Meaning
Rowan is a small, hardy tree of hillsides and high ground, bright with red berries in autumn. The kenning of its letter is "delight of eye", in Calder's translation, and the Auraicept explains it by the tree: "Delight of eye is mountain-ash, i.e., rowan, owing to the beauty of its berries".
Our reading takes a watchful, protective eye from this. People born in this month are read as quick to see what others miss and inclined to guard what is beautiful. The reading is ours; nothing in the sources says what a person born in these weeks is like.
The letter
Luis is the second letter: two strokes to the right of the stemline. Its Old Irish name is luis, which probably meant a flame or a herb; the meaning is uncertain, and it is not a tree name. The Auraicept glosses it as rowan, but the Ogam Tract, in the same manuscript, glosses it as elm: the medieval scholars never fixed one tree per letter. O'Flaherty in 1685 gave it the rowan, and Graves followed him.
Rowan in folklore
Rowan against harm is well-attested custom. Irish schoolchildren recorded in 1937 and 1938 that rowan was hung over the door, over the cattle in their stalls or on the churn on May Eve, against the fairies and for a blessing. In Scotland rowan boughs were carried into the byres in May to guard the cattle, and English folklore used rowan against witches' spells. These are customs people kept, told here as custom, not as powers of the tree. Some websites give the rowan an English folk name that no early or Irish source has; we leave it out.
In Graves' year
Rowan is Graves' second month, 21 January to 17 February, and every list of the tree months agrees on its dates. Tree-sign websites give it a planet, a gemstone and an animal; our own engine once even gave it a unicorn that no list has. These modern correspondences, after Paterson (1992) and later lists, 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
- "Delight of eye is mountain-ash, i.e., rowan, owing to the beauty of its berries" (Calder 1917, p. 91) sourced
- The Ogam Tract's gloss
- elm (lem) (Calder 1917, p. 277) sourced
- O'Flaherty's gloss (1685)
- Luis, commonly Caertheann, the wild ash (mountain ash, rowan) 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: liath, "grey"; bird: lachu, "duck". Words that begin with the letter, like the tract's lists of churches; not the tree's colour or animal sourced
- Our reading
- A small tree of high ground bright with berries: quick to see what others miss, inclined to guard what is beautiful. our construction
How the schools read it
- The medieval tracts
- The kenning "delight of eye"; the Auraicept glosses the letter rowan.
- O'Flaherty, 1685
- Luis, commonly Caertheann, the wild ash (mountain ash, rowan).
- Graves, 1948
- The second month, 21 January to 17 February.
- Ogham scholarship
- luis means probably flame or herb (uncertain); 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
- A small tree of high ground bright with berries: quick to see what others miss, inclined to guard what is beautiful.
Claims about it
-
The letter name Luis means rowan.
falseWhat the record shows: The name probably meant a flame or a herb. Rowan is the medieval scholars' gloss, and another copy of the tract glosses the letter as elm.
-
The rowan's animal is the unicorn.
falseWhat the record shows: A copy slip in our own engine before October 2026: no list gives the rowan a unicorn, which the web lists give to holly. All animals were dropped.
-
The Rowan 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.
-
The Rowan 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.
