An ancient ogham stone bearing inscriptions in an early Irish writing system. Medieval tradition credits Ogma, champion of the Túatha Dé Danann, with its invention.

Ogma and the Túatha Dé Danann

Ogma is an unusual figure among the Túatha Dé Danann because the surviving material says very different things about him. In Cath Maige Tuired he is a champion, a man of great physical strength and prowess in battle (Gray 1982). The Auraicept na n-Éces presents a very different picture of him: someone associated with the invention of Ogham and belonging to a learned tradition of men concerned with language and writing (Calder 1917). The sources come from very different literary contexts, and so we don’t have a single coherent biography of Ogma.

Even his family relationships are not entirely tidy. Different medieval traditions place Ogma in slightly different genealogies, as elsewhere in Irish mythological material. There is little need to force every account into agreement. Ogma appears in stories written for different purposes, and the details do not always line up neatly.

Ogma Under Bres

One of Ogma’s less glorious appearances comes during Bres’s rule. Despite being the champion of the Túatha Dé Danann, he is reduced to carrying firewood for the king. Hunger has weakened him so badly that even his famous strength is no longer enough to bring the entire load home (Gray, 1982).

It is a small episode, but an effective one. Something is deliberately wrong with seeing the great champion struggle with work he should easily manage. Bres’s rule has reduced even the strongest members of the community to this condition, and Ogma’s hardship makes that failure particularly visible.

A Test of Strength

Ogma gets a much better opportunity to display his strength when Lugh arrives at Tara. Lugh offers a remarkable list of skills to gain admission to the court, only to be told repeatedly that the Túatha Dé Danann already have someone capable of each one. What eventually sets Lugh apart is not a particular skill, but that he possesses them all.

Once inside, Lugh still has something to prove. Ogma throws a massive flagstone through the side of the hall, a stone the story says would normally require eighty yoke of oxen to move. Lugh responds by throwing it back into place (Gray, 1982).

This scene comes across as a contest between two very strong characters. Ogma is already known as the champion, while Lugh has just arrived and claims to have many impressive skills. The stone lets Lugh show that he is not just boasting.

Ogma at the Second Battle of Mag Tuired

When preparations begin for the battle against the Fomorians, Lugh asks the leading figures of the Túatha Dé Danann what each can contribute. The answers are wonderfully practical. The smith can provide weapons, the healers can tend the wounded, and each specialist offers something specific.

Ogma’s answer is exactly what might be expected from the champion. He promises his strength in battle and presents himself as capable of taking on some of the strongest fighters among their enemies (Gray, 1982).

The battle itself creates a problem in Ogma’s story. At one point the text describes Ogma and Indech falling together in single combat, yet Ogma appears again after the fighting (Gray, 1982). The surviving tale does not resolve the contradiction. It may be tempting to explain it, but the inconsistency can simply be left as it stands. Medieval stories do not always fit together as neatly as a modern retelling might suggest.

The later material also contains some of Ogma’s most memorable episodes.

Orna, the Sword That Could Speak

After the battle, Ogma finds Orna, the sword of the Fomorian king Tethra. When the weapon is drawn and cleaned, something strange happens: the sword begins recounting the deeds that have been performed with it (Gray, 1982).

The story explains this as something swords could once do. A weapon could retain knowledge of the actions it had been involved in and recount that history when drawn. It is a wonderfully strange idea, particularly in a tale where weapons already have such an important place.

The episode also sits neatly beside Ogma’s later association with language. Here, the great warrior holds a weapon that remembers its own history and can put that history into words. The story itself does not describe Ogma as a god of memory or use the episode to explain his later connection with writing. There is no need to push the connection further than the source allows. The image of a speaking sword is interesting enough on its own.

Recovering the Dagda’s Harp

Ogma later accompanies Lugh and the Dagda as they pursue the retreating Fomorians. Among the things taken from the Túatha Dé Danann is the Dagda’s harp, which they eventually find hanging on a wall in a Fomorian hall (Gray, 1982).

The Dagda calls the instrument back. The harp leaves the wall and returns to its owner, striking the Fomorians on the way. The Dagda then plays three kinds of music, bringing grief, laughter, and finally sleep to those who listen. With their enemies asleep, the companions are able to leave (Gray, 1982).

Ogma is not the central figure in this particular episode. The remarkable feat belongs to the Dagda and his harp. What stands out about Ogma is that he is still there, accompanying the Dagda and Lugh after the battle, despite the earlier passage that appears to describe his death.

Ogma and the Invention of Ogham

A very different Ogma appears in the medieval scholarly tradition surrounding ogham. The Auraicept na n-Éces, or The Scholars’ Primer, focuses on language, grammar, poetry, and the ogham alphabet. Within this learned tradition, Ogma is credited with devising ogham (Calder, 1917).

This presents a very different side of the figure from the champion carrying firewood or throwing enormous stones around Tara. The medieval scholars responsible for the tradition were interested in language as a specialised area of knowledge. The Auraicept itself deals mainly with the ogham alphabet and grammar, while also belonging to the wider learned world of the filid, whose areas of knowledge included poetry (Calder, 1917).

The tradition that Ogma invented ogham should not be treated as a historical account of how the script actually developed. Instead, it preserves a medieval explanation of ogham’s beginnings and places them in a mythological past.

Archaeological ogham inscriptions and the medieval stories about the script’s invention are two very different forms of evidence. The inscriptions show the actual use of ogham in the past. The Auraicept is evidence of a later learned tradition which tells the story of its origin

Ogma and the Gaulish Ogmios

Ogma has also been compared with Ogmios, a figure described by the Greek writer Lucian of Samosata. The similarity between the names is immediately noticeable, but another feature has made the comparison particularly attractive: Ogmios is also associated with an unusual combination of physical power and language.

In Heracles, Lucian describes seeing an image of the Gaulish Ogmios represented as an elderly Heracles. The strange part is not the club, bow or lion skin, but the crowd following behind him. Fine chains of gold and amber run from the god’s tongue to his followers’ ears, yet none seems eager to escape (Lucian, 1905).

A Gaul explains the image’s meaning to Lucian. Heracles represents eloquence, while the chains symbolise persuasive speech’s ability to draw people willingly toward the speaker. His age also has meaning, with eloquence presented as something that improves with experience (Lucian, 1905).

It’s reasonable to compare Ogma with Ogmios, as both figures embody physical strength and language in some way. We have to be careful about the evidence, though. The reference to Ogmios appears in a Greek rhetorical text by Lucian; the Irish references to Ogma come from a very different time, place, and literary context. Lucian associates Ogmios with oratory, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Ogmios and the Irish Ogma were regarded as the same god (Lucian 1905).

The possible relationship remains interesting without requiring the two figures to be treated as identical.

Ogma in Contemporary Pagan Practice

Ogham, writing, poetry and spoken language provide some obvious starting points for modern Pagan approaches to Ogma. Cath Maige Tuired, however, also preserves the champion whose strength is repeatedly put to the test, so his literary character extends beyond his association with words and writing (Gray, 1982; Calder, 1917).

IThere’s simply not enough surviving evidence to allow us to reconstruct the actual form of the pre-Christian worship of Ogma. Our present-day devotional practices are therefore best understood as modern expressions of mythology and the medieval learned tradition, rather than as the continuation of a practice we can document.

Studying Ogham is one way to get involved. Learning more about the Irish language and poetry, developing your own writing or public speaking skills, or simply spending time with the stories that remain are all potentially worthwhile ways to engage with the traditions associated with him.

His physical strength should not be left out of the picture either. The Ogma of Cath Maige Tuired is not just the learned man of the ogham. He is the champion who carries the wood with Bres, the man who tests Lugh’s strength at Tara and the man who fights the Fomorians (Gray 1982). Any modern interpretation that focuses only on writing will miss much of the mythology that survives.

Strength, Language and a Complicated Ogma

Reducing Ogma to a neat list of attributes probably makes him less interesting. The warrior of Cath Maige Tuired and the inventor of ogham in the Auraicept come from texts doing quite different things. One tells a mythological battle story; the other belongs to a learned tradition concerned with language and writing (Gray, 1982; Calder, 1917).

The result is a figure with an unusual range. Ogma can throw a stone that would normally require teams of oxen to move, fight among the champions of the Túatha Dé Danann, and discover a sword that remembers the deeds of its previous owner. Elsewhere in medieval tradition, his name becomes attached to the invention of ogham.

Comparing Ogmios brings in another interesting aspect, even if it doesn’t answer every question. Lucian’s unusual image of followers willingly led by chains from a god’s tongue shows another tradition where strength and eloquence are closely linked (Lucian, 1905).

Ogma is probably best left with some of those rough edges intact. The surviving sources don’t provide a perfectly consistent character, and forcing them to agree risks losing what makes the material interesting. What survives instead is a champion whose extraordinary strength sits alongside a later learned tradition concerned with speech, letters and knowledge.

References and Further Reading

Calder, G. (ed. and trans.) (1917) Auraicept na n-Éces: The Scholars’ Primer. Edinburgh: John Grant. Available at: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T502003.html

Gray, E.A. (ed. and trans.) (1982) Cath Maige Tuired: The Second Battle of Mag Tuired. Irish Texts Society, No. 52. Available at: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T300010.html

Lucian of Samosata (1905) ‘Heracles, an Introductory Lecture’, trans. H.W. Fowler and F.G. Fowler, in The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. III. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Available at: https://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=home:texts_and_library:essays:heracles