Eihwaz

Template:Short description Template:Infobox rune Template:Contains special characters Eiwaz or Eihaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the rune ᛇ, coming from a word for "yew". Two variants of the word are reconstructed for Proto-Germanic, (, from Proto-Indo-European ), continued in Old English as (also ), and (, from Proto-Indo-European ), continued in Old English as (whence English yew). The latter is possibly an early loan from the Celtic, compare Gaulish , Breton , Welsh , Old Irish . The common spelling of the rune's name, "Eihwaz", combines the two variants; strictly based on the Old English evidence, a spelling "Eihaz" would be more proper.

Following the convention of Wolfgang Krause, the rune's standard transliteration today is ï, though this designation is somewhat arbitrary as the rune's purpose and origin are still not well understood. Elmer Antonsen and Leo Connolly theorized that the rune originally stood for a Proto-Germanic vowel lost by the time of the earliest known runic inscriptions, though they put forth different vowels (Antonsen put forth while Connolly put forth ). Ottar Grønvik proposed . Tineke Looijenga postulates the rune was originally a bindrune of ᛁ and ᛃ, having the sound value of or . Bengt Odenstedt suggests it may have been adapted from the classical Latin alphabet's Z, or Y.

The rune survives in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc as ᛇ or "yew" (note that ᛖ eoh "horse" has a short diphthong). In futhorc inscriptions Ēoh appears as both a vowel around , and as a consonant around and . As a vowel, Ēoh shows up in jïslheard (ᛡᛇᛋᛚᚻᛠᚱᛞ) on the Dover Stone. As a consonant, Ēoh shows up in almeïttig (ᚪᛚᛗᛖᛇᛏᛏᛁᚷ) on the Ruthwell Cross.

The Old English rune poem reads:

ᛇ

The yew is a tree with rough bark,

hard and fast in the earth, supported by its roots,

a guardian of flame and a joy on native land.

See also

• Wolfsangel, similar shape to the Eihwaz rune