“Three landmarks of Erin, thou seest, are shorn of their strength, the Tree of Ross, the mighty Tree of Mugna, and the red sided Tree of Tortu.”
Ogham Divination
In Part IV of _The Metrical Dindshenchas_ translated by Edward Gwynn
There were five trees in all: The Tree of Ross, the Tree of Mugna and the Tree of Tortu, the three listed above, a Yew, an Oak, and an Ash, respectively. The other two were the Ash of Dathí and the Ash of Usnech. In the dindshenchas about Bile Tortan, it is likened to the entire tribe and is mourned in a way that suggests that The Morrigan has harvested their sons like firewood:
“The woman who loosed their fair locks, many a trim sandal hath she loosed: gleefully she laughed at the felling of Tort’s Tree.”
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Searles O'Dubhain
Searles O’Dubhain is an American Celtic scholar, writer and story teller who has been practicing Druidry for over 30 years. Searles created ‘The Summerlands’, one of the very first beloved online Celtic pagan communities in the early 90’s. He additionally published ‘Ogham Divination’, that lays a detailed and creative pathway of recreating and discovering the ancient ways of the Druids. This and much more available on his website.
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