Few questions about the early medieval Celtic world have generated as much speculation as the question is Ogham an alphabet or a secret code, and the answer turns out to be more interesting than either of the two simple alternatives would suggest. The Ogham script is, in its classical form, a full alphabet of twenty-five letters arranged in a series of aicme (groups), and it is the earliest form of writing native to the early medieval Irish world. But the script has also been the subject of a long tradition of speculation about its supposed secret or cryptographic character, and the question is one of the most often-asked about the Ogham and other inscribed stones of the early medieval Celtic world.
The Structure of the Script
The Ogham script is, in its structure, a true alphabet. The twenty-five letters of the classical Ogham alphabet represent the consonants and vowels of the early Irish language, and they are arranged in a regular sequence that mirrors the structure of the Latin alphabet from which the script was clearly derived. The first five letters of the Aicme Beithe, for example, correspond to B, L, F, S, and N, and the letters of the other three aicme follow in a similarly regular pattern.
The script is, however, visually very different from the Latin alphabet from which it was derived. The Ogham letters are not written as sequences of pen strokes on parchment or vellum, but as groups of cuts on stone, and the cuts are made along, across, or at angles to a baseline that is typically the edge of the stone. The visual result is a script that looks nothing like the Latin alphabet, and the appearance of the script is one of the reasons why it has so often been thought of as a secret writing.
The Latin Connection
The structure of the Ogham alphabet is closely modelled on the structure of the Latin alphabet, and the fact important pieces of evidence for the origin of the script. The five letters of the Aicme Beithe correspond to the B-L-F-S-N group of the Latin alphabet, and the letters of the other three aicme follow in a similar way. The correspondence is too close to be coincidental, and it is the basis for the consensus view that Ogham was devised in southern Ireland in the first few centuries CE, in response to the presence of the Latin script in the island.
The Latin connection is supported not only by the structure of the alphabet but also by the use of Ogham primarily for memorial inscriptions of the kind that the Romans used in their own epigraphic tradition. The most common Ogham formula, the MAQI (son of) formula, is a direct parallel to the FILIUS formula of the Latin inscriptions of Roman Britain, and the form of the inscriptions, with the name of the deceased followed by the name of the father, is a direct parallel to the form of the Latin memorial inscriptions of the Roman world.
The Cryptographic Theory
The theory that Ogham was a secret code or cryptographic script has a long history, and it has been advocated in particular by scholars who have emphasised the supposed pagan character of the early Irish church. According to the theory, Ogham was devised by early Irish Christian communities as a way of recording their religious texts in a script that would be unintelligible to Roman administrators and to the pagan Irish who had not yet been converted. The theory has a certain appeal, and it has been popular in popular accounts of the early Irish church, but it is no longer widely accepted by scholars.
The principal difficulty with the cryptographic theory is that the structure of the Ogham alphabet is so closely modelled on the Latin alphabet that it could not have been used for any true cryptography, and the cryptographic theory is no longer widely accepted, although the possibility that Ogham was used in certain ritual or ceremonial contexts is still debated.
The Tally-Mark Theory
A more recent theory, proposed especially by the linguist and runologist R. A. S. Macalister in his monumental Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum Celticarum and developed by other scholars, is that Ogham developed out of an older system of tally marks or symbolic marks used in the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age for the purposes of counting, recording, or marking property. The theory connects Ogham to the older Atlantic tradition of stone carving and to the system of symbols used in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age for the marking of boundaries, graves, and other significant features of the landscape.
The tally-mark theory has the advantage of explaining the visual appearance of the Ogham letters, which do look like a system of counting marks, and it is consistent with the older Atlantic tradition of stone carving that preceded the development of the script. The theory does not, however, explain the close correspondence between the Ogham alphabet and the Latin alphabet, and the chronology of the development of the script is still a matter of considerable scholarly debate.
The Scholarly Ogham
A small but important group of Ogham inscriptions are not memorial in character, and they include inscriptions that appear to be in the older Ogham cipher, a system in which the letters of the Latin alphabet are represented by their corresponding Ogham letters. The scholarly or academic Ogham, as this is sometimes called, is found on a small number of stones in Ireland and Wales, and it is an important witness to the use of Ogham as a learned script in the early medieval period.
The In Lebor Ogam, a tract on the Ogham script preserved in manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, describes a number of ogham craebh or branch-ogham systems, in which the letters of the Ogham alphabet are said to correspond to the branches of particular trees. The branch-ogham system is a mnemonic device rather than a true cryptographic system, and it distinctive features of the medieval Irish scholarly tradition.
The existence of the scholarly Ogham tradition important pieces of evidence for the use of Ogham as a script for purposes other than memorial inscription, and it is an important supplement to the older memorial tradition. The tradition is associated in particular with the Brehon lawyers and with the fileadha (poets) of the early medieval Irish learned class, both of whom used the script in their professional work.
The Argument from Use
The most compelling argument for the alphabet character of Ogham is the use to which the script was put. The vast majority of Ogham inscriptions are straightforward memorial inscriptions, in which the name of the deceased is recorded in the language of the early medieval Irish world, and the inscriptions have no secret or ritual character. The inscriptions were clearly meant to be read, and they were clearly meant to be intelligible to the people for whom they were made.
The use of Ogham for memorial inscriptions is the strongest evidence for the practical character of the script, and the principal reason why the cryptographic theory has been largely abandoned. The script was, in its essential character, an alphabet used for the practical purpose of recording the names of the dead, and the earliest form of writing native to the Irish-speaking world.
The Continuing Debate
The debate about the origin and character of Ogham continues, and the question is Ogham an alphabet or a secret code important in the field of early medieval Celtic studies. Ogham is an alphabet, modelled on the Latin alphabet, used for the practical purpose of memorial inscription, and it may also have been used in certain ritual or ceremonial contexts. The script is, in short, a true alphabet that may have had a ritual significance in addition to its practical use, and the combination of the two distinctive features of the early medieval Irish linguistic landscape.
Related Topics
- The Ogham and other inscribed stones of the early medieval Celtic world are examined as a primary source for our knowledge of the early Celtic languages.
- The Celtic language family of which Ogham is the earliest form of writing is examined in its Indo-European context.
- The medieval Celtic literary tradition that developed in the manuscript period is explored through the major works of the Irish, Welsh, and Breton traditions.
- The Celtic religion, mythology, and spirituality provides the religious context for the older material that the Ogham tradition may preserve.
- The history of the Celtic civilization places the development of Ogham in its chronological and political context.