Ihwaz ᛇ

Ihwaz: yew

Icelandic rune poem:

Ýr er bendr bogi, ok brotgjarnt járn, ok fífu fárbauti.

The yew is the bent bow, and brittle iron, and giant of the arrow.

Ihwaz is rarely found in inscriptions where runes are used to form words; it is essentially a magical sign, a rune of protection, endurance, and immortality; as age-less as the yew tree. It is associated with Yggdrasil, the immense tree that connects all the worlds in Norse cosmology.

In Runes of Battle, the second of the Rune Song trilogy, a seidhkona (wise woman) explains the rune to the heroine Adelais:

‘Ihwaz is the yew-rune. It is the sign of the world tree, Yggdrasil. Some say Yggdrasil is an ash, but I hold to it being a yew. Ash trees grow old and die, while yews live forever unless fate blows them a storm. Odhinn hung on Yggdrasil to learn the wisdom of the runes, so ihwaz is also the rune of wisdom. The yew is evergreen, so it is also the rune of life and of endurance through the trials of winter.’

For introductions to other runes, there’s a pull-down menu under the ‘Norse Runes’ tab. More details about the Rune Song epic fantasy trilogy via my ‘books’ pages or on Amazon UK or Amazon.com. All books are published by Second Sky / Hachette and are available in print, ebook, and audiobook formats.