⊢Ogham

Draw ogham staves for a question, with the letter names, the medieval kennings (the short phrases the old poets gave each letter) and the doubts about the tree list set beside every draw. Browse the twenty fews in their four families, write a name on the stem line as it would be cut on a stone, and see what is known about ogham and what is modern invention. Each letter has a drawing of its tree, the Writer cuts a name stroke by stroke up the edge of a standing stone — or writes it in the Ogam Tract's bird ogham and colour ogham — and Dallán cuts his four wands of yew. Draw from the bag, or choose your staves face down from a cloth. Cut ogham yourself, tapping either side of the stem line and dragging across it, or sign it with your fingers on your shin as the Ogam Tract's foot ogham has it, and try the formula words of the stones. Read six real stones letter by letter, from Kerry, the Isle of Man, Wales and a Roman town in England: a priest whose carver cut four letters on the wrong side, the one stone known to name a woman, and letters broken away. Practise until the letters are yours: name a few from its strokes or pick the strokes for a name, say which few writes a sound, match a medieval kenning or a tree to its letter, and read words cut in ogham, the formula words of the stones and old Irish names, letter by letter on the twenty keys.