Eadhadh is the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

name of the nineteenth letter of the

Ogham Ogham (Modern Irish: ; mga, ogum, ogom, later mga, ogam, label=none ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish langua ...

alphabet, ᚓ. In

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writt ...

, the letter name was Edad. Its phonetic value is The original meaning of the letter name is unknown, but it is likely an artificially altered pairing with Idad, much like Gothic '' pairþra, qairþra.''

Interpretation

The

kennings A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English p ...

for this letter value are quite cryptic. Medieval "arboreal" glossators assign ''crand fir no crithach'' "'true tree' or

aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China ...

" (''Crann Creathach'' in

modern Irish Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was the ...

) to this letter, though this has little to recommend it by way of either the kennings or the etymology. McManus suggests an original value of

Primitive Irish Primitive Irish or Archaic Irish ( ga, Gaeilge Ársa), also called Proto-Goidelic, is the oldest known form of the Goidelic languages. It is known only from fragments, mostly personal names, inscribed on stone in the ogham alphabet in Ireland ...

''*eburas,'' from the

Proto-Celtic Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly Linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed through the compar ...

*''eburo-'' probably originally meaning "rowan". This is the root of the

''ibar'' which refers (with qualifications) to a number of different evergreen trees. He makes sense of the kennings for ''edad'' in relation to its pairing with ''idad''. Given ''éo'' as the likely

word for "yew tree" (see idad) and the variant forms of

''é/éo'' "salmon", we can understand the "exchange of friends" kenning; at the time the kenning was constructed this would have been understood as a word play involving exchange of meaning between the paired ''edad'' (''é/éo'' salmon because of the value of the letter and ''idad'' (''éo'' yew). Medieval glossators on ''edad'' also suggested a connection to the discerning '

Salmon of Wisdom The Salmon of Knowledge ( ga, An Bradán Feasa) is a creature in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology, sometimes identified with Fintan mac Bóchra, who was known as "The Wise" and was once transformed into a salmon. Fenian Cycle The Salmon sto ...

'. McManus also suggests that "brother of birch" may be a kenning erroneously displaced to the penultimate of the original twenty letters, from the penultimate forfeda which had an original letter name ''pín'' that when changed later to ''ifín'' necessitated the invention of peithe also called ''beithe bog'' "soft ''beithe''", hence "brother of birch". This is informed conjecture, however, and will probably not be resolved unless a full complement of kennings from the ''Con'' ''Culainn'' tradition is ever discovered (at present their values for many of the

forfeda The ''forfeda'' (sing. ''forfid'') are the "additional" letters of the Ogham alphabet, beyond the basic inventory of twenty signs. Their name derives from ''fid'' ("wood", a term also used for Ogham letters) and the prefix ''for-'' ("additional") ...

for that tradition are unattested). It could also simply be that ''beithe'' is to ''peithe'' (a rhyming pair of ogham letters) as ''edad'' is to ''idad,'' and that ''edad'' is brother of ''beithe'' for this reason.

Bríatharogam

In the medieval kennings, called '' Bríatharogaim'' or ''Word Ogham'' the verses associated with ''edad'' are: ''érgnaid fid'' - "discerning tree/chap" in the ''Bríatharogam'' ''Morann mic Moín'' ''commaín carat'' - "exchange of friends" in the ''Bríatharogam'' ''Mac ind Óc'' ''bráthair bethi'' (?) - "brother of birch (?)" in the ''Bríatharogam'' ''Con'' ''Culainn''. Auraicept na n-Éces Calder, George, Edinburgh, John Grant (1917), reprint Four Courts Press (1995),

References

{{Reflist Ogham letters