Uilleand - Really unexpected levels of meaning
Uilleand, Uillean is the third of the fifth aicme - the forfeda. It is extremely thin in terms of lore. Erynn Laurie lists the kennings for this as "fragrant tree, fragrant wood", "great elbow, great cubit" and "juicy wood." Plants honeysuckle/woodbine (they are the same). I had worked on woodbine for ebad, so it seemed that the "great elbow, great cubit" might be the more interesting approach.
My father was a carpenter, so my first inclination was to look at this letter in terms of the carpenter's square. A deceptively simple instrument, its really all that's needed in terms of measuring tools to build a house. It was well known in antiquity and could have easily been known to the Celtic druidic class if not their tradesmen.
Carpenter square symbolism abounds. Of course, Jesus was a carpenter, so the square could be a symbol for Jesus and is in fact part of the Catholic church's iconography for St. Joseph. The Mason's used the square as half of the their primary symbol. The square was the Earth and the compass was the heaven with God the architect. There is some wonderfully florid prose from a masonic text that goes into this at length, but is probably not relevant for interpreting the letter.
While the square is still a possibility, the angle is wrong. If the angle were true, the whole point of a carpenter's square, then the letter would look like a beith, huath or some sort of K. The object with the correct angle, also known from antiquity, is the sundial gnomon. The picture for this post, the Pinawa Heritage Sundial has the correct angle for uilleand. Now a few words from pythagorean theory
The Online Encyclopedia reference for Pythagorean yields this paragraph on gnomons (with annoying links removed). (if this is too dense, just skip - I haven't had geometry for 100 years either)
283) . Gnomon is also an instrument for measuring altitudes, by means of which the meridian can be found; it denotes, further, the index or style of a sundial, the shadow of which points out the hours . In geometry it means the square or rectangle about the diagonal of a square or rectangle, together with the two complements, on account of the resemblance of the figure to a carpenter's square; and then, more generally, the similar figure with regard to any parallelogram, as defined by Euclid II. def . 2 . Again, in a still more general signification, it means the figure which, being added to any figure, preserves the original form . See Heron, Definitiones (59) . When gnomons are added successively in this manner to a square monad, the first gnomon may be regarded as that consisting of three square monads, and is indeed the constituent of a simple Greek fret; the second of five square monads, &c.; hence we have the gnomonic numbers.
There are a number of really interesting things here (at least to me). The first is the resemblance to a carpenter's square.
The second is the business about the simple greek fret, which looks like this
This looks exactly like the letter itself. Sundials were were known to be found in graveyards in Ireland ca. 650 CE (from The Book of Sun-Dials Margaret Scott Gatty). The author notes of the graveyard at KilMalkedur "This shaft is ornamented with a Greek fret . . " (Incidentally, there is at least one ogam pillar in this graveyard).
There is the element of time and the measurement of time. The relation to the sun is also evocative. Gatty and some other authors link this to an 8 spoked sun shape. The letter is also a third of a triskellion - a symbol used by the Irish from megalithic times on. The position in a graveyard may also point to resurrection, perhaps conflated in these early times with rebirth. Certainly the sun is reborn every day, after all.
There are two threads of this letter that draw me intuitively. One thread is measurement and planning whether an individual mundane plan or the entire cosmic plan. The other thread is rebirth -whether symbolic or actual.
There's more to excavate here probably, but this is as far as intuition has led me.
Addendum - From Folklore Journal - Sept 1893
22. When in a graveyard it is customary to walk as much as
possible "with the sun", with the right hand towards centre of
circle.
Sundials, sunwise and graveyards. Perhaps a bit of circumstantial evidence of this letter and resurrection/rebirth.
david
/|\
My father was a carpenter, so my first inclination was to look at this letter in terms of the carpenter's square. A deceptively simple instrument, its really all that's needed in terms of measuring tools to build a house. It was well known in antiquity and could have easily been known to the Celtic druidic class if not their tradesmen.
Carpenter square symbolism abounds. Of course, Jesus was a carpenter, so the square could be a symbol for Jesus and is in fact part of the Catholic church's iconography for St. Joseph. The Mason's used the square as half of the their primary symbol. The square was the Earth and the compass was the heaven with God the architect. There is some wonderfully florid prose from a masonic text that goes into this at length, but is probably not relevant for interpreting the letter.
While the square is still a possibility, the angle is wrong. If the angle were true, the whole point of a carpenter's square, then the letter would look like a beith, huath or some sort of K. The object with the correct angle, also known from antiquity, is the sundial gnomon. The picture for this post, the Pinawa Heritage Sundial has the correct angle for uilleand. Now a few words from pythagorean theory
The Online Encyclopedia reference for Pythagorean yields this paragraph on gnomons (with annoying links removed). (if this is too dense, just skip - I haven't had geometry for 100 years either)
283) . Gnomon is also an instrument for measuring altitudes, by means of which the meridian can be found; it denotes, further, the index or style of a sundial, the shadow of which points out the hours . In geometry it means the square or rectangle about the diagonal of a square or rectangle, together with the two complements, on account of the resemblance of the figure to a carpenter's square; and then, more generally, the similar figure with regard to any parallelogram, as defined by Euclid II. def . 2 . Again, in a still more general signification, it means the figure which, being added to any figure, preserves the original form . See Heron, Definitiones (59) . When gnomons are added successively in this manner to a square monad, the first gnomon may be regarded as that consisting of three square monads, and is indeed the constituent of a simple Greek fret; the second of five square monads, &c.; hence we have the gnomonic numbers.
There are a number of really interesting things here (at least to me). The first is the resemblance to a carpenter's square.
The second is the business about the simple greek fret, which looks like this
This looks exactly like the letter itself. Sundials were were known to be found in graveyards in Ireland ca. 650 CE (from The Book of Sun-Dials Margaret Scott Gatty). The author notes of the graveyard at KilMalkedur "This shaft is ornamented with a Greek fret . . " (Incidentally, there is at least one ogam pillar in this graveyard).
There is the element of time and the measurement of time. The relation to the sun is also evocative. Gatty and some other authors link this to an 8 spoked sun shape. The letter is also a third of a triskellion - a symbol used by the Irish from megalithic times on. The position in a graveyard may also point to resurrection, perhaps conflated in these early times with rebirth. Certainly the sun is reborn every day, after all.
There are two threads of this letter that draw me intuitively. One thread is measurement and planning whether an individual mundane plan or the entire cosmic plan. The other thread is rebirth -whether symbolic or actual.
There's more to excavate here probably, but this is as far as intuition has led me.
Addendum - From Folklore Journal - Sept 1893
22. When in a graveyard it is customary to walk as much as
possible "with the sun", with the right hand towards centre of
circle.
Sundials, sunwise and graveyards. Perhaps a bit of circumstantial evidence of this letter and resurrection/rebirth.
david
/|\