~*OGHAM*~
by ghostrider1018
"Ogham Origins
Although all the surviving Ogham inscriptions can be dated between the 4th and 8th centuries, J. F. Killeen places the origins of the alphabet itself considerably earlier, in the Graeco-Celtic culture which flourished in southern France in the centuries before the Common Era. He derives the word Ogham from the Greek ogmos, meaning `a furrow,' supporting this with Greek literary references which compare writing to ploughing (2). Ogham letters do bear some resemblance to the furrows left by a plough, but the derivation does seem somewhat contrived. Others believe that the Ogham script was derived from the Roman alphabet, and R. A. S. Macalister has provided an ingenious explanation of how this may have been done (3). He suggests that Ogham began as a sign language using the fingers, this being the reason why the letters are made from groups of one to five lines, that the inventors of the Ogham script wished to keep to this fivefold scheme, and that this is why the original alphabet had 20 letters, grouped in fives. He suggests that the inventors began by taking the following eighteen letters of the Roman alphabet, in the Roman order:
A B C D E G H I L M N O Q R S T V (pronounced as U) Z
To make a number divisible by five, the consonantal value of V was added as a separate letter, and the double-letter NG. They then separated out the vowels, grouping them as broad and slender, in the order:
A O U E I
Next, they took the initial letters of the early Irish names for the numerals one to five:
H (huath) D (da) T (tri) C (cethair) Q (quic)
This left the ten letters:
B G L M N R S Z V Ng
From this group they took every second letter, beginning with the B, giving them:
B L N S V
The remaining five letters; G M R Z Ng, were then rearranged, beginning with M, the middle letter of the original group of twenty, and working backwards. This gave them the final group:
M G NG Z R
The resulting four sets of letters were then rearranged, placing the three groups of consonants alphabetically by their first letters, and putting the vowels last. This gave the final order:
B L N S V, H D T C Q, M G NG Z R, A O U E I
This cryptographic process seems perfectly in keeping with the Bardic love of mystery and concealment.
On balance then, it seems likely that the Ogham alphabet originated in Ireland, probably as a result of contact with literate Romanised Britons in Wales, perhaps a century or two before the first Ogham stones were inscribed. This places the origin of the Ogham script around the 2nd century CE. Curiously, the same date seems likely for the development of the Common Germanic Futhark or Runic alphabet. It is conceivable that the creation of the two alphabets came about through some interaction between northern Germanic peoples and those of southwest Ireland during the period in question. In the case of the Runic alphabet, the inventors drew on two sources for the form of the letters. One was a script already in use in northern Italy and the other the rune-like pictographs used in Scandinavia since the Bronze Age (4). Did the inventors of the Ogham script also use a set of preexisting characters and, if so, what were they? We have already seen R. A. S. Macalister's suggestion that Ogham began as a sign language using the fingers. Now let's look at another, albeit related possibility.
The nature of the Ogham script, with its groups of one to five lines or notches, suggests that it may have originated as a system of keeping count on wooden tally sticks. Such a system of counting by fives results naturally from counting on the fingers. Being temporary records made from a perishable material, such tally sticks are unlikely to have survived. That the Ogham script began as a system of counting which was only later adapted as an alphabet is suggested by Julius Caesar's statement (5) that the Druids of his time were deliberately non-literate so as not encourage students to "neglect the cultivation of the memory," but that "in public and private accounts, they make use of Greek letters." This clearly indicates that the Continental Celts of Caesar's time were not averse to using writing for mundane matters, but preferred to maintain a purely oral transmission for cultural records and esoteric lore. The Ogham alphabet, being thoroughly impractical for writing inscriptions of any length, fits perfectly with this ethos. "
welcome to the study of ogham
"Ogham (pronounced OH-wahm or OH-gahm) is a form of writing used by the Celtic peoples of the British Isles prior to the introduction of the Roman alphabet and Christianity. Each letter of the Ogham alphabet has the name of a tree or other plant, and each of these trees had a meaning in the Celtic religion (and possibly in the Goddess-centered religions of the Old Europeans that preceded the Celts). The tree-alphabet was also used by the Celts for divination, but few details of that practice were recorded (although see Thorsson 1992 for a reconstruction).
The trees and the alphabet are still used by modern Witches (Wiccans), Druids, and other followers of pagan and Goddess-spirituality paths. It is for these that I created this font (although Celtic scholars may also find it useful).
The alphabet consists of twenty letters. Each letter consists of from one to five strokes extending from or crossing a horizontal line. Ancient Ogham inscriptions are generally found cut into the edge of hewn stone, with the edge representing the horizontal line. When the edge is actually horizontal, the letters read from left to right. Vertical edges were usually written from top to bottom, and in the case of a three-edge structure, such as a dolmen arch, the writing began at the lower left, ran up the left side, across the top, and down the right side.
The Beth-Luis-Nion font is named after the first three letters of the alphabet (although there is some disagreement about the sequence, Here is the alphabet, with the corresponding trees:
------------------------------------------------------------------- b
b b beth BEH birch Betula pendula l
l l luis LWEESH rowan Sorbus aucuparia n
n n nion NEE-uhn ash Fraxinus excelsior f
f f fearn FAIR-n alder Alnus glutinosa s
s s saille SAHL-yuh willow Salix spp. h
h h huath HOO-ah hawthorn Crataegus spp. d
d d duir DOO-r oak Quercus robur t
t t tinne CHIN-yuh holly4 Ilex aquifolia c
c c coll CULL hazel Corylus avellana q
q q quert KWAIRT apple Malus sylvestris m
m m muin MUHN (like "foot") vine Vitis vinifera g
g g gort GORT ivy Hedera helix y
ng y, p5 ngetal NYEH-tl reed Phragmites communis z
ss z straiff STRAHF blackthorn Prunus spinosa r
r r ruis RWEESH elder Sambucus nigra a
a a ailm AHL-m silver fir Abies alba o
o o onn UHN furze Ulex europaeus u
u u ura OO-rah heather Calluna vulgaris e
e e eadha EH-yuh poplar Populus tremula i
i i idho, EE-yoh yew Taxus baccata iodho EE-woh
Why study ogham
The first question is : Why study the Ogham?
what uses does it have for the modern druid?
is it
- to connect to an ancient druid way of knowledge?
- to use it an oracular system?
- to use it as a magickal system?
- to connect to the living energy of trees?
- to learn its terminology and its history?
- my reason was for all these reasons as a whole
- what is your intention? do you want to pursue this path to understanding?
