ᛇ eoh

Line of descent

History

The thirteenth rune is one of the hardest in any row. Its English name eoh "yew" (normally iw in Old English) is clear from the rune poem, which describes a rough-barked tree, "hard, fast in the earth, a keeper of fire". The name agrees with the yew meaning usually given for *ī(h)waz. The sound is the problem. In the elder row the rune stood for a front vowel whose exact value is disputed, and runologists transliterate it ï to avoid committing to a sound.

English inscriptions give it two values. Dickins listed the three he considered intelligible: on the Dover stone (gislheard) and Thornhill II (eateïnne for Eadþegne) it writes i, while on the Ruthwell Cross, in almehttig "almighty", it writes the guttural h sound. Codex Vindobonensis 795 gives the rune the name ih with both values. A coin of Beonna of East Anglia (c. 750) is reported to spell the x of Latin rex with this rune followed by s. The Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus, often called the oldest runic inscription from Britain, reads raïhan, but it may be a Scandinavian import and is usually transliterated with the elder row.

Dickins cited a suggestion by A. C. Paues that the name lived on in Middle English yogh, the name of the letter ȝ.

In the rune poems

Original text from the public-domain editions named on each poem's page; translations are our own.

Where it is found

• Seax of Beagnoth, position 13
• Dover stone: gislheard (value i)
• Ruthwell Cross: almehttig 'almighty' (value h), per Dickins
• Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus (5th century): raïhan, possibly Scandinavian

On inscriptions described on this site

Sources

• Dickins (1915), pp. 16–17 and note to v. 35.
• Wikipedia, 'Anglo-Saxon runes' (Beonna coin, Caistor astragalus), checked 2026-10.