Runes · Hagal’s ætt
Eihwaz
Sound: ï (disputed) · The name: yew
- endurance
- steadiness
- roots
What the old rune poems say
Only the Old English poem has this rune: ‘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 Norse poems also have a yew stanza, but it belongs to a different rune, the one called Algiz in the Elder Futhark. The sound of this rune is disputed.
How it is read today
Modern rune readers take Eihwaz as the rune of endurance. The yew lives for a very long time, stays green through the winter and is hard to break, and the modern books speak of standing firm, of deep roots and of seeing a long stretch through. This is a modern reading.
Reversed
This rune looks the same turned round; modern books give it no reversed meaning.
As your rune of the day
Think of what holds you steady, and be grateful for it today.
Slow and rooted is also a way of moving.
Reading runes as an oracle is modern, from Guido von List (1908) and Ralph Blum (1982); the people who carved them, Vikings included, used them for writing, names and charm words.