kenning

   A kenning is a traditional figure of speech distinctive to OLD ENGLISH and Old Norse poetry.The term kenning seems to have derived from the Germanic word kenna, meaning to define or characterize—in other words, to name. Usually considered a kind of periphrasis or circumlocution, a kenning is essentially a metaphor in which a literal, single noun is replaced by a figurative compound of two words. Kennings always consist of a noun modified by the possessive form of another noun, sometimes fused together to form a single word. For example, the kenning swanrade (“swan’s road”) in BEOWULF refers to the sea: The analogy implied is that the sea is to a swan as a road is to a man or a horse. Kennings in Old English poetry are generally simple, as the one cited above, or as “storm of swords” for a battle. In the SKALDIC POETRY of medieval Norway and later Iceland, however, kennings could become extremely complex, when one or both of the terms of the kennings contained kennings themselves. Peter Hallberg cites the skaldic line “the swan of the sweat of the thorn of the wounds” (sára loorns sveita svanr) as an example. Here, the “thorn of the wounds” is a kenning for sword. “The sweat of the sword” is a kenning for blood. “The swan of blood,” then, is the raven, the bird of the battlefield (Hallberg 1975, 23). In some types of Old Icelandic courtly poetry, nothing is ever directly named, and all nouns are replaced by kennings. The understanding of such poetry becomes an intellectual challenge, akin to the popularity of such literary forms as RIDDLES in Old English.

   Bibliography

   ■ Hallberg, Peter. Old Icelandic Poetry: Eddic Lay and Skaldic Verse. Translated by Paul Schach and Sonja Lindgrenson. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1975.