Today is St Antony of Padua’s Day. Antony, was an eleventh century pious Franciscan monk who was born Portuguese and lived most of childhood in Italy, but nonetheless gained a following in the British Isles. He was famous for his eloquence and allegedly could speak to fish. This tradition may be a conflation of Antony with that of the Celtic god, Nodons, also famous for communing with the fish. Nodons spoke to many of the ocean dwellers, most significantly the Salmon of Knowledge, a fish-god who knew all the secrets of the universe, which could be bribed to speak wisdom by offerings of hazel nuts left in sacred wells, the nuts being the source of the monster fish’s ability to truthfully answer any question put to him.