Ehwaz

Name	Proto-Germanic	Old English
	*Ehwaz	E(o)h
	"horse"
Shape	Elder Futhark	Futhorc
Unicode	ᛖ U+16D6
Transliteration	e
Transcription	e
IPA	[e(ː)]
Position in rune-row	19

*Ehwazis the reconstructedProto-Germanicname of theElder Futharkeruneᛖ,meaning "horse"(cognate to Latinequus,Gaulishepos,Tocharian Byakwe,Sanskritaśva,AvestanaspaandOld Irishech). In theAnglo-Saxon futhorc,it is continued asᛖeh(properlyeoh,but spelled without the diphthong to avoid confusion withᛇēoh"yew" ).

The Proto-Germanic vowel system was asymmetric and unstable. The difference between the long vowels expressed byᛖeandᛇï(sometimes transcribed as*ē₁and*ē₂) was lost. TheYounger Futharkcontinues neither, lacking a letter expressingealtogether. The Anglo-Saxon futhorc faithfully preserved all Elder futhorc staves, but assigned new sound values to the redundant ones, futhorcēohexpressing a diphthong.

In the case of theGothic Alpha bet,where the names of the runes were re-applied to letters derived from the Greek Alpha bet, the letter𐌴ewas namedaíƕus"horse" as well (note that in Gothic orthography,⟨aí⟩represents monophthongic /e/).

The rune may have been an original innovation, or it may have been adapted from theclassical Latin Alpha bet'sE.

Anglo-Saxon rune poem

The Anglo-Saxonrune poemhas:

ᛖEh bẏþ for eorlum æþelinga ƿẏn,

hors hofum ƿlanc, ðær him hæleþ ẏmb[e]

ƿelege on ƿicgum ƿrixlaþ spræce

and biþ unstẏllum æfre frofur.

"The horse is a joy to princes in the presence of warriors.

A steed in the pride of its hoofs,

when rich men on horseback bandy words about it;

and it is ever a source of comfort to the restless. "