The Ogam letters, their sibling trees and their kennings as given by the Auraicept and the Ogam tract following Calder and McManus edition of Middle Age texts.

This table shows what the ancient scholars would say and think of the Ogam, their own spelling and their interpretation of it. When I open a book relative to the Ogams, I am bound to see some strange spellings, orderings and letter meanings, all of them stated with a surprising authority. This table will show how much the ancients were trying to explain why such or such tree was sibling to an Ogam letter. Even when they disagree, their explanations enable us to understand that different points of view might have coexisted already in their time. For example, the second letter, Luis, may be associated to the rowan-tree (because of the beauty of its berries) or to the elm-tree (because of the wealth of its catkins), I cannot tell where is ‘the’ truth or if both are true. Anyhow, when you choose one of these attributions, please take into account that the ones who had the best knowledge of the topic had also different opinions, do not (implicitly) state that whoever disagree with you is a nut.

My presentation is based on translations from the Middle Irish due to Calder and McManus. A translator is obviously not supposed to explain his own doubts nor to provide alternate translations. I do not feel I am criticizing them by giving you several possible interpretations of the Irish text. My translation from the Irish is placed in between (“ ”). I always try to follow as closely as possible Calder’s and McManus’ ones and it may happen that ‘my’ translation is a simple copy and paste of Calder’s or paraphrasing McManus’. It may happen also that I dare propose very different translations: When the explanations of these differences are too lengthy to be included here, they are given in the “Commented version of Calder’s translation of the Ogam tract.”

I was able to find six different descriptions of the Ogam letters. 1. At the beginning of the Auraicept (‘BegAur’) they are given as a list of names. 2. Fenius’ one ( ‘Fen’), 3. Ogma’s (‘Ogm’), 4. Morann Mac Main’s (‘Mor’), 5. Mac ind Oic’s (‘Mac’), 6. (edited by McManus instead of Calder, see below) Cú Chulainn’s (‘CC’), with McManus’s English translation (‘MM’).

The name of the letter may be the one of a tree as well in ‘normal’ Middle Irish. This is not always true and, besides, these words often show a strong polysemy. This is why I provide a list of their main meanings. The text provides also a metaphoric description of the Ogam letter, called kennings by McManus (actually, the Old Norse plural of this word is kenningar but I think McManus is right to deal with this word as if it were an English one).

McManus (in his 1988 paper in the Ériu Journal and p. 42 of his A Guide to Ogam) gives an edition of the two words kennings coming from ‘Mor’ and ‘Mac’ in the Auraicept. You will see that the original text provides a bit more explanations than two words. McManus gives also a third version the original of which I could not consult: they are Cú Chulainn’s word-ogams. I give you all I could get, namely McManus’ edition. If you directly refer to McManus’ work, note that he calls ‘A’ what I call ‘Mor’, ‘B’ what I call ‘Mac’, and ‘C’ what I call ‘CC’.

As I already said, the meanings I give you originally come from Calder and McManus. I however checked the meaning of each word either in Vendryes’ dictionary or, more often, in the ‘authority of the authorities’ in Old and Middle Irish, that is, the Dictionary of the Irish Language (DIL). See detailed references in the “Commented version of Calder’s translation of the Ogam tract.” When McManus’ translation of ‘Mor’ and ‘Mac’ kennings differs largely from Calder’s or mine, I’ll add his understanding in the following format: (MM: Irish. ‘Irish version’; Trans. ‘English translation’). I also did not mind repetitions when they were taking place in the Irish text. For example, I never had to use blackthorn and sloe, woodbine and honeysuckle, service-tree and yew, as Calder does.

Group B
B beith or beithe	BegAur: Babel Fen: LETTER and TREE: bethi (meaning: letter ‘B’ or birch). KENNING: Feocos foltchain in beithi (feocos = of withered trunk; foltchain = folt-cain, beautiful hair) Ogm: LETTER and TREE: beithi, bethi DEFINITION: Beithi immorro o bethi na cailli forsin cetna fid for set na aipgitri in ogaim. (“Moreover, beithe is [named] from the birch in the forest for the first letter on the way of the Ogam alphabet.”) Mor: LETTER and TREE: beithi. KENNING: Feocus foltchain ar son bethi, ar at e sin da egosc in bethi (“Faded trunk and fair hair for bethi for these are two aspects of the birch”). Mac: Ogm: LETTER and TREE: beithi, bethi. KENNING: Glaisium cnis -i- beithi sin in ogaim o bethi na cailli; sic in reliquis sequentibus. (“The most silvery of skin, i. e. le birch of the Ogam from birch of the forest; sic in reliquis sequentibus.”). (MM: Irish. ‘Glaisium cnis’; Trans. ‘Greyest of skin’). CC: Maise malach (MM: Beauty of the eyebrow). MEANING of each word: maise = beauty in one’s appearance; mala = eyebrow. Word for word: “having beautiful eyebrows.”
L luis	BegAur: Lot Fen: LETTER: luis (meaning: letter ‘L’, or rowan-tree), TREE: cairtheand (rowan-tree), Old Irish caerthaind. KENNING: Li sula luis -i- caertheand ar ailleacht a caer (li = beauty, delight; sula comes from sell = pupil, eye, look; “Delight of eye is mountain-ash, i.e., rowan, owing to the beauty of its berries.”) Ogm: LETTER: luis TREE: lemh (lem = elm). DEFINITION: Luis -i- lemh sin isna cailltib (“Luis i. e. elm in the forests.”) Mor: LETTER and TREE: luis. KENNING: Li sula -i- luis sin -i- in luisiu (luisiu comes from loise, luise, luisne = flame, shine. “Delight of the eye, i. e. the flame”). (MM: Irish. ‘Li súla’; Trans. ‘Lustre of the eye’). Mac: Cara ceathra (-i- lem). Cara -i- dil lasna ceathra in lem ar a blath 7 ar canach. Tucad uad-side for luis in ogaim, ar is uad tuccad luis fair. (“Friend of cattle (i. e. elm). Friend, i. e. dear to the cattle is the elm for its bloom and its catkins. The cause of the proper poetic use of luis in the Ogam is the place of luis in poetic inspiration.”) CC: Lúth cethrae (MM: Sustenance of cattle). Notes on McManus’ translation: lúth = power of movement, vigor; cethrae = plural noun meaning ‘quadrupeds, cattle’. Word for word: “vigor of the cattle”
F fern	BegAur: Pharaoh Fen: LETTER and TREE: fernd (= fernn) (meanings: letter ‘F’ or alder; also shield, stick, man (poetry), good. KENNING: Airenach Fiann -i- fernd, air is di na sgeith (“The vanguard of the warrior-bands, that is, alder, for the shields are made of it.”) Ogm: LETTER and TREE: fern or fearn. DEFINITION: Fern -i- fearn sin isin caill (“Fern i. e. alder in the forest”) Mor: LETTER: Fern. TREE: fern. KENNING: Airinach Fian -i- sciath ar fern aigiseom sin ar a ndergi ar aenrian: no air is i in fern adbur in sceith tucad o fernae forsin fid ogaim rogab ainm uaidhi. Airenach Fian -i- sciath fern sin aigisium (“Forefront of the warrior-band i. e. shield for the alder ‘with it famous’ [= due to] its reddish color [or reddened by blood] on the same way: or because alder, the material of the shield was given to the letter of the Ogam taking its name from fernae [other form of fern = alder]. Forefront of the warrior-band, i. e. shield due to the alder. ”) Mac: LETTER: fernn. TREE: fern. KENNING: Comet lachta -i- ferrn in ogaim sin o fern na caill, ar is i coimetas in lacht, ar is di doniter lestair imon lacht. (“Guarding of milk, i. e. alder of the Ogam from alder in the forest, for it is it that guards the milk, for the vessels containing the milk are made of it.”) CC: Dín cridi (MM: Protection of the heart). MEANING of each word: dín = protection defense and action of protecting; cride = heart (emotions), central part, love, worth (courage). Other possible translation: “defender of what is your center.”
S sail	BegAur: Saliath Fen: LETTER and TREE: sail (meanings: letter ‘S’ or willow). KENNING: Li ambi i- nemli lais -i- ar cosmaillius a datha fri marb (“The colour of a lifeless one, i.e., it has no colour, i.e., owing to the resemblance of its hue to a dead person”) Ogm: LETTER and TREE: Sail (willow). DEFINITION: Sail in ogaim -i- sail dono sin isin caill (“Sail of the Ogam, i. e. willow, again, in the forest”) Mor: LETTER and TREE: willow. KENNING: Li n-aimbi -i- li mairb -i- am fo diultad conach beo acht is marb. Li n-ambi dono -i- sail aigiseom sin, 7 tugad uaidisium forsin fid n-ogaim. (“Hue of the lifeless, i. e. hue of a dead person, i. e., am for a denial, so that he is not living but is dead. Hue of the lifeless, again, i. e., le willow with it, and hence it was put for the Ogham letter”) Mac: LETTER and TREE: willow. KENNING: Lut[h] bech -i- sail sin ara blath 7 ar a canach. Tucad uad-side ara fid coibhnesa in ogaim. (“Activity of bees, i. e. willow for its bloom and its catkins. Hence it is put for the cognate Ogam letter.”) CC: Tosach mela (MM: Beginning of honey). MEANING of each word: Tosach = beginning, principle, forward part; mil (genitive mela) = honey. Other possible translation: “principle of honey” (that is, sweetness or smoothness or, may be, the bees, the nectar of the flowers?). I insist on mil genitive form since méla means: shame. [Commentary on the double “bloom and catkins”. Look at the Irish text: Mac ind Oic says “ara blath 7 ar a canach” in Luis description and “ar a blath 7 ar canach