Eihwaz


Eiwaz or Eihaz was a Proto-Germanic word for "yew" and is the reconstructed name of the rune.
The rune survives in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc as Ēoh "yew". Ēoh could behave as both a vowel, and as a consonant. As a vowel, Ēoh shows up in jïslheard on the Dover Stone. As a consonant, Ēoh shows up in almeïttig on the Ruthwell Cross.
It is commonly transliterated as ï or æ, or, in reconstructions of Proto-Germanic, ē2. Its phonetic value at the time of the invention of the Futhark was not necessarily a diphthong, but possibly a long vowel somewhere between and or, continuing Proto-Indo-European language *.
Two variants of the word are reconstructed for Proto-Germanic, *īhaz, continued in Old English as ēoh, and *īwaz, continued in Old English as īw. The latter is possibly an early loan from the Celtic, compare Gaulish ivos, Breton ivin, Welsh ywen, Old Irish ēo. The common spelling of the rune's name, "Eihwaz", combines the two variants; strictly based on the Old English evidence, a spelling "Eihaz" would be more proper.
The Anglo-Saxon rune poem:
The rune is not to be confused with the Sowilo rune, which has a somewhat similar shape, or with Ehwaz, the rune expressing short e or ē1. In the Younger Futhark, there is the terminal -R rune Yr "yew", but neither its shape nor its sound is related to the Eihwaz rune: it is, rather, a continuation of Algiz.