In a dimly lit room above a used bookshop, a study circle passes a set of rune staves around the table. Someone draws ᛇ and says “EYE-waz.” Another corrects: “It’s AY-wahz.” A third mutters that the horse rune is even worse. The disagreement is not about magic. It is about a language no one has spoken fluently for a thousand years.
Eihwaz (pronounced AY-wahz) and Ehwaz (pronounced EH-wahz) are two distinct Elder Futhark runes often confused by newcomers because their names look and sound nearly identical. The difference is not trivial: one marks the yew tree and the forces of death and rebirth; the other marks the horse and the bond between rider and mount. Getting the pronunciation right is the first step toward keeping their meanings separate.
Meta: Learn the correct pronunciation of Elder Futhark runes Eihwaz (ᛇ) and Ehwaz (ᛖ), their meanings, and why people mix them up — with Old Norse reconstructions and modern practice.
What Each Rune Actually Says
Let us settle the sounds first, because everything else depends on them.
Eihwaz (ᛇ). The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name is *īhaz or *īhwaz, from a root meaning “yew.” The first vowel is a long i-sound, like the “ee” in “see” — but in modern English transliterations it often shifts to “AY” because of the way the Old English rune poem treats the word. The most common scholarly pronunciation is “AY-wahz” (two syllables, first rhyming with “day”). Some reconstructionists prefer “EE-wahz,” matching the older Germanic vowel. Both appear in practice; “AY-wahz” dominates English-language rune study.
Ehwaz (ᛖ). The Proto-Germanic name is *ehwaz, meaning “horse.” The first vowel is a short e, like the “e” in “bed.” It is pronounced “EH-wahz” (two syllables, first rhyming with “bed”). The second syllable is always unstressed, a soft “wahz” rather than “waz.” There is no long vowel, no diphthong, and no room for “ee.”
The confusion arrives because in many modern texts the two names are written “Eihwaz” and “Ehwaz” — a single letter apart. The “i” in Eihwaz signals a different vowel quality, but beginners read both as starting with “Eh.” That is the root of the muddle.
Where the Names Come From
The Elder Futhark was in use from roughly the 2nd to the 8th centuries CE across Germanic Europe. We do not have a complete list of rune names from that period; what we have are later sources that preserve the tradition.
The Old English Rune Poem (compiled in the 8th or 9th century, surviving in a 10th-century manuscript) gives the name “Īh” for the rune ᛇ and “Eh” for ᛖ. The ī in Īh is a long i. The poem describes Īh as a tree “hard on the outside, rough and ancient,” a clear reference to the yew. Eh is described as a horse that “strides over the ground, proud of its hooves.” These are the earliest vernacular attestations of the rune names.
The Abecedarium Nordmannicum (9th century, Swiss manuscript) lists the runes with Latin glosses but does not give full names for every character. For ᛇ it gives “Ix” or “Is” depending on the reading; for ᛖ it gives “Eh.” The variation shows that even early copyists struggled with the exact forms.
In the Gothic alphabet (4th century, Bishop Wulfila’s invention), the corresponding letter for /e/ is called “aiƕus,” meaning horse. The Gothic script is not the same as the runic, but it confirms that the horse association is ancient and stable.
The distinction between the two runes was real to the people who carved them. They were not homophones. The difference in vowel length carried meaning, and a mispronounced rune name in a charm was considered ineffective or dangerous. We do not know how many staves were carved with the wrong sound, but we know that later rune masters insisted on precision in naming.
What Eihwaz and Ehwaz Mean (and Why It Matters)
Eihwaz is the yew. In Norse cosmology, the yew is the wood of Yggdrasil, the world-tree that holds the nine realms together. Yew wood is flexible yet incredibly durable; it was used for longbows that could pierce chainmail. In runic practice, Eihwaz represents endurance, death and rebirth, the axis between worlds. It is a rune of protection that does not shield you, it asks you to withstand. Carvers often burned Eihwaz onto staffs meant for boundary work or burial markers.
Ehwaz is the horse. In pre-Christian Germanic culture, the horse was a partner in travel, a sacrificial animal, and a symbol of the soul’s journey. The rune signifies trust, movement, and the relationship between two entities, rider and horse, or a person and their fate. It appears in bindrunes for safe passage and in charms for legal agreements.
The meanings are not interchangeable. You would not carve Eihwaz onto a travel talisman unless you expected the journey to involve hardship and transformation. You would not carve Ehwaz onto a grave marker unless you wanted to invoke the soul’s ride to the next world. The runes speak to different conditions, and the wrong one can misdirect the intention.
How You Spoke to Each
Pronunciation in actual ritual is not just a matter of scholarly correctness. When a rune is sounded aloud, its vibration is part of the working. That is why modern rune workers care about the distinction.
For Eihwaz, the long initial vowel is sustained. In a galdr (a runic chant), the sound “AY” or “EE” is held for a full breath, drawn out as the rune’s shape is visualized, a vertical line crossed by two shorter lines, like a tree trunk with branches struck by lightning. The yew is slow-growing and hard. The chanting matches that quality.
For Ehwaz, the short “EH” is clipped, almost percussive. It is the sound of a horse’s hoof on packed earth. The rune’s shape is two vertical lines connected by a diagonal, a simplified profile of a horse’s head and neck. In a bindrune for a journey, the sound is repeated three times, each bite of “EH” marking a step.
In one recorded practice from a 17th-century Icelandic grimoire (the Galdrabók, though the text is post-medieval), a rune called “E” is used in a charm for a safe horse ride. The charm does not give the full name, but the single letter is sounded as a short vowel. That matches Ehwaz. The same text uses a “Y” rune (possibly Eihwaz) in a charm for protection against enemies, where the chant is described as “long and low.”
Eihwaz versus Ehwa: The Misspelling
The query “Eihwaz vs Ehwa” points to a common error. “Ehwa” is not a historical rune name. It is a modern misspelling of Ehwaz, likely from someone dropping the final “z” because English pluralization habits creep in (the “z” is part of the singular Proto-Germanic nominative). Some new practitioners write “Eihwaz and Ehwa” as if they are two different runes, when in fact they mean Eihwaz and Ehwaz.
There is no separate “Ehwa” rune. If you encounter the spelling in a book or online source, it is almost certainly a typographical error for Ehwaz. Check the author’s other examples: if they also write “Ansuz” instead of “Ansuz” they may be inconsistent. But if they consistently use “Eihwaz vs Ehwa,” treat the second as Ehwaz.
That said, some modern rune sets sold online are labeled with simplified names. A set might etch “Eihwaz” and “Ehwaz” but the seller writes “Ehwa” in the description. This is not tradition. It is a product of lazy labeling.
Common Misconceptions
“Eihwaz is pronounced ‘eye-waz.’” This is the most widespread mistake. It comes from reading the “Ei” digraph as English “eye.” But in reconstructed Proto-Germanic, “ei” is a long i sound, not a diphthong. The Old English poem uses “Īh,” not “Eih.” The modern spelling “Eihwaz” was introduced by 19th-century runologists who transliterated the Germanic form; they did not intend an English pronunciation.
“Ehwaz and Eihwaz are the same rune with different spellings.” No. They are different runes with different positions in the futhark (ᛇ is rune 13, ᛖ is rune 19), different shapes, and different meanings. The only thing they share is the final “-waz” suffix.
“The pronunciation doesn’t matter because we don’t know how they really said it.” We do not know the exact phonetics, but we know the distinction existed. The rune poems treat them as separate words with separate meanings. Assuming they are identical collapses a distinction the tradition preserved.
“Ehwa is the correct modern version of Ehwaz.” No historical text uses “Ehwa.” The word is a modern truncation. If you want to be accurate to the tradition, say Ehwaz.
FAQ
How do you pronounce Eihwaz correctly?
The most common pronunciation in English-language rune study is “AY-wahz” (first syllable rhymes with “day”). Some reconstructionists say “EE-wahz,” which is closer to the original long i.
Is Ehwaz the same as Ehwa?
No. Ehwa is a misspelling or a shortened form of Ehwaz. The correct name is Ehwaz, pronounced “EH-wahz.”
Why do some people say “eye-waz” for Eihwaz?
They are reading the “Ei” as an English diphthong. The correct reading is a long “ee” or “ay” sound, not “eye.”
Which rune should I use for protection, Eihwaz or Ehwaz?
For protection that involves endurance and boundary work, use Eihwaz. For protection during travel or partnerships, use Ehwaz. The two serve different conditions.
The noise around a study table is not failure; it is the sound of people caring enough to get it right. The next time you draw ᛇ, hold the vowel. The next time you draw ᛖ, clip it. The runes are patient with our mistakes, but they reward precision.
For deeper study, explore our complete guide to the Elder Futhark, the glossary entry for Eihwaz, and our article on pronouncing rune names from the Old English poems.