A Clash of Titans (p.053)

Okay, I confess I am not certain what Oghme is the god of; but even as a god, is it wise to attack a goddess of battle?

Regardless, a battle between gods will be interesting. I gotta go find some fight music now...

@JediWolfSister : Well, we confess we don't know for sure either. This is the interesting thing about Oghme. Most antique gods tend to represent multiple functions, but one among these, always is illustrated in a well known myth in an examplary way. This function is then assumed to be the god's main function.
Oghme is brother to Dagda, who got "all the good" life has to offer. Oghme rather assumes the position of obscure second. Apart from the fact that he supposedly invented the Ogham scripture (which we assume he did, in the comics) he is called by many different names : Labraid (the Eloquent), Celtchard (the Cunning), Elcmar (the envious one), and then he's also called Oghme in the battles of Mag Tured. Only, this very name, "oghme", is likely to be of Greek origins. Oghme also seems to have strong links with the wolves (animals). And the name for wolfs was, in Celtic languages, taboo. This could account for the God's main name in all the written texts being of Greek origins. His real name was a well kept secret.
But the most striking thing of all, which almost never is stressed in any study, is that Oghme is indeed a great fighter. He fights in the battles of Mag Tured. He dies several times. Yup, several times. Which implies that this has to do with his "function".
Now, all what follows is entirely our interpretation : to us, as a character in these comic books, Oghme is the God of "oaths", a dark fighting god whose name you wouldn't speak, and most of all, the god of "dying in combat". The god each warrior is linked to as soon as he embraces the choice of arms, for he has to accept the fact that he's likely to die in battle, and face it bravely when the time has come.
The best historical example is the Samurai code.

@DuchessRed : Yeah Juno Reactor !! Agreed

@Cathbad: It's always such a wonderful bonus when you offer these informational gems... ^.^

Something between "Splat" and "Urk!", maybe?

If you're after things Celtic but sources of mythology are few to non-existent, try your local library's archaeology department. The books may be listed as Reference and, as such, may have to be read in the library, but it's amazing some of the stuff you can find that never, ever makes its way into the mythos. Good, fun and surprising. Oh, and educational too.

@Roland from what I know of Odin he did collect the souls of fallen warriors to use as an army for Ragnarok, but he is also the god of knowledge. The god of battle role wasn't really enforced or thought of until the vikings came along. Odin gave up his eye for inner wisdom. He then hung himself on the world tree to gain the knowledge and power of the runes. Odin is a more mental god due to the fact his various functions are functions of the mind or require great power of the mind or will. Then again the Norse/Teutonic people gave brainwork and logic high priority because Odin was the head of the pantheon and he was mostly the god of wisdom, wit, logic, learning and magic. That was quite long winded, sorry for that.

@Cathbad: *squeak!*

all these roles of Odin are connected. Odin was indeed not just a god of fallen warriors or wisdom, but of death and of the insight that comes from the distance of death. By sacrificing himself to himself and hanging nine days in the tree he went to the realm of death and came back. sacrificing his eye fulfilled the same purpose. Odin was in fact The Great Shaman. Reaching the realm of the dead and looking back onto the living is the typical rite of shamanism. Knud Rasmussen watched this in extremo with inuit shamans who choked their assistant/medium repeatedly until pulse and respiration stopped, then waited up to ten minutes before reanimating them! When the assistant was able to talk again he/she told a vision from the spirit world.
Back to Odin: He was the inventor of "seid", the shaman magic practicioned by the norse, as well as the creator of the runes, signs of knowledge and wisdom. He was the god of berserk, when warriors gained unearthly powers, but later he collected the debt for this gift (In our area he was called "Wotan", the raging one). He was accompanied by corpse-eating animals who plundered the battlefields (wolves and ravens), and his eight-legged horse sleipnir seems to resemble the four men carrying a corpse. So he was not the god of war but the god of doomed warriors. You understand, when the spear was thrown over the enemies lines, their host was dedicated to Odin as a sacrifice, so they must die in this battle.
Odins connection to Herne is that Wotan was the leader of the wild hunt in german myths. The german wild hunt is not formed by nature spirits, but by restless souls of dead, for the other world was the realm of the dead. Well, the fact that burial mounds were seen as entrances to the fairy realm shows that this is also true in celtic mythology, so in the end its the same...
But Cernunnos has more of norse god Frey in him, I would say. Frey didnt have antlers, but he had a stags bone as a weapon. Frey was the male principle of nature.
For myths develloped over time and aspects of godes and goddesses were added or misunderstood, you find a lot of the same archetypes in many gods of even the same pantheon. For example, Odin is the great shaman, but Loki, the norse "trickster", fulfills the role as connector between the worlds as well.

[EDITED : just a little note to tell you that this comment was inadvertently sent to the spam comments section of our blog, for Oghme know what stupid reason. I hope this doesn't happen too often, and apologise. Cathbad]

@Cathbad: Zounds! I've been squeezed by a Frenchman! It's okay.. I don't think it's fatal. :P

And it doesn't seem like your work is exactly a stranger to controversy, even if it falls under the "artistic license" category. And that's part of what makes it even better.