Meaning
Holly keeps its glossy, spiny leaves through the winter, green when most trees are bare. The kenning of its letter is a single word, trian, "a third". Calder does not translate it: his note reads "another thing the meaning of that to-day", so "a third" is the plain sense of the word and our gloss, not his. The Auraicept explains it as a third of a wheel: "a third of a wheel is holly, that is, because holly is one of the three timbers of the chariot-wheel". That is a medieval scholar's explanation, not a finding of archaeology.
Our reading takes constancy from the tree: people born in this month are read as resolute and direct, ready to stand up for what they value and to stay true to themselves whatever the season. The reading is ours.
The letter
Tinne is the third letter of the second group: three strokes to the left of the stemline. Its Old Irish name tinne means a bar of metal; it is not a tree name. The Auraicept glosses it as holly, cuileann; the Ogam Tract offers holly or elderberry. O'Flaherty in 1685 said that no explanation of this letter was given.
The Holly King
Modern pages say the holly rules the waning half of the year in a contest with the oak. The Oak King and the Holly King are Graves' own reading, taken up by later Wicca; no Irish source has them. In Graves' trees of the week the holly goes with Mars and Tuesday.
In Graves' year
Holly runs from 8 July to 4 August, the same in every list of the tree months. The planet, gemstone, animal and personality title that tree-sign websites give it are modern, after Paterson (1992) and later lists, and are not used here.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- The Auraicept's explanation
- "a third of a wheel is holly, that is, because holly is one of the three timbers of the chariot-wheel" (Calder 1917, p. 91) sourced
- The Ogam Tract's gloss
- holly or elderberry (cuileann no trom) (Calder 1917, p. 277) sourced
- O'Flaherty's gloss (1685)
- Tinne: "the explanation of this letter is not given" sourced
- How the letter is tied to the tree
- A medieval gloss: the name means something else sourced
- Colour and bird words for the letter (a medieval curiosity)
- Colour: temen, "dark grey"; bird: truith, "starling". Words that begin with the letter, like the tract's lists of churches; not the tree's colour or animal sourced
- Our reading
- Green when most trees are bare: resolute and direct, standing up for what it values whatever the season. our construction
How the schools read it
- The medieval tracts
- The kenning "a third"; the Auraicept glosses the letter holly (cuileann).
- O'Flaherty, 1685
- Tinne: "the explanation of this letter is not given".
- Graves, 1948
- The eighth month, 8 July to 4 August.
- Ogham scholarship
- tinne means a bar of metal; the tree is a learned gloss.
- Tree-sign websites
- The same dates; a planet, gemstone, animal and personality title, all modern. Not used here.
- EsoTerrier
- Green when most trees are bare: resolute and direct, standing up for what it values whatever the season.
Claims about it
-
The letter name Tinne means holly.
falseWhat the record shows: Tinne means a bar of metal. Holly is the medieval gloss, and the Ogam Tract offers holly or elderberry.
-
Holly was used for chariot wheels.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: This is the Auraicept's explanation of the kenning, a medieval scholar's gloss, not an archaeological finding.
-
The holly rules the waning half of the year.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: The contest of an Oak King and a Holly King is Graves' own reading, taken up by later Wicca. No Irish source has it.
-
The Holly month belongs to an old Celtic calendar that the Druids kept.
falseWhat the record shows: No ancient or medieval source has a tree calendar or a tree for each birthday. The thirteen months are Robert Graves', set out in 1948.
