To accompany the Ogham character flags that make up such a beautiful display through and under the trees at the Garden Cafe & Gallery in Lydbrook, where the Celtic Year Exhibition is running from 3rd July to 2nd August, Sally was desirous of an explanatory piece of writing to position nearby, so that visitors could clue in to what the flags portrayed.
After a couple of much shorter drafts that were originally intended to be written on fabric (ran out of time to play with this, so that's something for the future) I wrote the following ...
Fi
Ogham
Ogham is an ancient alphabet of runic origin.
It is said that early oghamists were most likely the druids, but the precise origin and history of Ogham is shrouded in mystery. Ogham is a secretive, encoded language that evades an easy understanding. The nature of its users, from ancient times to the modern, is mostly the basis of speculation.
It goes by many names.
As Finger Ogham, it is a secret system of hand signals. Certain fingers relate to specific letters or combinations. One can pass secret messages by touching another's hand in a certain way.
As Stave Ogham, it has the characters constructed by cutting a series of straight lines across a single stave or stemline – as in this manuscript below.
{Except this image hasn't come out, I'll play about and see if I can post it separately}
Inscriptions are to be found on standing stones where the sharp edge of the stone acts as the stemline (or druim) against which the letters can be cut.
As the Beith-Luis-Nin, the Virgular, the Celtic Tree alphabet, or Branch Ogham, it is a script created in a similar way to stave Ogham but is more usually carved on a branch of the specific tree that it is related to.
Because writing surfaces are regularly rocks and trees, this makes Ogham all the more difficult to translate.
It is known that Elgar used Ogham to communicate with a lady-friend to discuss his Enigma Variations, a collection of musical compositions wherein each composition was meant to symbolise one of Elgar's friends or family members.
One wonders who might be using it now …
Ogham is an ancient alphabet of runic origin.
It is said that early oghamists were most likely the druids, but the precise origin and history of Ogham is shrouded in mystery. Ogham is a secretive, encoded language that evades an easy understanding. The nature of its users, from ancient times to the modern, is mostly the basis of speculation.
It goes by many names.
As Finger Ogham, it is a secret system of hand signals. Certain fingers relate to specific letters or combinations. One can pass secret messages by touching another's hand in a certain way.
As Stave Ogham, it has the characters constructed by cutting a series of straight lines across a single stave or stemline – as in this manuscript below.
{Except this image hasn't come out, I'll play about and see if I can post it separately}
Inscriptions are to be found on standing stones where the sharp edge of the stone acts as the stemline (or druim) against which the letters can be cut.
As the Beith-Luis-Nin, the Virgular, the Celtic Tree alphabet, or Branch Ogham, it is a script created in a similar way to stave Ogham but is more usually carved on a branch of the specific tree that it is related to.
Because writing surfaces are regularly rocks and trees, this makes Ogham all the more difficult to translate.
It is known that Elgar used Ogham to communicate with a lady-friend to discuss his Enigma Variations, a collection of musical compositions wherein each composition was meant to symbolise one of Elgar's friends or family members.
One wonders who might be using it now …
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