DeDanaan

Newspeak : Newspeak is the official language of Oceania in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. The purposes and principles are described in great detail in an appendix to the book. Its creators invented new words, and also threw out many old words that the dictatorship thought were undesirable. An example of Newspeak is “Reporting bb dayorder doubleplusungood refs unpersons rewrite fullwise upsub antefiling.” Translated into ordinary English, this would read “The reporting of Big Brother’s Order for the Day. . . is extremely unsatisfactory and makes references to nonexistent persons. Rewrite it in full and submit your draft to higher authority before filing.”

1984 : 1984 is a novel by George Orwell (1949), which takes place in the world of the future, where people and resources are being destroyed in a continuing war between dictators. Winston Smith lives in the bleak, rotting remains of London, where only public buildings and the homes of Inner Party members are pleasant. There are no luxuries, everything is rationed, all books have been outlawed, and citizens are killed for saying or doing anything against the ruling Party. Each living space has a large television screen that can see and hear what happens, and cannot be turned off. Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, where he changes newspaper copy to conform to the orders of “Big Brother,” the Party leader. By chance he finds a small shop where Mr. Charrington rents a bedroom furnished in the old style, without a watching telescreen. When Winston falls in love with Julia, they must meet in secret at Charrington’s because the Party disapproves of physical attraction between people. Movies of 1984 were made in 1956 and 1984.

Oberon : Oberon first appears as a character in medieval French legend as the son of Julius Caesar (100-44BC) and Morgan le Fay. He is also possibly descended from Alberich, king of the Elves in Germanic legend. Oberon is only three feet tall, with an angelic face. The fairies gave him the power to look into people’s thoughts and the ability to go anywhere instantly. The Oberon known best was created by William Shakespeare, who may have read about him in James IV (1598), a play about Scottish history by Robert Greene (1558-1592). In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon is king of the fairies and husband of Titania. Because Oberon has quarreled with his queen, he contrives magic spells to cause Titania to fall in love with a comic weaver, Bottom. His magic also complicates, mixes up, and then unscrambles the four young human lovers in the play.

Pan : Pan is the Greek mythological god of woods and fields, flocks and herds, and shepherds and huntsmen. Since in Greek “pan” means “all or everything,” the god Pan pervades all things, including food or fertility. He is the son of either Mercury or Jupiter or even various other parents. Though he walks upright, he has horns, legs, and a tail like a goat’s, while his head, arms, and chest are like a man’s. His musical pipe — which he is credited with inventing — is called “syrinx” and is named for a nymph who was changed into a reed to escape Pan’s advances. His companions are often satyrs, half-man, half-horselike creatures. Pan was worshipped as a nature deity and so is one of the most ancient of the Greek gods. The Greek festivals to Pan were later taken over by the Romans, who identified him with the nature spirit Faunus. You use his name when you say the word “panic,” for, though he was considered a good guy, he was said to frighten lonely travelers who thought the strange sounds they heard at night were made by him.

Heaven : In most religions and mythologies there is a place to which it is believed the souls, or even the bodies, of the deserving go after death. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all picture heaven as the abode of God, where all worthy souls find eternal peace. In ancient pagan Greek religion the gods took dead heroes to the Elysian Fields in the distant west at the edge of the world. In Celtic legend the Fortunate Isles, or Isles of the Blest, or Tir nA nOg, somewhere on the Western Ocean, is the home of the gods, who welcome the souls of heroes. In Norse mythology Valhalla is the place warriors go after death, and they are welcomed there by the Valkyrie. The word “heaven” appears in many common expressions. When you are very happy you are “in seventh heaven”; but, if you are a bit annoyed, you say, “For heaven’s sake, hurry up!”

Hell : In Christian belief, hell is the eternal dwelling place of the souls of sinners. It is related to the Jewish concept of Sheol, the abode of all dead, and also to Hades. In Greek mythology Hades (or Pluto) was the ruler of the underworld of the dead. Later the place itself, gloomy but not a place of punishment like the later Christian hell, became known as Hades. Islam has a similar hell. The Christian Hell figures in many works of literature, notably in Dante Alighiri’s The Divine Comedy and in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. The word appears in many common expressions, as in “going to hell in a handbasket,” meaning that a person is rapidly deteriorating in one way or another, and “the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” meaning that your deeds speak louder than your words.

Celtic Cross : The Celtic cross is essentially a traditional Christian cross with a circle overlying the point where the lines meet. This symbol evolved in the British Isles, and the earliest forms date from the seventh to ninth centuries in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. The oldest Celtic crosses were carved into large slabs of rock that lay flat on the ground. Later versions stand in an upright position, with rock carved away from the cross. Tenth-century Irish crosses were sometimes capped with a pitched roof. Celtic crosses were often decorated with interlaced knot work, spirals, key patterns, animal figures, foliage designs, and Biblical stories. Some crosses were memorials, inscribed with names of individuals; modern Celtic crosses are often used as tombstones in Irish churchyards.

Also see this excellent page by metalsmith Stephen Walker.

Ogham (Old Irish Ogam, from Middle Irish ogom, ogum) was an alphabet used primarily to represent Gaelic languages that was probably often written in wood in early times. The main flowering of the use of “classical” Ogham in stone seems to be 5th–6th century AD. Monumental Ogham inscriptions are found in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, and the Isle of Man, mainly employed as territorial markers and memorials. The more ancient examples are standing stones, script being carved into the edge (droim or faobhar) of the stone, which forms a stemline against which individual characters are cut. Text is read beginning from the bottom left-hand side of a stone, continuing upward, across the top and down the right-hand side in the case of long inscriptions. Inscriptions written on stemlines cut into the face of the stone, instead of along its edge, are known as “scholastic”, and are of a later date (post 7th century). Notes were also commonly written in Ogham in manuscripts down to the sixteenth century.

Ogham Alphabet

Some people have theorized that Ogham could also be used as a secret gestural cypher, because of its structure: the fingers of one hand, using the nose or shin or any other “straight” edge as a stemline could, it is suggested, be used to signal individual Ogham letters, which, it is asserted, could be readily read by an Ogham practitioner. There doesn’t appear to be any evidence to support this theory.

The Ogham alphabet consists of twenty-five distinct characters (feda), the first twenty of which are considered to be primary, the last five (forfeda) supplementary. The four primary series are called aicmí (plural of aicme “family”). Each aicme was named after its first character (Aicme Beithe, Aicme hÚatha, Aicme Muine, Aicme Ailme, “the B Group”, “the H Group”, “the M Group”, “the A Group”). Some of the names and all of the values of the forfeda are open to question.

Ogham is sometimes referred to as the “Celtic Tree Alphabet“.

Beith (BEH), birch - The silver birch (Betula pendula Roth)
Luis (LWEESH), rowan - The rowan, or mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia L.)
Fearn (FAIR-n), alder - The common alder (Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertner)
Sail (SAHL), willow - 60+ types of willow (Salicaceae; Salix sp.)
Nion (NEE-uhn), ash - the common ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.)
Uath or hÚath (OO-ah), hawthorn - The common hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna Jacq.)
Dair (DAH-r), oak - The great oak (Quercus robur L.)
Tinne (CHIN-yuh), holly - The holly (Ilex aquifolium L.) or holly oak (Quercus ilex L.)
Coll (CULL), hazel - The hazel (Corylus avellana L)
Ceirt (KAIRT), apple - The European crabapple (Malus sylvestris Miller)
Muin (MUHN, like “foot”), vine - The grape (Vitis vinifera L.)
Gort (GORT), ivy - Ivy (Hedera helix L.)
nGéadal or Ngetal (NYEH-dl), reed - The common reed (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steudel)
Straif (STRAHF), blackthorn - The blackthorn (Prunus spinosa L.), sloe
Ruis (RWEESH), elder - The common elder (Sambucus nigra L.)
Ailm (AHL-m), silver fir - The silver fir (Abies alba Miller)
Onn (UHN), furze - Furze, or gorse (Ulex europaeus L.)
Úr (OOR), heather - Heather (Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull)
Eadhadh (EH-wah), poplar - The aspen (Populus tremula L.)
Iodhadh (EE-wah), yew - The yew (Taxus baccata L.)

Primitive Irish is the oldest known form of the Irish language, known only from fragments, mostly personal names, inscribed on stone in the ogham alphabet in Ireland and western Britain up to about the 4th century.

Transcribed Ogham inscriptions show Primitive Irish to be Old Celtic in character, lacking the letter P, and in morphology and inflections similar to Gaulish, Latin, Classical Greek or Sanskrit. It has few of the distinctive characteristics of modern Irish and is difficult to recognise as a form of Irish.

By contrast, Old Irish, written from the 6th century on, is recognisably Irish, complete with initial mutations, distinct “broad” and “slender” consonants, the letter P, consonant clusters created by the loss of unstressed syllables, along with a number of significant vowel and consonant changes.

Ages of Man

The Ages of Man are the stages of human existence on the Earth according to Classical mythology.

In his Works and Days, the Boeotian poet Hesiod described Five Ages of Man:

* The Golden Age - This took place during the reign of Cronus. Peace and harmony prevailed during this age. Humans did not grow old, but died peacefully. Spring was eternal and people were fed on acorns from a great oak as well as wild fruits and honey that dripped from the trees. This race eventually died out.
* The Silver Age - These people lived for one hundred years as children without growing up, then they suddenly aged and died. Zeus destroyed these people because of their impiety.
* The Bronze Age - These humans were fierce and warlike and their tools and implements were made of bronze. They destroyed one another in wars.
* The Heroic Age - In this period lived noble demigods and heroes. This race of humans died and went to Elysium.
* The Iron Age - This is the current age where humans bicker and fight, and have to struggle to eke out their existence. Zeus will someday destroy this race of humans. In Roman literature the Iron Age is commonly regarded as a time of decline from the great literature and culture of the Heroic age, beginning after the taking of Rome by the Goths, 410 AD. Through Greek and Assyrian oral tradition iron production was believed to have begun with the discovery of iron near the mineral-rich region north of Assyria.

In Metamorphoses, Ovid followed a similar tradition, translated into Roman terms. Ovid described Four Ages of Man: Golden, Silver, Brazen, and Iron.

These mythological ages are sometimes associated with historical timelines. In particular, the Bronze Age and Iron Age are well-known eras in archaeology, which may have some relation to the mythology.