In Lebor Ogaim

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In Lebor Ogaim, meaning “The Book of Ogams,” also called the Ogam Tract, is a medieval Irish guide to the ogham alphabet. It survives in several manuscripts from the 14th to the 17th century (and fragments in other sources). The tract has no title in those manuscripts, but is named in the Auraicept na n-Éces, from which the familiar title comes. It stands apart from the Auraicept and is the main source for the Bríatharogaim, the word-meanings of the letters. It also records around 100 “scales” or secret ways of writing ogham, including some that mimic other alphabets (for example, the Younger Futhark, called “Viking ogham”). Some scales are word lists; others seem to tally numbers. Most are different ways of writing the alphabet. Scholars Macalister (1937) and McManus (1991) have studied these variants.

The tract reflects how Gaelic poets trained. The training supposedly involved learning about 150 varieties of ogham—fifty in each of the first three years. Many of these varieties are drawn from the Ogham Tract itself. Macalister saw them as evidence of ogham’s cryptic nature and its use for secret communication. McManus questions practical benefits, noting that only a small portion of the variants helped with vocabulary or memory, while the rest may reflect medieval fascination with cryptic scripts. Some forms may have served as property records or tallies.

Word lists in the tract often give each letter a companion word. Examples include:
- Enogam (Bird-ogam): a list of birds (pheasant, duck, gull, hawk, snipe, night raven, wren, starling, hen, swan, goose, thrush, rook, lapwing, lark, swan, eaglet, etc.)
- Dathogam (Colour-ogam): colours (white, grey, red, blue, green, black, brown, etc.)
- Ogam tirda (Agricultural ogam): farming terms (axe, rope, hedge- bill, pack-saddle, ring, cask, plough, hammer, basket, anvil, etc.)
- Ogam Uisceach (Water Ogam): tally-like lists using rivers, weirs, wells, etc., which could have served property records
- Conogam (Dog Ogham) and Bo-ogam (Cow Ogham): lists related to dogs and cattle
- Danogam (Art-ogam): terms for livelihoods like poetry, smithing, fishing, weaving, and other crafts

There are also alphabets used for other purposes. For example:
- Macogam (Boy ogam): a divination method to guess the sex of an unborn child from the name’s letters (an odd number predicts a boy, even predicts a girl)
- Cossogam (Foot-ogam): signing ogham with fingers on the leg, with group B to the right, H to the left, M across the leg, and A across the leg with finger counts for each letter
- Sronogam (Nose-ogam): a version using the nose
- Basogam (palm of the hand)
- Cend a muine / Cend fo muine (Head in Bush / Head under Bush): letters stand for whole letter-names at the beginning or end of words

Notable and more enigmatic variants include:
- Aradach Fionn’s Ladder: each letter has its own vertical stemline; once linked to the idea of musical notation for harp fingering, though this is debated
- Ogam Bricrenn (Ogham of Bricriu): a dot system for letters; once thought to be druidic lore, later reinterpreted as a humorous poet’s verse
- Dedanach (Final Ogham): the last letter of the name is used for the first letter (a code)
- Cend ar Nuaill (Head on Proscription): swapping first and last letters of groups
- Ogam Airenach (Shield Ogham) and Rothogam (Wheel/Ogham of Roigne Roscadach): visually distinctive “shield” or wheel forms
- Fege Find (Fionn’s Window): arranged in circular patterns
- Traig Sruth Ferchertne (Strand Stream of Ferchertne): letters arranged in squares; Ferchertne was a famed poetic figure
- Lochlannach (Scandinavian Ogham): a category linking ogham to Norse/Nordic associations

In short, In Lebor Ogaim collects a wide array of writing styles, mnemonic aids, divination tricks, and practical lists. It shows how the ogham alphabet was not just a writing system but a flexible tool—used for poetry, memory training, record-keeping, cryptic play, and even divination.