Eoh

The thirteenth futhorc rune, transliterated ï. Its name means "yew", and the Old English stanza is the main evidence for what the corresponding Elder Futhark rune was called.

U+16C7transliterated ï/x/, /i/ætt 2c. AD 400 – 1100

At a glance

Rune: ᛇU+16C7
Unicode name: RUNIC LETTER IWAZ EOH
Alphabet: Anglo-Saxon Futhorc
In use: c. AD 400 – 1100 (Early medieval England and Frisia)
Position: 13, ætt 2
Transliteration: ï
Sound value: /x/ , /i/
Name: eoh: yewAttested

Names

How the rune is called in each tradition, and how securely each name is recorded.

Form	Language	Meaning	Evidence
eoh	Old English	yew	Attested

An asterisk marks a reconstructed form: a word linguists have worked backwards to, not one that appears in any surviving source.

Etymology

The English poem describes a rough-barked tree, hard and fixed in the ground, a keeper of fire, which points clearly to the yew. It is the main evidence for the name of the Elder Futhark rune this one descends from.

AttestedPage 1999; Halsall 1981

Sound value

Unstable in the sources themselves. The rune it descends from wrote a sound that was already disappearing in antiquity, and its English value is correspondingly uncertain and rare.

Historical use

Rare in inscriptions, as it was in the Elder Futhark, because the sound it wrote had largely ceased to be a distinct one. Its survival in the poem is more about preserving the traditional sequence than about practical need.

AttestedPage 1999

Rune-poem evidence

The medieval verse that records this rune's name. Original text plus our own translation.

The Old English Rune PoemEoh · Old English · Anglo-Saxon Futhorc

Eoh byþ utan unsmeþe treow, heard hrusan fæst, hyrde fyres, wyrtrumun underwreþyd, wyn on eþle.

The yew is a tree rough on the outside, hard and fixed in the ground, a keeper of fire, supported by its roots, a pleasure on the estate.(our translation)

"Keeper of fire" probably refers to yew being used for fuel or charcoal, though the phrase has attracted a great deal of speculative interpretation.

Attested in

Objects and monuments where this rune can actually be seen.

Thames scramasaxRiver Thames, London · 10th century
Present in the row despite being of little practical use in writing.

Signatures follow the Scandinavian Runic-text Database so you can look each inscription up directly. Each name links to the object's own entry.

Modern meaning

Why this entry has none.

None is given here. Modern rune divination is built almost entirely on the Elder Futhark, and no established modern tradition reads the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc separately. Inventing a reading for Eoh to fill the space would be exactly the kind of fabrication this site exists to flag, so the field is left empty rather than filled. Its Elder Futhark ancestor is linked further down and does carry a modern reading, labelled as modern. How modern rune meanings were arrived at is a separate discussion.