Ehwaz (ᛖ) is the nineteenth rune of the Elder Futhark and stands for the sound e. Its name means "horse." The Old English rune poem calls the horse a joy to princes, something riders talk about with pride, and a comfort to the restless. In modern rune reading Ehwaz is taken to mean partnership, trust and movement, and it is read as a yes.
What does the Ehwaz rune mean?
As a letter, Ehwaz is the vowel e. Its name is the ordinary early Germanic word for a horse, and nobody disputes it.
As a symbol, it belongs to modern rune reading, a 20th-century practice. There the horse is read together with its rider:
- Partnership. Two parties moving as one.
- Trust. Reliance that has been earned on both sides.
- Movement. Steady progress, faster than either could manage alone.
The Ehwaz sign and its sound
Ehwaz is two upright lines joined at the top by a V, which makes it look like a capital M. That resemblance is a trap for beginners, because the rune that actually stands for m, Mannaz, looks similar. Ehwaz has the plain V; in Mannaz the diagonals cross.
The sound is e. The reconstructed name is Ehwaz, and the Old English name is Eh. It should not be confused with Eihwaz, the yew rune, whose name differs by one letter.
The name Ehwaz and what the rune poem says
The runologist Tineke Looijenga gives the reconstructed name as ehwaz and translates the Old English name eh as "horse."
Only the Old English rune poem has a verse for this rune; the shorter Scandinavian alphabet behind the Norwegian and Icelandic poems had no e rune. In Bruce Dickins's 1915 translation: "The horse is a joy to princes in the presence of warriors. A steed in the pride of its hoofs, when rich men on horseback bandy words about it; and it is ever a source of comfort to the restless."
There are two horses in those lines. One is a status symbol. Well-off men sit on their mounts and compare them, the way people now talk about cars. The other is in the last clause, and it is more personal: for someone who cannot sit still, a horse is relief.
Horses mattered beyond transport. The Roman writer Tacitus, describing Germanic peoples around 100 CE, says they kept white horses at public expense and read omens from their neighing and snorting, and that no form of augury was trusted more. He does not connect this with runes, and the rune poem does not mention omens. But it shows the regard in which the animal was held.
Notice what the verse leaves out. It says nothing about teamwork, marriage or loyalty. Those meanings come from thinking about horse and rider as a pair, which is a modern step. Raidho, the rune of riding, covers the journey; modern readers give Ehwaz the relationship that makes the journey possible.
Ehwaz in a modern rune reading
What follows is present-day practice.
As a rune of the day, Ehwaz is taken as a suggestion to team up: the work goes faster together.
In a three-rune cast:
- The situation. You are not doing this alone, or should not be. Someone else's pace and yours are linked.
- The challenge. Horse and rider are out of step. The task is to rebuild trust, or to ask for help in the first place.
- The likely outcome. Smooth forward motion with someone at your side. It is a direction, not a verdict.
In a yes-or-no question Ehwaz is read as a yes.
A rune can prompt a useful question about a partnership. It cannot tell you what another person thinks or feels.
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Is there a reversed Ehwaz?
Books that use reversals read an upside-down Ehwaz as mistrust or a stalled journey. That layer is modern, and our rune reading leaves it out: each rune is read upright, and the challenge position does the rest.
Ehwaz in its ætt and neighboring runes
Ehwaz is the third rune of the third ætt, the final group of eight.
It follows Berkano, the birch, and is followed by Mannaz, humankind: a tree, an animal and a person in a row. The complete sequence is in the guide to the Elder Futhark runes.