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Eiwaz or Eihaz (reconstructed *ihaz / *ehaz or *iwaz / *ewaz) was a Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic language

Proto-Germanic, or Common Germanic, as it is sometimes known, is the hypothetical common ancestor of all the Germanic languages such as modern English language, Dutch language, German language, Danish language, Norwegian language, Icelandic language, Faroese language, and Swedish language....
 word for "yew
Taxus baccata

Taxus baccata is a Pinophyta native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the common yew, or European yew....
", and the reconstructed name of the rune .

The rune survives in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc
Anglo-Saxon Futhorc

Futhorc, a runic alphabet used by the Anglo-Saxons, was descended from the Elder Futhark of 24 runes and contained between 26 and 33 characters....
 as Eoh "yew" (note that eoh
Ehwaz

*Ehwaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark e rune , meaning "horse" . In the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, it is continued as eh ....
 "horse" has a short diphthong).

It is commonly transliterated
Transliteration

Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice....
 as ï or æ, or, in reconstructions of Proto-Germanic, e2.






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Eiwaz or Eihaz (reconstructed *ihaz / *ehaz or *iwaz / *ewaz) was a Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic language

Proto-Germanic, or Common Germanic, as it is sometimes known, is the hypothetical common ancestor of all the Germanic languages such as modern English language, Dutch language, German language, Danish language, Norwegian language, Icelandic language, Faroese language, and Swedish language....
 word for "yew
Taxus baccata

Taxus baccata is a Pinophyta native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the common yew, or European yew....
", and the reconstructed name of the rune .

The rune survives in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc
Anglo-Saxon Futhorc

Futhorc, a runic alphabet used by the Anglo-Saxons, was descended from the Elder Futhark of 24 runes and contained between 26 and 33 characters....
 as Eoh "yew" (note that eoh
Ehwaz

*Ehwaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark e rune , meaning "horse" . In the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, it is continued as eh ....
 "horse" has a short diphthong).

It is commonly transliterated
Transliteration

Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice....
 as ï or æ, or, in reconstructions of Proto-Germanic, e2. Its phonetic value at the time of the invention of the Futhark (2nd century) was not necessarily a diphthong, but possibly a vowel somewhere between IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic....
 [i] and [e], or [æ], continuing Proto-Indo-European language
Proto-Indo-European language

The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, linguistic reconstruction common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans....
 *.

Two variants of the word are reconstructed for Proto-Germanic, *ihaz (*e2haz, PIE *), continued in Old English as eoh (also ih) , and *iwaz (*e2waz, Proto-Indo-European *), continued in Old English as iw (whence yew). The latter is possibly an early loan from the Celtic, compare Gaulish ivos, Old Irish eo
Iodhadh

Iodhadh is the Irish language name of the twenty-fifth letter of the Ogham alphabet, . In Old Irish, the letter name was Idad. Its phonetic value is [i]....
. 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
Rune poem

The Rune Poems are three 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 Poem....
:

Eoh byþ utan unsmeþe treow,
heard hrusan fæst, hyrde fyres,
wyrtrumun underwreþyd, wyn 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 upon an estate.


The rune is sometimes associated with the World tree
World tree

The World Tree is a motif present in several religions and mythologies, particularly Indo-European religions. The world tree is represented as a colossal tree which supports the heavens, thereby connecting the heavens, the earth, and, through its roots, the underground....
 Yggdrasil
Yggdrasil

File:The Ash Yggdrasil by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine.jpgIn Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is the world tree. Yggdrasil is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson....
, which, imagined as an ash
Ash tree

Fraxinus is a genus of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous though a few subtropical species are evergreen. The leaf are opposite , and mostly pinnately-compound, simple in a few species....
 in Norse mythology
Norse mythology

Norse, Viking or Scandinavian mythology comprises the beliefs, myths and legends of the Norse paganism of the North Germanic language people, including those who settled on Faroe Islands and Iceland, where most of the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled....
, may formerly have been a yew or an oak
Oak

The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of about 400 species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus , which are listed in the List of Quercus species, and some related genera, notably Lithocarpus....
. The Proto-Germanic for "oak" was *aiks (PIE *aigs, likely cognate to Greek krat-aigon
Crataegus

Hawthorn is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the rose family, Rosaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia and North America....
) is continued the name of another futhorc rune, ac, which has, however, no Elder Futhark predecessor.

The rune is not to be confused with the Sowilo
Sowilo

S?l or Sunna is the solar deity in Germanic mythology. One of the two Old High German Merseburg Incantations, written in the 9th or 10th century CE, attests that Sunna is the sister of Sinthgunt....
 rune, which has a somewhat similar shape, or with Ehwaz
Ehwaz

*Ehwaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark e rune , meaning "horse" . In the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, it is continued as eh ....
, the rune expressing short e or e1. In the Younger Futhark
Younger Futhark

The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian runes, is a runic alphabet, a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters, in use from ca....
, 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
Algiz

*Algiz, sometimes *Elhaz, is the Linguistic reconstruction Proto-Germanic name for the Runic alphabet, representing the Proto-Germanic terminal -z ....
.