Eiwaz or Eihaz is the reconstructed

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bran ...

name of the

rune Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

, coming from a word for " yew". Two variants of the word are reconstructed for Proto-Germanic, ''*īhaz'' (''*ē₂haz'', from

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...

'), continued in Old English as (also ), and ''*īwaz'' (''*ē₂waz'', from Proto-Indo-European '), continued in Old English as ''īw'' (whence English '). 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. Following the convention of

Wolfgang Krause Wolfgang Krause (18 September 1895, Steglitz – 14 August 1970, Göttingen) was a German philologist and linguist. A professor at the University of Göttingen for many years, Krause specialized in comparative linguistics, and was an authority on ...

, the rune's standard

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

today is ''ï'', though this designation is somewhat arbitrary as the rune's purpose and origin is still not well understood. Elmer Antonsen and Leo Connolly theorized that the rune originally stood for a Proto-Germanic vowel lost by the time of the earliest known runic inscriptions, though they put forth different vowels (Antonsen put forth while Connolly put forth ).

Ottar Grønvik Ottar Nicolai Grønvik (21 October 1916 – 15 May 2008) was a Norwegian philologist and runologist. He was a lecturer from 1959 and associate professor from 1965 to 1986 at the University of Oslo. His doctoral thesis, which earned him the dr.phi ...

proposed . Tineke Looijenga postulates the rune was originally a bindrune of ᛁ and ᛃ, having the sound value of or . The rune survives in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc as ''Ēoh'' or ''Īh'' "yew" (note that ᛖ '' eoh'' "horse" has a short diphthong). In futhorc inscriptions Ēoh appears as both a vowel around , and as a consonant around and . As a vowel, Ēoh shows up in ''jïslheard'' (ᛡᛇᛋᛚᚻᛠᚱᛞ) on the Dover Stone. As a consonant, Ēoh shows up in ''almeïttig'' (ᚪᛚᛗᛖᛇᛏᛏᛁᚷ) on the Ruthwell Cross. The Anglo-Saxon

rune poem Rune poems are poems that list the letters of runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter. Three different poems have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune Poem, and the Icelandic Rune Poe ...

reads: : ''Eoh byþ utan unsmeþe treoƿ,'' : ''heard hrusan fæst, hyrde fyres,'' : ''ƿyrtrumun underƿreþyd, ƿyn on eþle.'' : 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 on native land.

References

{{Runes Runes

See also

References