The Ogham / Celtic Tree Alphabet

One thing that most people agree about concerning the Ogham is that there were originally twenty characters and that an additional five, believed to be diphthongs, were added at a later time to accommodate Greek and Latin letters. There is a marked difference between the first twenty characters and the other five. The first twenty are mostly simple straight lines that are suitable for carving into wood or stone, while the others are more complex and would not lend themselves to be easily carved. The original twenty are called feda (feadha, plural) and the added five, forfeda.

The characters are divided into groups of five. The number five is symbolic of the five provides of Ireland. The word for province in Modern Irish is cuige, which also means “a fifth”. Of the original twenty characters, the first fifteen are consonants, the other five vowels. The original four groups are called aicme (tribes). Each aicme is named after the first character in the group, for example, aicme beith, aicme huath.

The Ogham is written horizontally or vertically along a mid-line/stem line. This mid-line is also called druim, which means ridge or spine because the edge of the stone or flat rod was used instead of a carved midline. When written horizontally, the Ogham is read left to right. When vertical, it is read bottom to top. The starting point of the mid-line was often distinguished with a V-shape (feathered arrow) or curlicues when written on paper as in The Book of Ballymote.

One difficulty in deciphering Ogham script on ancients stones has been in what directionn it should be read. In following the ridge or edge of a cut stone, the writing travels up one edge and down another. When all four edges of the stone contain Ogham, it’s not simple to see where to begin reading and then continue after going up one side and down another.

Excerpted from
Whispers from the Woods
© Llewellyn