The word was adopted into English in the nineteenth century from medieval Icelandic treatises on poetics, in particular the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, and derives ultimately from the Old Norse verb kenna “ know, recognise ; perceive, feel ; show ; teach ; etc .”, as used in the expression kenna við “ to name after ; to express thing in terms of ”, “ name after ; refer to in terms of ”, and kenna til “ qualify by, make into a kenning by adding ”.

“ snow ”: “ A metaphor is a kenning only if it contains an incongruity between the referent and the meaning of the base-word ; in the kenning the limiting word is essential to the figure because without it the incongruity would make any identification impossible ” ( Brodeur ( 1959 ) pp. 248 – 253 ).

Lindow continues that " his use of Sleipnir in the kenning may show that Sleipnir's role in the failed recovery of Baldr was known at that time and place in Iceland ; it certainly indicates that Sleipnir was an active participant in the mythology of the last decades of paganism.

Álfröðull also occurs as a kenning for the sun in skaldic verse ; the simplex, röðull, is used with the same meaning and Alaric Hall therefore suggests in his book on the elves that the choice of " álfröðull " depended on alliteration, but that the existence of the kenning suggests that the concepts of the sun and the elves were " semantically congruent "; he considers the álfr ( elf ) in " álfröðull " possibly a heiti for Freyr.

The name appears in a kenning for the major goddess Freyja ; " Óð's girl " ( Old Norse Óðs mey gefna ), pointing to a relation with the goddess.

In the modern sense, heiti are distinguished from kennings in that a heiti is a simple word, whereas a kenning is a circumlocution in the form of a phrase or compound word ; thus mækir is a heiti for " sword " ( the usual word in prose is sverð ), whereas grand hlífar " bane of shield " and ben-fúrr " wound-fire " are kennings for " sword ".

A term may be omitted from a well-known kenning: val-teigs Hildr “ hawk-ground ’ s valkyrie / goddess ” ( Haraldr Harðráði: Lausavísa 19 ).

" In chapter 22, additional quotes from Haustlöng are provided where a kenning is employed for the god Hœnir that refers to Meili (" step-Meili ").

The term kenning has been applied by modern scholars to similar figures of speech in other languages too, especially Old English.

In Old Norse poetry, either component of a kenning ( base-word or determinant or both ) could consist of an ordinary noun or else a heiti “ poetic synonym ”.

Some scholars take the term kenning broadly to include any noun-substitute consisting of two or more elements, including merely descriptive epithets ( such as Old Norse grand viðar “ bane of wood ” = “ fire ” ( Snorri Sturluson: Skáldskaparmál 36 )), while others would restrict it to metaphorical instances ( such as Old Norse sól húsanna “ sun of the houses ” = “ fire ” ( Snorri Sturluson: Skáldskaparmál 36 )), specifically those where “ he base-word identifies the referent with something which it is not, except in a specially conceived relation which the poet imagines between it and the sense of the limiting element '” ( Brodeur ( 1959 ) pp. 248 – 253 ).

‘ The Old English kenning: A characteristic feature of Germanic poetical diction ?’ Modern Philology 67: 2, pp. 109 – 117.

Simek says that Snorri ’ s description is further proven faithful by way of the ( above mentioned ) 10th century skaldic kenning “ Kvasir ’ s blood ” ( Old Norse Kvasis dreya ), and that strong parallels exist between the Old Norse tale of the theft of the Mead of Poetry by Odin ( in the form of an eagle ) and the Sanskrit tale of the theft of Soma — beverage of the gods — by the god Indra ( or an eagle ), and that these parallels point to a common Proto-Indo-European basis.

Álfröðull ( Old Norse " elf-beam ", " elf-disc " or " elf-glory, elf-heaven ") is a term and common kenning in Norse mythology.

Henry Sweet, a philologist and early linguist specializing in Germanic languages, proposed that the name Beowulf literally means in Old English " bee-wolf " or " bee-hunter " and that it is a kenning for " bear ".

This kind of poetic license is known as kenning in the old Norse poetry tradition.

This is supported by a kenning in a Norse poem that refers to " Grani's beautious burden ," indicating a common understanding of the motif.

Most likely the shapeshifting, shamanic áss Odin is meant, but the Christian god has absorbed this kenning in later Norse poetry.

" In chapter 2, " wolf's enemy " is cited as a kenning for Odin as used by the 10th century skald Egill Skallagrímsson.

In chapter 9, " feeder of the wolf " is given as a kenning for Týr and, in chapter 11, " slayer of Fenrisúlfr " is presented as a kenning for Víðarr.

In chapter 5 of the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál, Hel is mentioned in a kenning for Baldr (" Hel's companion ").

In chapter 16, " Hel's [...] relative or father " is given as a kenning for Loki.

The unstated noun the kenning refers to is called its referent, in this case: skip “ ship ”.

The skalds also employed complex kennings in which the determinant, or sometimes the base-word, is itself made up of a further kenning: grennir gunn-más “ feeder of war-gull ” = “ feeder of raven ” = “ warrior ” ( Þorbjörn hornklofi: Glymdrápa 6 ); eyðendr arnar hungrs “ destroyers of eagle ’ s hunger ”

Where one kenning is embedded in another like this, the whole figure is said to be tvíkent “ doubly determined, twice modified ”.

Frequently, where the determinant is itself a kenning, the base-word of the kenning that makes up the determinant is attached uninflected to the front of the base-word of the whole kenning to form a compound word: mög-fellandi mellu “ son-slayer of giantess ”

“ The ninth is extending a kenning to the fifth determinant, but it is out of proportion if it is extended further.

Snorri ’ s expression kend heiti " qualified terms " appears to be synonymous with kenningar, although Brodeur applies this more specifically to those periphrastic epithets which don ’ t come under his strict definition of kenning.

* kenning: A metonymic compound where the terms together form a sort of anecdote

Snorri ’ s own usage, however, seems to fit the looser sense: “ Snorri uses the term " kenning " to refer to a structural device, whereby a person or object is indicated by a periphrastic description containing two or more terms ( which can be a noun with one or more dependent genitives or a compound noun or a combination of these two structures )” ( Faulkes ( 1998 a ), p. xxxiv ).

In skaldic poetry gold was often referred to with the kenning the seed of the Fyris Wolds.

A battle rages with great slaughter, and part of the description employs the kenning " Skögul's-stormblast " for " battle ".

A battle rages with great slaughter, and part of the description employs the kenning " Skögul's-stormblast " for " battle ".

A battle rages with great slaughter, and part of the description employs the kenning " Skögul's-stormblast " for " battle ".

Firney is probably not a place name, but possibly Fear-island or Far-island, and a kenning for the realm of the dead.

Other synonyms could of course serve the same function, and for the sake of ease I shall speak of kennings and epithets in the widest and loosest possible sense, and name, for example, Gar-Dene a kenning for the Danes.

The term is certainly applied to non-metaphorical phrases in Skáldskaparmál: En sú kenning er áðr var ritat, at kalla Krist konung manna, þá kenning má eiga hverr konungr.

“ And that kenning which was written before, calling Christ the king of men, any king can have that kenning.

This kenning follows a convention whereby the name of any god is combined with some male attribute ( e. g. war or weaponry ) to produce a kenning for " man ".

A possible early kenning for " gold " ( walha-kurna " Roman / Gallic grain ") is attested in the Ancient Nordic runic inscription on the Tjurkö ( I )- C bracteate.

In chapter 20, " daughter of Njörðr " is given as a kenning for Freyja.