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    All About Kennings: (From The Vikings To The Present Day)

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    Maribie SA Metre
    1. Kennings are poetic devices used in Old English, Old Norse, and Old Irish literature to refer to something in an indirect, metaphorical way through two descriptive terms. 2. Kennings have a history of use in Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and Celtic literature, and can be found in historic texts like the Exeter Book, a 10th century manuscript that contains many riddles and kennings. 3. Modern examples show kennings can refer to everyday objects through creative, metaphorical descriptions that avoid directly naming the object.

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    All About Kennings: (From The Vikings To The Present Day)

    Uploaded by

    Maribie SA Metre
    49 views12 pages
    1. Kennings are poetic devices used in Old English, Old Norse, and Old Irish literature to refer to something in an indirect, metaphorical way through two descriptive terms. 2. Kennings have a history of use in Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and Celtic literature, and can be found in historic texts like the Exeter Book, a 10th century manuscript that contains many riddles and kennings. 3. Modern examples show kennings can refer to everyday objects through creative, metaphorical descriptions that avoid directly naming the object.

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    Kennings

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    1. Kennings are poetic devices used in Old English, Old Norse, and Old Irish literature to refer to something in an indirect, metaphorical way through two descriptive terms. 2. Kennings have a history of use in Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and Celtic literature, and can be found in historic texts like the Exeter Book, a 10th century manuscript that contains many riddles and kennings. 3. Modern examples show kennings can refer to everyday objects through creative, metaphorical descriptions that avoid directly naming the object.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    49 views12 pages

    All About Kennings: (From The Vikings To The Present Day)

    Uploaded by

    Maribie SA Metre
    1. Kennings are poetic devices used in Old English, Old Norse, and Old Irish literature to refer to something in an indirect, metaphorical way through two descriptive terms. 2. Kennings have a history of use in Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and Celtic literature, and can be found in historic texts like the Exeter Book, a 10th century manuscript that contains many riddles and kennings. 3. Modern examples show kennings can refer to everyday objects through creative, metaphorical descriptions that avoid directly naming the object.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    of 12

    All about kennings

    (from the Vikings to the present day)

    By the end of the lesson we will be able to:


    1. Define what a kenning is
    2. Say something about the history of kennings
    3. Work out what some kennings refer to
    On the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Word of
    mouth’ the poet Laurence Sail described
    kennings as ‘a way of describing
    something indirectly’
    They are a kind of ‘mini riddle’ - but one
    which is very much aimed at listeners
    rather than readers.
    At their simplest kennings can just be two
    words fused together with a hyphen to
    make a new noun.

    The two words can be noun/noun (swan-road


    = river) or noun/verb (skull-splitter = axe) and
    can be used to make a list describing an
    object, emotion, quality or animal, in any
    combination.
    An example of this kind of simple kenning is:
    Round-facer
    No-smiler
    Still-stander
    Two-hander
    Night-friendly
    Heart-beater
    Time-keeper
    Sudden-shrieker
    What am I?

    An alarm clock
    The word kenning is derived from the Old Norse
    phrase kenna eitt við, which means "to express a
    thing in terms of another", and is found
    throughout Norse, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic
    literature.

    (The national flag of Norway)


    When English books were rare all the "literature" in a
    particular part of the country might be all put together
    in one book. The great book we know as the "Exeter
    Book" was given to the library of Exeter Cathedral by
    the first bishop of Exeter, Leofric, who died in 1072.

    The Exeter book contains many riddles referring to


    things like a ‘thief-guest who was no wiser for
    having swallowed words’ (a bookworm)
    Now let’s look at some modern versions of
    kennings and see if we can work out what
    they’re about…..

    Ready?
    A famous kenning from 1970s
    advertising
    Lipsmackin' thirstquenchin' acetastin'
    motivatin' goodbuzzin' cooltalkin'
    highwalkin' fastlivin' evergivin'
    coolfizzin'
    What is it?
    Don’t let this picture fool you! Think hard about this one!

    I go through the wood in silence


    And come out onto the snow
    Where I leave my print although I have no footsteps
    Where I speak your heart although I cannot breathe

    What am I?

    I’m the lead in a pencil!


    Let me give you a clue about the next one!

    Grab the beast by the horns


    Wrestle it down the narrow streets
    ‘til you break its will to skitter its own way
    Subdue it, burden its ribcage
    Let your children ride and then let it stray
    Who cares?
    They’ll send a herdsman to round it up at the end of the day

    What is it?
    A supermarket
    trolley!
    So now can you:
    1. Define what a kenning is?
    2. Say something about the history of
    kennings (where could I find a book full
    of them?)
    3. Try some of the simple ones yourself.
    Writing them about animals is a good
    place to start

    Over to you……

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