by Searles O'Dubhain
Searles O'Dubhain was the foremost practitioner-scholar of Ogham divination in the alt.religion.druid community — founder of the Summerlands Druid forum and author of extensive coursework on Celtic spirituality. His Ogham meditations, often brief and dense, wove together Old Irish lexicography (drawing directly on the eDIL dictionary), mythology, and seasonal cosmology into a single interpretive act.
This meditation takes Oir — the gold ring, one of the forfeda (supplementary Ogham letters) — and illuminates it through the myth of Elatha and Ériu (the magical conception of Bres at Bealtaine), the eDIL definitions of the letter, and its counterpart AEmancholl. Like a jeweler sizing a ring on a stick, Searles finds the form of a thing in the sound and root of its name — demonstrating the Druidic principle that letters and their kennings encode the shape of reality.
Posted to alt.religion.druid in November 2010.
That sly diabhal, Elatha, impressed the pants off Ériu with his magical, crystal ship and good looks. After they had spent their time in the Sun and frolicked on the shore he gave her a gold ring to give to their son (when he was born) as a token of his birth and proof of his parentage. That marks Bealtaine.
"oir (? óir) f.
(a) the name of the spindle-tree (or ivy?): oir .i. feorus no edind, Auraic. 1196 = feoruss no edlend, 4301 ; cf. 5523 . oir `broom, furze, spindle-tree ', Hog. Luibh. Dinneen.
(b) in the ogham alphabet, the double vowel oi: ór, LL 38 b 37 . óir (one of the aicme na bfhoirfheadh'), IGT Introd. § 4 , 12 . caoladh ceirt .o. ag dul a n-óir (i.e. oi is the slender' form of o), § 14 →. cas, clach, . . . clann . . . gach ainm dibh ag dul a n-óir ar a thuillréim ┐ ar a thaíbhréim úathaidh (i.e. they have oi in the dat. and gen. sing.), IGT Dec. § 40. " (courtesy of eDil)
On the other side of the year, the challenge is a battle marked by things like Moytura and woods. It's a game of fate then when the wild huntsman comes to the door to do battle with the king in the game of wood wisdom. Who will prosper and who will die? Who will lead and who will be banished? Who will be generous and who will be a miser? These are questions for the game board of the Champion and the Samildánach. It is marked by AEmancholl:
"luad saethaig expression of a weary one ' (name given in Briatharogham of Morann m. Máin to emancholl, letter ae), Auraic. 5612 . más leanb re luadh n-oidhreachta being a young prince (chiefly) set on asserting his right to his inheritance ', Aithd. D. 65.26 ." (courtesy of eDil)
I can't help but think of a wedding ring on a stick (such as a jeweler uses to size rings) when I considir Oir.
When I think of AEmancholl, I see a chess (or fidchell) board and gaming pieces for strategy (such as Ogma used to play Lugh at Tara to determine his skills and as one of the tests for his admission).
The "gold ring" is also obviously associated with the Sun while the Dúile Fedha tells us :
"Aed uird na forfed, L. hetir, (-I- etis B.) bail 7 baile, ata L. om. L. da emancoll, (Aemanchol), bairc, L. bairg, (Aemanchol), L. baire (Aemanchol), is bair (-I- suid B.) 7 brai 7 brais 7 braind (-I- mna), L. bran, 7 bairt (-I- ingen), L. bairi, bairend, 7 ban B., 7 bai 7 baill, L. bair, 7 baile it emuncholla nosbenand, L. id emanchuill nodabenadar, uile 7 rl. " (\
Here I see Aemancholl, or AE, as being connoted to words in which it is contained like:
baire - (i) directs one's course (attack), proceeds, sets out:
(ii) wins, gains the victory:.
brais - forward or boastful
baile - place, piece, land or a frenzy, vision, msdnrdd (arising from supernatural revelations)
Now I know that the lists provided are showing examples of the diphthong usage but I believe the letters ande sounds have an inherent power to influence one another in words in both sound and matter (as Ogma created them). Hence the presence of an Ogham in a word (how could it be otherwise?) shapes the word and reveals root, branch and trunk meanings.
Searles O'Dubhain
Colophon
Written by Searles O'Dubhain and posted to alt.religion.druid in November 2010. O'Dubhain was the founder of the Summerlands online Druid community and one of the most prolific writers on Ogham, Celtic myth, and Druidic practice in the early internet era.
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original post index: alt.religion.druid post 69218.
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