ᛇ · sound “ei” · Yew tree
Eihwaz (ᛇ) is rune 13 of the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark, in Heimdall's aett. Its name means yew tree.
The yew: endurance, protection, and the link between endings and rebirth. You are asked to stay steadfast through a hard passage.
Eihwaz looks the same turned upside down, so it has no reversed meaning. It is one of the nine runes that read the same either way up, and it is always read as yew tree.
Stand firm; deep roots make a long life.
Eihwaz is the yew tree, an evergreen that can live for well over a thousand years and whose wood was prized for bows. The exact sound of the rune is uncertain; it is usually described as a vowel or diphthong, often written ï or ei. Because the yew stays green through winter and is associated with churchyards and graves, later readers linked it with endurance and with the boundary between life and death.
Eihwaz stands for endurance and for the link between an ending and what follows it. In a reading it may point to a long test that can be survived, a protective force, or a phase of life closing so another can begin. Its shape is a vertical line with two hooks, so it has no reversed reading here.