Eihwaz (ᛇ) is the thirteenth rune of the Elder Futhark, and its name means "yew," the dark evergreen tree. The Old English rune poem describes the yew as rough-barked, held fast by its roots and a joy on an estate. In modern rune reading Eihwaz is taken to mean endurance and resilience through change, and in a yes-or-no question it is a maybe.
What does the Eihwaz rune mean?
As a letter, Eihwaz is the puzzle of the alphabet: a vowel sign whose exact sound is still argued over. As a name, it is clear. It means the yew tree.
The meanings used in readings are modern, drawn in the 20th century from that name and from the old verse about the tree:
- Endurance. Staying power over a long stretch of time.
- Change. A turning point that has to be lived through, not rushed.
- Resilience. Bending a long way without breaking.
The Eihwaz sign and its sound
The sign is an upright line with a short hook at each end: one bending down from the top on the right, one bending up from the bottom on the left. Turn it half a circle and it looks the same.
Its sound is uncertain. Runologists place it between i and e and transcribe it as ï. It turns up seldom in inscriptions, which is part of why the question stays open.
The name has several spellings: Eihwaz, Eiwaz and Iwaz. The Old English name is Eoh. Take care not to mix it up with Ehwaz, the horse rune.
The name Eihwaz and what the rune poems say
Tineke Looijenga, in her study of the oldest inscriptions, reconstructs the name as īwaz and translates the Old English form as "yew." She remarks on how close this name is to that of the e rune. For how rune names were recovered in general, see the guide to the Elder Futhark runes.
The verse for this rune is in the Old English rune poem. In Bruce Dickins's 1915 translation: "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."
It is a short portrait of a tree. Unlovely outside, immovable in the ground, good to have on your land. "Guardian of flame" most likely means that yew makes good firewood.
The Scandinavian alphabet dropped this rune when it shrank to 16 letters. The yew did not vanish, though. Both Norse poems have a yew verse attached to a different rune, the last one in their row, called Ýr. The Old Norwegian poem says: "Yew is the greenest of trees in winter; it is wont to crackle when it burns." The Old Icelandic poem thinks of what yew wood was used for and calls it a "bent bow."
Evergreen in winter, deep-rooted, the wood of bows: the modern reading of Eihwaz as toughness and endurance stays close to the poems. Ideas of the yew as a "tree of life and death" or as the world tree of Norse myth appear in many rune books, but no rune poem says so.
Eihwaz in a modern rune reading
Reading runes for guidance is a practice of the last hundred years, and what follows belongs to it.
As a rune of the day, Eihwaz is taken as advice to stay rooted while things around you shift.
In a three-rune cast:
- The situation. Something is changing slowly, on a scale longer than a week or a month.
- The challenge. The wish for a quick resolution. The task is to hold steady and think in years.
- The likely outcome. You come through intact, and probably tougher. It is a direction, not a verdict.
In a yes-or-no question our tool reads Eihwaz as maybe: too early to say.
Draw a rune or cast three below.
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Is there a reversed Eihwaz?
The sign looks the same turned upside down, so even readers who use reversals have nothing to reverse. Our rune reading reads all runes upright in any case.
Eihwaz in its ætt and neighboring runes
Eihwaz is the fifth rune of the second ætt, the middle group of eight, and the thirteenth of the 24.
Before it stands Jera, the year and its harvest, and after it Perthro, the rune whose name nobody can translate. The yew sits between the most predictable rune in the row and the least: seasons on one side, chance on the other.