- Name
- *ī(h)waz or *eihwaz
- Meaning
- yew
- Name known from
- Old English ēoh/īh 'yew' (rune poem); the Proto-Germanic form is uncertain (compare Old English īw, Old High German īwa, Old Norse ýr 'yew, bow')
- Transliteration
- ï
- Sound
- uncertain: a front vowel somewhere between [i] and [æ], perhaps a diphthong
- Unicode
U+16C7runic letter iwaz eoh
Line of descent
History
The thirteenth rune is a stave with a short branch at the top on one side and at the bottom on the other, a zigzag form. It is one of the hardest runes to explain. It does not occur in the earliest inscriptions (before about 400). Its sound value is disputed, and so is its name.
The Old English poem calls it ēoh and describes the yew, "a rough tree … a keeper of fire". On that basis the Proto-Germanic name is reconstructed as *eihwaz or *īwaz "yew". Neither form is certain. Dickins noted that the usual Old English word for yew is īw. Runologists transliterate the rune as ï to show that its value differs from i without committing to what it was. Older literature writes æ or ei.
Rune-rows fix its position, with one complication. On the Vadstena and Mariedamm bracteates and the Grumpan bracteate it stands 13th, before p. On the Kylver stone it comes after p. Few readable words use it. One is raïhan "roe-deer" on a bone from Caistor-by-Norwich, of about 400. In English inscriptions the rune sometimes stands for i and sometimes for h, so it seems to have written a sound close to both.
The rune was dropped from the Younger Futhark, but its name probably lived on. The Old Norse rune name ýr "yew" was given to the yr rune, which descends in shape from algiz. In England it continued as eoh.
In the rune poems
heard hrusan fæst, hyrde fyres,
wyrtrumun underwreþyd, wyn on eþle.
hard, fast in the earth, a keeper of fire,
propped beneath by roots, a joy on the estate.
Original text from the public-domain editions named on each poem's page; translations are our own.
Where it is found
- Kylver stone (G 88), position 14 (after p)
- Vadstena (Ög 178) and Mariedamm (Nä 10) bracteates, position 13: hnijïpzs
- Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus: raïhan (c. 400)
On inscriptions described on this site
Sources
- Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata), signa G 88, Ög 178, Nä 10, Vg 207
- Dickins (1915), note to Old English rune poem l. 35
- Wikipedia, 'Elder Futhark', 'Eihwaz', 'Anglo-Saxon runes' and 'Younger Futhark' (checked 2026-10-26)