Ogham, the notched alphabet of ancient Ireland

At first glance it looks more like a tally system than a script. Ogham is made up of groups of short strokes, from one to five, drawn to the right, to the left or across a guide line, which on stones coincides with the edge of the block. Yet it is a complete alphabet, used in Ireland at least from the fourth century AD to write the oldest known form of Irish, called Primitive Irish.

Twenty letters in four groups

Classical Ogham has twenty signs, called feda, that is, trees or woods, divided into four groups of five called aicmí. Each group takes its name from its first letter. The beith group contains B, L, V, S and N, drawn to the right of the line; the húath group H, D, T, C and Q, to the left; the muin group M, G, NG, Z and R, with slanting strokes across the line; the ailm group the vowels A, O, U, E and I, with dots or notches on the line.

Later five supplementary signs were added, the forfeda, for new sounds or diphthongs. On stones the writing usually runs from bottom to top along an edge, and sometimes continues over the top and down the opposite edge. In medieval manuscripts, by contrast, Ogham was written horizontally, from left to right, like Latin.

A learned invention

The origin of Ogham is debated. Its structure reveals a precise knowledge of the categories of Latin grammar, which distinguished vowels and different classes of consonants. For this reason many scholars think the alphabet was created by people who knew Latin, perhaps in contact with Roman Britain, but who wanted an independent system, suited to carving on wood and stone and to the sounds of Irish.

Some have suggested a link with systems of hand signs or tallying, but without decisive proof. It is generally agreed that Ogham does not derive graphically from another alphabet, unlike the runes: its form is an original invention. No Ogham sign, in fact, copies the shape of a Latin or Greek letter.

Ogma and the medieval scholars

Irish tradition credits the invention of the alphabet to Ogma, a figure of the divine people of the Túatha Dé Danann, celebrated as a champion and master of eloquence. The medieval treatise Auraicept na nÉces, the Scholars' Primer, relates that Ogma created it as proof of his own ingenuity and so that it might be reserved for the learned. Other tales, such as the Tochmarc Étaíne, show druids carving ogham on yew wands to discover a hidden truth.

Much of our knowledge of Ogham comes from late manuscripts, in particular the Book of Ballymote, compiled towards the end of the fourteenth century. It contains the treatise In Lebor Ogaim, the Book of Ogham, which lists dozens of variants of the alphabet, some with names of birds, colours, rivers or crafts. These are exercises in erudition by medieval scholars, who by then used Ogham as a secret script or a learned game.

Between stone and manuscript, Ogham thus had two lives: the first as the monumental script of the early centuries, the second as an object of study and imagination for the poets and grammarians of medieval Ireland. It is this second life that gave rise to the tree names of the letters, to the kennings of the Bríatharogam and to many modern legends.