The Celtic World (Routledge Worlds)

(Barry) #1

  • Chapter Thirty-Seven -


IACITI CVNOMORI FIUVS (Castle Dore, Cornwall: the first occurrence of the name
of Tristan).
19 At least 125 are known in Kerry, over 80 in Cork, 47 in Waterford and a few to the north
(Hamlin 1982: 283). It has been recently argued that ogam may have developed earlier, in
the first or second century (Stephenson 1989; Harvey 1990).
20 A medieval key to the script can be found in the fourteenth-fifteenth-century manuscript
The Book of Ballymote. Ogam has sometimes been found scratched onto portable
materials such as slate, bone or metal, along a drawn stem-line.
21 For example, DOTETTO MAQI MAGLANI, 'The stone of Dottetto, son of Maglani',
from Aghascrebagh, Co. Tyrone.
22 That from Bressay, Shetland, has an inscription on its sides reading upwards: CRROSCC:
NAHHTVVDDADDS:DATTRR:ANNI BENNISES:MEQQDDRROANN. Crosse or
cross and maqq (of the son of) are Gaelic words, while dattr is the Norse word for
daughter. The other words are believed to be Pictish with punctuation borrowed from
Norse runes and double consonants of Irish ogam, indicating a Christian community
speaking a very mixed dialect.
23 Literacy may have been passed on by meetings held at outdoor meeting places. On the
sixth-century pillar stone from Kilmalkedar, Co. Kerry, the letters of the alphabet have
been added vertically to the original stone carving, namely a cross with spiral terminals
and DNI (Domini).
24 For example an altar from Loughor, West Glamorgan, with a damaged ogam inscription
on one angle and a milestone from Port Talbot, with a sixth-century inscription
commemorating CANTVSVS PATER PAUUNVS ('Here lies Cantusus. His father was
Paulinus').
25 For example, on rona Torridonian sandstone from the shore to the east of the Abbey, and
mica schists from the Ross of Mull are used, together with large blocks from mainland
Argyll more suitable for the freestanding crosses; in Glamorgan, South Wales, local
Pennant sandstone is often used; different types of stone may sometimes used for head and
shaft, as on the Carew cross, Dyfed.
26 The decoration on some stone appears incomplete, indicating possible haste in erecting the
monument (e.g. Llandyfaelog Fach, Powys).
27 Kuli has been tentatively identified with Coli in the Hebrides, and Gaut as the son of a
Hebridean Norseman who had moved to the Isle of Man.
28 The 'Pillar of Eliseg' (Valle Crucis, Powys) actually records the person responsible
for writing the text of the inscription: + CONMARCH PINXIT HOCI CHI-
ROGRAF(I)U(M) REGE SUO POSCENTE ('Conmarch wrote (literally 'painted')
this text at the command of his king'). An elaborate cross was carved over an earlier
inscription on a stone from Defynnog (Powys), which would have been hard to see clearly
unless the earlier inscription had been whitewashed over, and the carving coloured.
29 As at Ardwall Island, Holm of Noss (Shetland), and Staplegorton (Dumfries).
30 Such as the spiked feet on the outline cross set in the buttress of the church at
Llangeinwen, Gwynedd.
31 In Wales, for example, the Latin name CATAMANUS on the Cadfan stone from
Llangadwaladr, Gwynedd (ECMW 13), is described as REX SAPIENTIS(S)I/MUS
OPINATISSIM/US OMNIUM REG/UM ('wisest and most renowned of all kings'). The
stone may have been erected after his death by his grandson Cadwaladwr, who died in 664.
The early inscription from Aberdaron, Gwynedd, is inscribed VERACIVS PBR HIC
IACIT ('Here lies the priest Veracius'); one from Kirkmadrine, Galloway, is inscribed
HIC IACENTI SCI ET PRAEI CIPVI SACERI DOTES ID ESTI VIVENTIVSI ET
MAVORIVS ('Here lie the holy (sancti) and outstanding priests (sacerdotes) .. .').


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