:::It appears that this notion originated among von List, Wiligut, or the NSDAP. Most likely it's just an extension of what von List has come up with above, perhaps by analyzing the Younger Futhark out of context with the Elder Futhark and deciding that Maðr (Old Norse "man") represents "life" and thus that its pictographic inversion, Yr (Old Norse "yew"), must therefore mean "death". One could produce more association with the 'death' associations with yew as well. However, to my knowledge, there is no evidence for such concern with the orientation of runic staves in the historical runic record. In the Elder Futhark, *mannaz is the "man" rune and *eihwaz means either "yew" or "horse".