OGHAM Ancient Celtic Alphabet

Ogham (OH-yam) is believed to have been devised by the Irish somewhere between the first and third centuries AD. Surviving examples place its' primary use to the Christian period, however, some Celtic scholars believe it to be of far greater antiquity. The name Ogham or Ogam (Ohm) was derived from that of the Celtic god of literature and eloquence, Ogma, who is credited with its' invention. The letters are constructed using a combination of lines placed adjacent to or crossing a midline. An individual letter may contain from one to five vertical or angled strokes. Vowels were sometimes described as a combination of dots. The midline was, most often, the edge of the object on which the inscription was carved. Ogham is read from top to bottom, left to right.

The letters consist of one to five perpendicular or angled strokes, meeting or crossing a center line. The form of the letters allows them to be carved easily on objects of wood or stone, with the edge forming the center line.

Existing examples suggest that Ogham was used primarily on grave and boundry markers. Indeed, most inscriptions read "so and so, son of so and so, son of so and so" and so on. Evidence exists, however, supporting its' use by Druids for recording tales, histories, poetry, geneologies, and the like. Bards are thought to have carried a Taball-Lorg or 'Poets Staff'. This would have been a staff comprised of several wooden wands, fastened at the bottom so as to open into a fan shape. It was on these wands that the poets would have inscribed their tales. In the 'Voyage of Bran' the hero is described as having committed some 50 or 60 quatrains in Ogham to a Taball-Lorg, which he then cast into the sea. Having been constructed of wood, it is highly unlikely that a Poet's Staff would have survived to the present day.

In keeping with Druidic concepts, each of the Ogham's twenty letters bears the name of a tree. A-Ailim (Elm), B-Bithe (Birch), C-Coll (Hazel), for example. This is not surprising until it is realized that not all of the twenty plants of the Ogham were found in the post-Christian Celtic world of the British Isles. This fact would seem to lend some credence to the theory that Ogham predates the first century AD. According to Curtis Clark, "If one were to pick a region where the plants of the Ogham were best represented, it would be the valley of the Rhine River, home of the Iron Age La Tené culture that is regarded to be ancestral to the Celts."

There are 369 verified examples of Ogham writing surviving today. These exist in the form of gallán (standing stones) concentrated in Ireland but scattered across Scotland, the Isle of Man, South Wales, Devonshire, and as far afield as Silchester (the ancient Roman city of Calleva Attrebatum). Similar markings, dating to 500 BC, have been found on standing stones in Spain and Portugal. It is from this area of the Iberian Peninsula that the Celts who colonized Ireland may have come. The discovery of similar carvings in the state of West Virginia in the United States, has caused some speculation that the Celts may have come to the New World as early as 100 BC.

It is probable that Ogham (Old Irish Ogam) was widely written in wood in early times. The main flowering of the use of "classical" Ogham in stone seems to be 5th-6th century. Monumental Ogham inscriptions are found in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, and the Isle of Man, mainly employed as territorial markers and memorials. The more ancient examples are standing stones, script being carved into the edge (droim or faobhar) of the stone, which forms a stemline against which individual characters are cut. Text is read beginning from the bottom left-hand side of a stone, continuing upward, across the top and down the right-hand side in the case of long inscriptions. Inscriptions written on stemlines cut into the face of the stone, instead of along its edge, are known as "scholastic", and are of a later date (post 7th century). Notes were also commonly written in Ogham in manuscripts down to the sixteenth century. Even since that time, this tradition of native writing has never really been forgotten.

This information was taken directly from the Cedar Light Grove website.  We just couldn't improve on perfection!