Feelin’ Groovy: Interdisciplinary perspective on the origin, nature, and uses of the ogham script

… Invoke my name!
Place your fingers
In the ice-cold notches
Hear me speak …

(From ‘Ogham’, by Susan Connelly,
The Poetry Ireland Review, 68 (Spring 2001), 83-84.)

Ogham is known to Celtic scholars primarily as the vehicle for the earliest evidence for the Irish language. Celticists tend, however, to have a low opinion of the script itself, typically dismissing it as ‘cumbersome’, ‘crude’, and ‘strange’. This is a misapprehension. Viewed in the wider context of historical writing systems, ogham is, in fact, something of a marvel: a radical departure from the scripts which inspired it, brilliant in its practical simplicity, yet intellectually sophisticated.

The ingeniousness of ogham becomes evident when we widen our gaze beyond the fifth-, sixth- and seventh-century monumental stone pillars which dominate the archaeological record, and take in the script’s diverse applications throughout its entire period of use, starting perhaps as early as the second or third century AD (the ‘prehistory’ of ogham) and continuing to the dawn of antiquarian interest in the eighteenth century. This requires critical attention to the too-often overlooked examples found on diverse media other than stone, in and beyond Ireland, and to the various references to ogham inscriptions in early Irish literature. It also requires an appreciation that to write and read ogham was not an abstract process but an embodied experience.

From these perspectives it becomes easier to gain traction on some fundamental questions which have hitherto remained unanswered: Why was ogham invented? What was it used for? How widespread was ogham literacy? Why does the script look the way it does? Why does it read vertically? Why is the order of the letters so different from the standard alphabet? The result is a new appreciation of just how special is ‘virgular quinquecostate ogham writing’ (James Joyce Ulysses ch 17.771-3).

Katherine Forsyth

Katherine Forsyth

Cafodd Katherine Forsyth ei magu yng ngogledd-ddwyrain yr Alban lle y cafodd ei chyfareddu gan drigolion yr ardal yn yr oesoedd canol cynnar – y Pictiaid – a chan eu cerfluniau carreg rhyfeddol. Ymrodd ymhellach i’r diddordeb hwn ym Mhrifysgol Caergrawnt (yr Adran Eingl-Sacsoneg, Norseg a Chelteg) ac yna ym Mhrifysgol Harvard lle yr enillodd radd PhD mewn Ieithoedd a Llenyddiaethau Celtaidd am draethawd ar arysgrifau Ogam yr Alban. Ar ôl bod yn ysgolor Rhŷs yng Ngholeg yr Iesu, Rhydychen, ac yn gymrawd ymchwil yng Ngholeg Santes Hilda, Rhydychen, a Choleg Prifysgol Llundain, symudodd i Adran Gelteg a Gaeleg Prifysgol Glasgow lle y bu’n dysgu er 1998. Mae Katherine wedi cyhoeddi ar amryfal agweddau yn ymwneud â’r Pictiaid ac ar gerflunwaith ac arysgrifau yn yr Alban ac Iwerddon, a hynny ar sail gwaith maes yno ynghyd ag ar Ynys Manaw ac yn Llydaw. Mae ei hymchwil yn ymdrin â thestunau fel rhan o ddiwylliant materol ac ysgrifennu fel gweithred gymdeithasol a diwylliannol. Mae ganddi ddiddordeb neilltuol yn nharddiad a datblygiad yr wyddor ogam ac yn system symbolau’r Pictiaid. Yn 2008 cyhoeddodd Studies on the Book of Deer, a oedd yn ffrwyth prosiect ymchwil cydweithredol eang ar y llawysgrif hynaf hon o dir mawr yr Alban. Mae hefyd wedi cyhoeddi astudiaethau rhyngddisgyblaethol o gemau bwrdd Celtaidd. Dros y blynyddoedd mae Katherine wedi bod yn ymgynghorydd academaidd mewn perthynas ag arddangos cerflunwaith o’r oesoedd canol cynnar mewn nifer o safleoedd, gan gynnwys Iona, ac mae wedi cydweithio ag artistiaid cyfoes sy’n dymuno dehongli celf hynafol yr Alban. Mae’n gyn-gadeirydd Pwyllgor Cenedlaethol Cerrig Nadd yr Alban, ac ar hyn o bryd mae’n arwain prosiect o’r enw Spoken Here: Mapping Gaelic Glasgow, sy’n ymwneud â’r cyhoedd ac yn archwilio treftadaeth Aeleg y ddinas. Mae hefyd, er 2016, wedi bod yn Gyfarwyddwraig Canolfan Hyfforddiant Doethuriaethol yr AHRC mewn Ieithoedd Celtaidd.