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Ogham Fews
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Origin Inscriptions of the fifth and sixth centuries CE; the alphabet was probably devised in the fourth.
Ogham is an alphabet of strokes cut across a stemline, used to write Primitive Irish in inscriptions on standing stones from roughly the fourth to the sixth centuries CE. Each letter has a name, and medieval Irish glossaries attach trees, birds, colours and other series to the letters. Its use for divination is modern; the surviving inscriptions are chiefly names and memorials.
Facts
Origins
Origin PeriodInscriptions of the fifth and sixth centuries CE; the alphabet was probably devised in the fourth. 1 Place of OriginIreland, and the Irish-settled parts of western Britain: Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Scotland 1 Whose Classification This IsThe tree names attached to the letters are a medieval Irish scholarly gloss, preserved in the Auraicept na n-Eces and the Book of Ballymote. They are not part of the inscriptional alphabet, and not every letter name is a tree. 1 Overview
Size of the Traditional SetTwenty letters in four aicmi, with five supplementary forfeda added in the manuscript tradition 1 Contested Use
Contested or Appropriated Modern UseThe modern "Celtic tree calendar" and the tree-alphabet divination built on it are Robert Graves's construction in The White Goddess (1948), not a medieval Irish system. 1 Status
Status TodayHistorical script: inscriptional use ends by about the seventh century, after which ogham survives as a manuscript and scholarly tradition. 1 Learn More
An alphabet of strokes
Ogham is an alphabet of strokes cut across a stem-line, used to write Primitive Irish in inscriptions on standing stones, chiefly in Ireland and western Britain, from roughly the fourth to the sixth centuries CE. Each letter is one to five strokes, placed above, below or across the line, and each has a name.
The surviving stone inscriptions are mostly names and memorials. Medieval Irish scholars later elaborated the alphabet in manuscript tradition, attaching to each letter a tree, a bird, a colour and other associations in lists preserved in texts such as the Auraicept na n-Eces and the Book of Ballymote.
Letters, Trees and Modern Use
The association of the ogham letters with trees is genuine to the medieval Irish tradition, though not every letter is named for a tree, and it is this arboreal scheme that later writers, Robert Graves above all, developed into the modern "Celtic tree" lore and calendar. The atlas keeps the historical alphabet and its medieval glosses distinct from those twentieth-century constructions.
The entries give each letter its name, sound, and traditional associations. The letters are grouped into sets of five called aicmi, treated in their own category; the modern tree calendar is treated under the revivals.
Cross-Tradition Connections
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