Meaning
Reed is the most debated month of the calendar. The kenning of its letter is "a physician's strength", in Calder's translation, and the Auraicept explains it with a different plant: "A physician's strength is broom". The kenning may point to a plant used in healing; the tract does not say more.
Our reading takes searching perception from this: people born in this month are read as drawn to what lies under the surface and to finding things out. The reading is ours.
The letter
nGéadal is the third letter of the third group: three strokes across the stemline at a slant. In Modern Irish the name is written with a small n and a capital G; the Old Irish form is gétal, which probably means slaying, and Graves spells it Ngetal. Its sound in the earliest inscriptions is still debated.
Where the reed came from
The medieval tracts do not give this letter the reed. The Auraicept glosses it gilcach, which Calder translates "broom or fern", and the Ogam Tract glosses it broom. The reed comes from Roderick O'Flaherty, who in 1685 glossed the letter "Gilcach, vel Raid" with the Latin words for reed and cane, and Graves followed him. In Modern Irish giolcach is the word for reed, and broom is giolcach shléibhe, "mountain giolcach". The claim that reeds were revered and used for writing tools has no source at all.
In Graves' year
Reed runs from 28 October to 24 November, 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 physician's strength is broom" (Calder 1917, p. 93) sourced
- The Ogam Tract's gloss
- broom. 'Reed' is not in the medieval tracts: it comes from O'Flaherty's 1685 list (S2), which Graves followed (C106) (Calder 1917, p. 277) sourced
- O'Flaherty's gloss (1685)
- Ngetal, commonly Gilcach or Redd, the reed sourced
- How the letter is tied to the tree
- Contested: the medieval tract glosses the letter differently disputed
- Colour and bird words for the letter (a medieval curiosity)
- Colour: nglas, "green"; bird: ngéigh, "goose". Words that begin with the letter, like the tract's lists of churches; not the tree's colour or animal sourced
- Our reading
- The most debated month: drawn to what lies under the surface and to finding things out. our construction
How the schools read it
- The medieval tracts
- The kenning "a physician's strength"; the Auraicept glosses the letter broom or fern (gilcach).
- O'Flaherty, 1685
- Ngetal, commonly Gilcach or Redd, the reed.
- Graves, 1948
- The twelfth month, 28 October to 24 November.
- Ogham scholarship
- gétal probably means slaying; the reed is not the tracts' gloss.
- Tree-sign websites
- The same dates; a planet, gemstone, animal and personality title, all modern. Not used here.
- EsoTerrier
- The most debated month: drawn to what lies under the surface and to finding things out.
Claims about it
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The reed is the tree of the letter nGéadal.
disputedWhat the record shows: The Auraicept glosses the letter as broom or fern and the Ogam Tract as broom; the name itself probably means slaying. The reed comes from O'Flaherty's list of 1685, which Graves followed.
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The reed was revered for its roots and used to make writing tools.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: No source found. Nothing in the medieval tracts or in Graves' sources says so. Not used.
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The Reed 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.
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The Reed month has a traditional planet, element, gemstone and animal.
falseWhat the record shows: Modern additions: the planets are Helena Paterson's (1992), the rest come from later web lists that disagree with one another. None is medieval or in Graves as a set.
