Everything about Eihwaz totally explained
Eiwaz or
Eihaz (reconstructed
*īhaz /
*ēhaz or
*īwaz /
*ēwaz) was a
Proto-Germanic word for "
yew", and the reconstructed name of the
rune .
The rune survives in the
Anglo-Saxon futhorc as
Ēoh "yew" (note that
eoh "horse" has a short diphthong).
It is commonly
transliterated as
ï or
æ, or, in reconstructions of Proto-Germanic,
ē2. Its phonetic value at the time of the invention of the Futhark (
2nd century) wasn't necessarily a diphthong, but possibly a vowel somewhere between
IPA [i] and [e], or [æ], continuing
Proto-Indo-European language *.
Two variants of the word are reconstructed for Proto-Germanic,
*īhaz (
*ē2haz, PIE
*), continued in Old English as
ēoh (also
īh), and
*īwaz (
*ē2waz, Proto-Indo-European
*), continued in Old English as
īw (whence
yew). The latter is possibly an early loan from the Celtic, compare Gaulish
ivos, Old Irish
ēo. 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.
The Anglo-Saxon
rune poem:
» Eoh byþ utan unsmeþe treow,
heard hrusan fæst, hyrde fyres, » wyrtrumun underwreþyd, wyn on eþle.
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 upon an estate.
The rune is sometimes associated with the
World tree Yggdrasil, which, imagined as an
ash in
Norse mythology, may formerly have been a yew or an
oak. The Proto-Germanic
for "oak" was
*aiks (PIE
*aigs, likely cognate to Greek
krat-aigon) is continued the name of another futhorc rune,
ac, which has, however, no Elder Futhark predecessor.
The rune isn't to be confused with the
Sowilo rune, which has a somewhat similar shape, or with
Ehwaz, the rune expressing short
e or
ē1. In the
Younger Futhark, there's the terminal
-R rune
Yr "yew", but neither its shape nor its sound is related to the
Eihwaz rune: it is, rather, a continuation of
Algiz.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Eihwaz'.
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