is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark e rune , meaning "horse" (cognate to Latin , Gaulish , Tocharian B , Sanskrit , Avestan and Old Irish ). In the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, it is continued as (properly , but spelled without the diphthong to avoid confusion with "yew"). The Proto-Germanic vowel system was asymmetric and unstable. The difference between the long vowels expressed by e and ï (sometimes transcribed as and ) was lost. The Younger Futhark continues neither, lacking a letter expressing e altogether. The Anglo-Saxon futhorc faithfully preserved all Elder futhorc staves, but assigned new sound values to the redundant ones, futhorc expressing a diphthong. In the case of the Gothic alphabet, where the names of the runes were re-applied to letters derived from the Greek alphabet, the letter e was named "horse" as well (note that in Gothic orthography, represents monophthongic /e/). Anglo-Saxon rune poem The Anglo-Saxon rune poem has: "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." Runes