representations of Sovereignty to this story.

A version of the myth of Savitr getting golden hands is told in Chapter 23 of the Skanda Purana.

Regarding the myth of Sigurd losing his hand during his fight with Fafnir, it is not attested in any of the Old Norse and Middle High German sources dealing with the Germanic hero. It is likely a modern embellishment.

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If Grimms Märchen (AKA Fairy Tales) count, KHM 1812/57 #31 “The Maiden Without Hands” can be looked at. In this text, in later versions (1819 and after) the girl asks her father to chop off her hands so that the devil can not take her. He does this and she cries so much on the stumps that she became “pure” and the devil could not get her. She leaves her father and marries a king. He has silver hands made for her. In the first edition of the KHM, her hands grow back when she wraps her arm stumps around a tree three times at the bidding of an old man. Her silver hands are replaced with real ones through God’s Grace of her piety. Of course a lot more happens. Different versions of the text describe it differently.

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  • Interesting, but she's not worshipped as a god... I'm starting to think "Metal Arm God" is only a thing in (Northern?) Europe for whatever reason.
    – Malady
    May 19, 2018 at 11:08
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Tezcatlipoca's foot, if you count an obsidian mirror:

Tezcatlipoca (pronounced teska-tli-pooka) was the Aztec god of creation and revenge. In certain drawings, he is depicted with his right foot gone and a “prosthesis” of obsidian (black volcanic glass) or a bone. The story goes that Tezcatlipoca lost his foot while battling the Earth Monster during creation.

Prosthetics through the Ages: From Myth to Practice

He is often depicted with various symbolic objects in place of his right foot, such as an obsidian mirror, bone, or a serpent. This is an allusion to the creation myth, in which Tezcatlipoca loses his foot battling with the earth monster Cipactli.

Wikipedia: Tezcatlipoca

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  • What I don't count is that feet are any part of an arm. Otherwise I'd be fine with Obsidian.
    – Malady
    Dec 15, 2023 at 2:59

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