Eiwaz or Eihaz is the reconstructed

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

name of the

rune Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see '' futhark'' vs ''runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent a sound value (a ...

, 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. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

'), 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 script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

today is ''ï'', though this designation is somewhat arbitrary as the rune's purpose and origin are 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.p ...

proposed . Tineke Looijenga postulates the rune was originally a

bindrune A bind rune or bindrune () is a Migration Period Germanic typographic ligature, ligature of two or more Runic alphabet, runes. They are extremely rare in Viking Age inscriptions, but are common in earlier (Proto-Norse) and later (medieval) inscri ...

of ᛁ and ᛃ, having the sound value of or . Bengt Odenstedt suggests it may have been adapted from the classical Latin alphabet's ''Z'', or ''Y''. The rune survives in the

Anglo-Saxon futhorc Anglo-Saxon runes or Anglo-Frisian runes are runes that were used by the Anglo-Saxons and Medieval Frisians (collectively called Anglo-Frisians) as an alphabet in their native writing system, recording both Old English and Old Frisian (, ᚱ� ...

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. Four different poems from before the mid-20th century have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune ...

reads: : : : : 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