This page is under construction: Individual pages for each fid are available to view if the font is underlined; if the fid font is in red without an underline, the page is still being researched and developed.
Please read the notes about this page following the feda before using the information within these pages to ensure you understand the limitations in doing so and that the content meets your needs.
aicme beithe
aicme hÚatha
aicme muine
muin
gort
gétal
straif
ruis
aicme ailme
ailm
onn
úr
edad
idad
forfeda
I have elected to not add interpretations for the forfeda. Many are later additions to the alphabet and often only have scant evidence of being used outside of medieval scribes. Many are unattested outside of one or two monasterial sources.
ébhadh
óir
uilleand
iphin
emancholl
discussion
While I was first attempting to study ogham, the “tree alphabet” (which in of itself might be an overenthusiastic interpretation of the alphabet), I quite early on discovered that there were two general schools of thought about the ogham: those who subscribed to the Robert Graves interpretations of the various feda (letters, singular: fid, sometimes few), and those basing their interpretations not on artistic and poetic notions, but on what was written down by medieval scholars about the alphabet.
While I don’t deny the importance of Graves’ work as one of the godfathers of modern neopaganism, I am less interested in ogham as a divinatory or magickal tool than I am in what the old poet-seers, the filí, and the historic druids might have encoded in this early system of writing from the Old and Primitive Irish — if they encoded anything at all. Also assuming the ogham even dates to before the Romans attempted to annex the British Isles and absorb it into the Empire, and it is not a later-era runic doppelganger. There is so much that we don’t know about the ogham, and yet there are modern self-proclaimed experts looking to make a quick buck publishing books claiming to know far more than serious scholars actually know about the ogham. Please note: McManus (among others) have suggested evidence exists that the heavy emphasis on tree-ogham symbolism is “a fiction”1 invented by medieval scholars and perpetuated by modern authors. As such, I have de-emphasized those relationships except where ogham-tree symbolism supported by scholarship. I have furthermore limited the meaning-via-extension (e.g. magic symbolism of the trees unrelated to the fid) where possible, or identified the connection if it seems valid and a tree is evident in the gloss or kenning.
Contrary to claiming to be an expert, I only claim to be an enthusiastic amateur scholar of early- and pre-history cultural and spiritual practices of Northern Europe (including the British Isles). I cannot promise that anything I write about ogham is considered valid or accurate for anyone’s needs but for my own. Use the information found on these pages with that caveat in mind and all the implied limitations that come along for the ride.
Once more, I do not claim to be an expert on ogham if you are looking for a more educated or popular set of interpretations. The interpretations within these pages are wholly my own and may not reflect accepted or popular interpretations within the larger community. They are, to some degree, evidence-based with a layer of personal reflection appended to each meaning.
Each of the ogham feda is named using the best available understanding of what the Old Irish (abbreviated OI when referenced in these pages) name for a given fid is at the time this page was constructed. As my understanding evolves, the names may change.
Most of the ogham on this site are generated using artwork by Júlio Reis identified as public domain via wikimedia commons, and merged into individual fid using GIMP by michael raven/banscáth. Feda artwork on this page and all child pages is also released to public domain, and may be used freely without attribution, although attribution is appreciated.
The interpretations found within these pages will be modified over time to reflect new and better understandings of the ogham based on usage, reflection, and additional information made available. The pages linked to on this page are part of a living record, which will continue to evolve over time.
This page was last updated on 25 sept 2023.
Comments or suggestions?