Ætt 2 · Pos. 5

Name

A yew tree, the dark evergreen that lives for centuries.

Meaning

The poems see the yew as a tree that endures: hard on the outside, held fast by its roots, good for keeping a fire, green through winter, and strong enough to bend into a bow. Green when everything else is bare and alive for centuries, the yew has long stood between death and what outlasts it. It is the tree of churchyards, often older than the church beside it, perhaps marking ground that was sacred before. Some read the evergreen tree over Urðr’s well in Völuspá as a yew.

The poems

English Rune Poem

Yew is on the outside
a rough tree,
hard, fast in the earth,
keeper of fire,
propped up by its roots,
a joy on the estate.

Icelandic Rune Poem

Yew is a bent bow,
and brittle iron,
and the arrow’s jotun.

Norwegian Rune Poem

Yew is the greenest
of trees in winter;
it is wont to crackle
when it burns.