Name and linguistic reconstruction
Eihwaz is the conventional normalised form of the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name *ī(h)waz. It means yew. The asterisk marks a form not directly attested as a rune name in a surviving Elder Futhark inscription.
Sign and historical use
In the Elder Futhark this rune served first as a written character. Its sound value, position in rune rows, and use in inscriptions are more direct historical evidence than modern lists of symbolic meanings.
A rune name could aid memory and occasionally function as an ideograph. This does not mean that every occurrence automatically invoked the name’s entire semantic content.
What the rune poems attest
No Elder Futhark rune poem survives. The Old English, Norwegian, and Icelandic stanzas shown here belong to later rune rows. They help reconstruct names but are not unchanged commentary from the period when the sign arose.
Sound value and name are complex; the rune cannot simply be equated with later Ýr or a secure “world-tree” symbol.
Modern symbolic interpretation
Modern rune practice often expands Eihwaz from the image-field “yew”. Such readings can serve as a language for reflection, but they are modern tradition rather than an attested Viking-Age oracle definition.
Rune poems in the original
Old English
Old English Rune Poem
ioh byþ utan unsmeþe treow, heard hrusan fæst, hyrde fyres, wyrtrumun underwreþyd, wyn on eþleThe yew is outwardly a rough tree, hard and firm in the earth, a keeper of fire, supported by roots, and a joy on the estate.
A sense-based working translation of the CLASP transcription; ambiguous words and rune names will receive textual review before final approval.