Ogham
Origins of Ogham
Alphabet named after trees
New age beliefs
Irish art
These are the first two lines of an old Irish poem attributed to Amergin, the chief Druid of the Milesians in Irish mythology.
This, along with four other poems by Amergin, appears in the Lebar na Núachongbála (The Book of Leinster) a 12th century manuscript which contains some ogham script.
Amergin’s invocation of Ireland
Gaelic:
Ailim iath n-erend
Ermac muir motach
English:
I invoke the land of Eire
much coursed by the fertile sea.
Messe ocus Pangur Bán (Myself and White Pangur)
The first verse of the poem written by a monk in the 9th century about himself and his cat, White Pangur. Translated into manuscript ogham it would have looked something like this.
Gaelic:
Messe ocus Pangur Bán,
cechtar nathar fri saindán:
bíth a menma-sam fri seilgg,
mu menma céin im saincheirdd
English:
Myself and White Pangur,
each of us two at his own art:
his mind on hunting,
mine on my reading.
Ogham alphabet: named after trees
Ogham
Origins of Ogham
Poems written in Ogham
Alphabet named after trees
New age beliefs
Irish art