Earliest documented use: 1320. Kennings were used especially in Old Norse and Old English poetry.

Who invented Kennings?

Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English poetry. They continued to be a feature of Icelandic poetry (including rímur) for centuries, together with the closely related heiti.

Where did Kennings originate from?

The word 'kenning' comes from the Old Norse verb að kenna, which means 'to describe' or 'to understand'. When we think about the nature of poetry, part of its purpose is to explore new ways of describing and understanding the world around us.

What is a kenning in Old English?

A kenning is a characteristic rhetorical device of Old English poetry (and Old Norse). ... An Old English poem, for example, might call a sword a "battle-light" (hilde-leoma), because the polished steel gleams like a light (metaphor) and it is used for fighting (metonymy).

How are Kennings created?

In most cases, kennings consist of two nouns side-by-side combined using hyphens so that they form a single unit known as a compound. A kenning is a specific type of circumlocution because it refers to a thing using more words than necessary.

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Why are kennings called kennings?

Kenning, concise compound or figurative phrase replacing a common noun, especially in Old Germanic, Old Norse, and Old English poetry. A kenning is commonly a simple stock compound such as “whale-path” or “swan road” for “sea,” “God's beacon” for “sun,” or “ring-giver” for “king.”

Why are kennings used?

The purpose of a kenning is to add an extra layer of description, richness, and meaning. Beowulf has many examples of kennings, including kennings to replace words about the sea, battle, God, and Grendel.

Who wrote Beowulf?

It was written in England some time between the 8th and the early 11th century. The author was an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, referred to by scholars as the “Beowulf poet.”

What does giver of gold mean?

Gold-giver. Homeland's guardian. Guardian of the ring-hoard. Gold-friend to retainers. Shepherd of people.

What does sleep of the sword mean?

In Old English, a "kenning" is a compound expression that has a figurative or metaphorical meaning. ... Other well known kennings include "battle sweat" for blood; "raven harvest" for corpse; and "sleep of the sword" for death.

Why did the ancient Norse use Kennings?

It was a way of showing off their skills. Kennings were also mental games, allowing the audience to take delight in deciphering the hidden meaning. Kennings are important for us today not just as a stylistic curiosity, but as a source of information about Norse mythology and religion.

Are Kennings metaphors?

The Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse traditions have a word for a compound expression with a metaphorical meaning: kenning. Simply put, in poetry, a kenning is when you take two words and combine them as a mild translation or metaphor for something else.

Can a kenning have three words?

What is a kenning poem? Each line in a kenning poem has only two words. These words are usually joined using a hyphen. The two words are typically a noun and a verb, or two nouns.

What are Viking poems called?

An important source of information about poetic forms in Old Norse is the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson. Old Norse poetry is conventionally, and somewhat arbitrarily, split into two types—Eddaic poetry (also sometimes known as Eddic poetry) and skaldic poetry.

Do Kennings have to end in ER?

Share: A Kenning names something by describing it's qualities in a two word compound expression (often consiting of a noun and a verb made into a noun using an -er ending) for example mouse catcher = cat.

When was skaldic invented?

skaldic poetry, skaldic also spelled Scaldic, oral court poetry originating in Norway but developed chiefly by Icelandic poets (skalds) from the 9th to the 13th century.

What does ring giver mean Beowulf?

A ring-giver is a king or overlord. Someone in power is also referred to as being the ring-giver. ... Although it was usually the king who was given the name "ring-giver," anyone in power, could be given the title.

What is helmet bearer?

• “helmet bearers” = warriors. • “earth-hall” = burial mound. • “stout-hearted” = bravery. • “shield-warrior” = fighter behind the. shield.

Is Shepherd of evil a kenning?

Used primarily in Anglo-Saxon poetry, the epic poem "Beowulf" is full of kennings. For example, the words whale-road is used for the sea and "shepherd of evil" is used for Grendel. Other well known kennings include "battle sweat" for blood; "raven harvest" for corpse; and "sleep of the sword" for death.

What year was Beowulf set?

What is Beowulf? Beowulf is a heroic poem, considered the highest achievement of Old English literature and the earliest European vernacular epic. It deals with events of the early 6th century CE and is believed to have been composed between 700 and 750.

Why is Beowulf in Old English?

It was not until the nineteenth century that widespread interest in the document emerged among scholars and translators of Old English. For the first hundred years of Beowulf's prominence, interest in the poem was primarily historical—the text was viewed as a source of information about the Anglo-Saxon era.

Is Beowulf a Shakespeare?

Beowulf, as generations of students can attest, is the earliest surviving Old English poem, dated between the eighth and eleventh centuries, by an unknown author. ... And the traditional author of the Shakespeare works, the man from Stratford upon Avon, could not have read it.

How are the Danes tortured for 12 years?

How are the Danes tortured for 12 years? Grendel continues killing each night keeping them out of their hall.

Why did Anglo Saxons use Kennings?

During the Anglo-Saxon era, the figurative use of language was a common characteristic in many literary works. Kennings can be defined as two word Anglo-Saxon metaphors, used to symbolically identify creatures, objects, and phenomena, as a type of expressive imagery, which avoids naming the subject directly.

What lines in Beowulf have Kennings?

Examples of kennings in Beowulf include “whale-road” to mean the sea, “light-of-battle” to mean a sword, “battle-sweat” to mean blood, “raven-harvest” to mean a corpse, “ring-giver” to mean a king, and “sky-candle” to mean the sun.