Ogham is more recent than the old norse and germanic runes, it was developed during the middle ages to write the archaic Irish language and used mostly during the 4th and the 6th century CE.
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Origins and history
The first archeological evidence of the use of ogham is around 300AD. Ogham stones are found in Ireland (mostly in the south), in Scotland and on the Isle of Man.
Ogham stones were used as territorial markers, memorials, and indicators of land ownership. The alphabet seving to mark the name of individuals and their parentage or tribal connection, it was also sometimes used to mark connection to mythical being such as the god Lugh.
It was also used for short message exchanges carved on wood or metal objects.
Ogham alphabet
The ogham alphabet known as Beith-Luis-Nin is divided in 4 main groups or Aicme. The first one made of bars coming out of the right side of the central line, the second one made of bars coming out of the left hand side, the third one made of bars crossing the central line at an angle and the fourth and last one of bars crossing the central line perpendicular.
I’ve made a table with all the ogham characters in relation to the irish language which you can use for reference.
When used vertically, it is read from bottom to top, like a tree is climbed. When used horizontally it is read from left to right.
When writing using ogham it is recommended to translate to irish first, then transliterate with the ogham alphabet. When I fist got into it as a kid i would use it to write in french and english directly but as I learned more about the history of Ireland and especially it’s relationship with England it just feels offensive to write in english with this writing system.