Cernunnos: The Horned Lord of the Animals

Cernunnos is the antlered god of the Celts, often interpreted as "lord of the animals". His name is actually attested – on the Pillar of the Boatmen in Paris (1st c. AD) "_ernunnos" stands above a horned deity. Otherwise we know him almost only from images, hardly from texts.

Lord of animals, fertility and change

Because texts are lacking, Cernunnos is interpreted from his images: as a god of wild animals, of fertility, of the forest and perhaps of the threshold between the worlds. The antlers – which the stag sheds and regrows each year – fit well with a god of growth and renewal. But this is not certain.

"Wits must he have who wanders wide, but all is easy at home."Hávamál 5, after Henry A. Bellows 1923 (public domain)

The horned god

Cernunnos is one of the most mysterious gods of the Celtic world – a god with stag's antlers, often depicted cross-legged, surrounded by animals. He is regarded as "lord of the animals", god of the wilderness, of fertility and wealth.

The cauldron of Gundestrup

His most famous image is found on the cauldron of Gundestrup: a horned figure sitting cross-legged, holding a torque and a ram-headed serpent, ringed by animals. An iconic image of Celtic religion.

A name on a stone

The name "Cernunnos" we know from a single monument: the Pillar of the Boatmen in Paris from the 1st century. There the horned god stands with his name – the only certain written evidence.

Lord between the worlds

Cernunnos seems to mediate between human, animal and otherworld. As an antler-bearer he links the power of the forest with the world of humans – one of the most impressive conceptions of a god among the Celts.

Cernunnos is the quiet, powerful face of Celtic nature religion – a god we see but barely hear. More in the overview Celtic Religion.

Read more with us

Celtic Religion · The Druids · Tiwaz · Germanic Religion · Nehalennia.

Sources & literature

• Image credit (header image): “Cernunnos, Pilier des Nautes”, Brodigny, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
Pillar of the Boatmen (Pilier des nautes); cauldron of Gundestrup (National Museum Copenhagen); Bernhard Maier, The Religion of the Celts; quote public domain (Bellows 1923).

Visit the Shop More posts