In the literary landscape of Iceland and the wider Norse world, the kenning stands out as a remarkably inventive figure of speech. Instead of straightforward description, ancient poets often favoured compact riddles, linguistic puzzles that subtley evoke their referent. This poetic tradition, rooted in Old Norse and Old English verse, continues to fascinate readers and scholars alike for its blend of metaphor, wit, and tradition.
Layers of meaning in a simple phrase
At its core, a kenning (khen-ningk in Icelandic) is a specialised compound term used to replace a basic noun. Rather than simply naming the sea, a skald (poet) might invoke images of journeying with a phrase like “whale’s road” or “wave’s horse”, where the ocean is described by what traverses or is traversed by it. Each kenning is made up of two elements: a base-word, such as “road” or “horse”, and a determinant, such as “whale’s” or “wave’s”. Combined, these create an evocative alternative to everyday language.
Kennings go far beyond mere riddles, they often draw from mythology and saga. For instance, gold might be called “Kraki’s seed”, a reference to the legendary king Hrólfur kraki, who scattered gold behind him to distract pursuers, or “fire of the Rhine”, recalling treasure hidden in the riverbed in Völsunga saga. Such references enlivened poetry and demanded shared cultural knowledge between poet and audience.
Complex structure and poetic skill
The simplest kennings use just two words, but Old Norse poets, the skalds, developed increasingly complex forms. Sometimes, a kenning element itself contains another kenning, creating a multilayered metaphor. “Feeder of the war-gull” becomes “feeder of the raven”, and thus signifies “warrior”, since ravens were known to follow battlefields. This embedding, known as tvíkent or ‘doubly determined’, allowed poets to demonstrate skill and inventiveness, though excessive complexity was sometimes criticised. In a few cases, skálds extended these constructions to five or more embedded levels.
Word order in Old Norse verse was notably flexible due to the grammar of the language, which made it possible to separate elements of a kenning or interweave them with other phrases. While modern English translations often hyphenate or rearrange kennings, much of their original elegance, and confusion, was tied to the morphology of Old Norse, which enabled ambiguity and artful concealment without loss of meaning.
In addition to kennings, poets employed heiti, or poetic synonyms, to further enrich their verse. The interplay of these forms, from the elaborate to the everyday, forged a distinctive poetic artistry that set Icelandic skaldic poetry apart in Europe.
While kennings are now rare in English, their echoes can be found in other Germanic languages, as well as in certain sayings. The legacy of kennings persists in expressions like “beyond one’s ken”, attesting to the enduring connections between knowledge, naming, and the poetic imagination in the north.
Sources
- Wikipedia
- Wikipedia (Icelandic) in Icelandic
