Eihwaz

Eiwaz or Eihaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the rune ᛇ, which comes from a word for "yew". Two variants of the word are reconstructed for Proto-Germanic: īhaz (*ē2haz, from Proto-Indo-European *eikos), which is continued in Old English as ēoh (also īh), and īwaz (*ē2waz, from Proto-Indo-European *eiwos), which is continued in Old English as īw (hence the English word yew). The latter may be an early borrowing from Celtic, as seen in Gaulish ivos, Breton ivin, Welsh ywen, and Old Irish ēo. The common spelling of the rune name, "Eihwaz", combines both variants; strictly following Old English evidence, the spelling "Eihaz" would be more appropriate.

Following Wolfgang Krause's convention, the standard transcription of the rune today is ï, although this designation is somewhat arbitrary, as the purpose and origin of the rune are still not entirely clear. Elmer Antonsen and Leo Connolly proposed that the rune originally stood for a Proto-Germanic vowel that had been lost by the time of the earliest known rune inscriptions, although they gave different vowels (Antonsen indicated [æː], while Connolly assumed [ɨ(ː)]). Ottar Grønvik suggested [ç]. Tineke Looijenga postulated that the rune originally was a bindrune of ᛁ and ᛃ and had the phonetic value [ji(ː)] or [i(ː)j].

The rune is preserved in the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc as ᛇ Ēoh or Īh meaning "yew" (note that ᛖ eoh "horse" has a short diphthong). In futhoric inscriptions, Ēoh appears both as a vowel for /iː/ and as a consonant for [x] and [ç]. As a vowel, Ēoh appears in jïslheard (ᛡᛇᛋᛚᚻᛠᚱᛞ) on the Dover Stone. As a consonant, Ēoh appears in almeïttig (ᚪᛚᛗᛖᛇᛏᛏᛁᚷ) on the Ruthwell Cross.

The Anglo-Saxon rune poem reads:

ᛇ Eoh byþ utan unsmeþe treoƿ,
horte hrusan fæst, hyrde fyres,
ƿyrtrumun underƿreþyd, ƿyn on eþle.

The yew is a tree with rough bark,
hard and firm in the earth, supported by its roots,
a guardian of the flame and a joy on native soil.