Nuada of the Silver Arm (Nuadha Airgeadlámh)

The king who lost his arm, lost his kingship with it, and got both back.

Nuadha led the Tuatha Dé Danann into Ireland and was their king when they fought the Fir Bolg at the first battle of Mag Tuired. In that battle the Fir Bolg champion Sreng took his arm off at the shoulder. The Tuatha Dé won, and Nuadha was finished.

The rule was absolute: no man with a blemish could be king of the Tuatha Dé. A king's body and the health of his land were the same thing, so a maimed king meant failed crops. Nuadha stepped down, and the kingship went to Bres, who was half Fomorian, handsome, and a disaster. He taxed the Tuatha Dé, humiliated their poets, and set their gods to menial work for seven years.

Meanwhile the physician Dian Cécht made Nuadha an arm of silver that moved like a living one, which is where Airgeadlámh, silver arm, comes from. Sources differ on the credit: one tradition has the smith Goibniu make it, and the brazier Credne assist. Later Dian Cécht's son Miach went further and grew flesh over the silver, or in some versions regrew the original arm entirely, and his father killed him out of jealousy for it.

Whole again, Nuadha took back the kingship. He held it until the second battle of Mag Tuired, where Balor killed him, and Lugh took over.

The modern spelling is Nuadha Airgeadlámh. The Old Irish texts have Nuada Airgetlám.