A Literary History of Ireland, from Earliest Times to the Present Day. Douglas Hyde
target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_eadb8bb9-2b70-5d19-85db-af7358e2d780">[3] See for Dr. Sigerson's ingenious argument "Bards of the Gael and Gaul," Introduction, p. 30.
[4] Except perhaps on stone. There is an inscription on a stone in Galway, "Lie Luguaedon Macc Lmenueh," for a facsimile of which see O'Donovan's grammar, p. 411. O'Donovan says it was set up over a nephew of St. Patrick's. Mr. Macalister reads it no doubt correctly, "Lie Luguaedon macci Menueh." This is probably the oldest extant inscription in Roman letters, and it shows that the old Ogam form maqui had already changed into mac[c]i. The "c" in place of "q" is only found on the later Ogam stones, and only one stone is found to read "maic."
[5] Thus four cuts to the right of or below the long line stand for S, above it they mean C, passing through the long line half on one side and half on the other they mean E. These straight lines, being easily cut on stone with a chisel, continued long in use. The long line, with reference to which all the letters are drawn, is usually the right angle or corner of the upright stone between the two sides. The inscription usually begins at the left-hand corner of the stone facing the reader and is read upwards, and is sometimes continued down on the right-hand angular line as well. The vowels are very small cuts on the angle of the stone, but much larger than points. There is no existing book written in Ogam, but various alphabets of it have been preserved in the Book of Ballymote, and some small metal articles have been found inscribed with it, showing that its use was not peculiar to pillar stones.
[6] See a curious monograph by Dr. Ernst Rethwisch entitled, "Die Inschrift von Killeen Cormac und der Úrsprung der Sprache," 1886. "Einfachere Schriftzeichen als das keltische Alphabet sind nicht denkbar … die Vocale haben die einfachsten Symbole und unter den Vocalen haben wieder die am bequemsten auszusprechenden bequemer zu machende Zeichen wie die Andern. Unter den Consonanten, hat die Klasse die am schwierigsten gelingt … die am wenigsten leicht einzuritzenden Zeichen: die Gaumenlaute." He is greatly struck by "der so verständig und sachgemäss erscheinende Trieb dem einfachsten Laut das einfachste Symbol zu widmen." "Eine Erklärung [of the rational simplicity of the Ogam script] ist nur möglich wenn man annimmt dass die natürliche Begabung der Kelten, der praktische auf Einfachheit und Beobachtungsgabe beruhende Sinn viel früher zŭ einer gewissen Reife gediehen sind, als bei den Indogermanischen Verwandten" (p. 29).
[7] As Curci and maqi for the genitives of Corc and mac. In later times the genitive ending i, became incorporated in the body of the word, making Cuirc and maic in the MSS., which latter subsequently became attenuated still further into the modern mic. Another very common and important form is avi, which has been explained as from a nominative *avios [for (*p)avios], Old Irish aue, modern ua or o. Another extraordinary feature is the suffix *gnos = cnos, the regular patronymic formative of the Gaulish inscriptions. Another important word is muco, genitive mucoi, meaning "descendant," but in some cases apparently "chief." The word anm or even ancm, which often precedes the genitive of the proper noun, as anm meddugini, has not yet been explained or accounted for. All these examples help to show the great age of the linguistic monuments preserved in Ogam.
[8] "Ocus no bid in flesc sin dogres irelcib nangente ocus bafuath la each a gabail inalaim ocus cach ni ba hadetchi leo dobertis [lege nobentis] tria Ogam innti, i.e. Agus do bhíodh an fleasg sin do ghnáth i reiligibh na ngente, agus budh fuath, le each a gabháil ann a láimh, agus gach nidh budh ghránna leó do bhainidis [ghearradaois] tre Ogham innti."
[9] See Zimmer's "Summary of the Táin Bo Chuailgne," Zeit. f. vgl., Sprachforschung, 1887, p. 448.
[10] Under the word orc tréith.
[11] The classical reader need hardly be reminded of the striking resemblance between this and the σήματα λυγρά which, according to Homer, Prœtus gave the unsuspecting Bellerophon to bring to the King of Lycia, γράψας ἐν πἰνακι πτυκτῷ θυμοφθόρα πολλά.
[12] The "alphabet" laid before Fiacc, however, was not a list of letters, but a kind of brief catechism, in Latin "Elementa." St. Patrick is said to have written a number of these "alphabets" with his own hand.
[13] The "Confession" and Epistles attributed to St. Patrick are, by Whitley Stokes, Todd, Ussher, and almost all other authorities, considered genuine. Recently J.V. Pflugk-Harttung, in an article in the "Neuer Heidelberger Jahrbuch," Jahrgang iii., Heft. 1., 1893, has tried to show by internal evidence that the "Confession" and Epistle, especially the former, are a little later than St. Patrick's time, and he relies strongly on this passage, saying that it is difficult to imagine how St. Patrick came by the idea that a man could bring him "innumerable letters from the heathen Ireland of that time, where, except for Ogams and inscribed stones (ausser Oghams und Skulpturzeichen), the art of writing was as yet unknown." But seeing that Christian missionaries were almost certainly at work in Munster as early as the third century this contention is ridiculous. It is noteworthy, however, that even this critic seems to believe in the antiquity of the Ogam characters. As to his main contention that the "Confession" is not the work of Patrick, Jubainville writes, "Il ne m'a pas convaincu" (Revue Celtique, vol. xiv. p. 215), and M. L. Duchesne, commenting on Zimmer's view of St. Patrick's nebulousness, writes, "Contestir l'authenticité de la Confession et de la lettre à Coroticus me semble très aventuré" (Ibid., vol. xv. p. 188), and Thurneysen also entirely refuses his credence.
[14] Preface to "Three Old Irish Glossaries," p. lv. Zeuss had already commented on the Ogams found in the St. Gall codex of Priscian, and written thus of them, "Figuræ ergo vel potius liniæ ogamicæ non diversæ ab his quæ notantur a grammaticis hibernicis, in usu jam in hoc vetusto codice, quidni etiam inde a longinquis temporibus?" There are eight Ogam sentences in a St. Gall MS. of the ninth century which have been published by Nigra in his "Manoscritto irlandese di S. Gallo."
[15] See above, ch. V, note 13. See O'Donovan's Grammar, p. xxviii, for the original of the passage from the Book of Ballymote.
[16] Translated by Rhys in his "Hibbert Lectures," from Bekker's edition, No. 7, and Dindorf's, No. 55.
[17] The Gauls assimilated their pantheon to those of the Greeks and Romans in so far as they could, and as the Greek gods are by no means always the equivalents of the Roman gods with whom popular opinion equated them, still less were of course the Gaulish; and this is a good case in point, for Ogmios has evidently nothing of a Hercules about him, though the Gauls tried to make him the equivalent of Hercules by giving him the classical club and lion's skin, yet his attributes are perfectly different.
[18] Grian-aineach, or "of the sunny countenance." See O'Curry MS. Mat., p. 249. Ogma was, according to some accounts, brother of Breas, who held the regency amongst the Tuatha De Danann for seven years, while Nuada was getting his silver hand.