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A kenning (Old English kenning [cʰɛnːiŋɡ], Modern Icelandic [cʰɛnːiŋk]) is a circumlocution, an ambiguous or roundabout figure of speech, used instead of an ordinary noun in Old Norse, Old English, and later Icelandic poetry.
A kenning is a figure of speech in which two words are combined in order to form a poetic expression that refers to a person or a thing. For example, "whale-road" is a kenning for the sea. Kennings are most commonly found in Old Norse and Old English poetry. Some additional key details about kennings:
5 gru 2022 · A kenning is a unique type of metaphor or word combination. Kenning examples help illuminate this figure of speech in life, literature, poetry and more.
Kennings are often examples of metaphor in that they make connections between previously unrelated concepts in an imaginative way. Through abstracting a common noun in the culture, kennings create a more poetic sense to the poetry or prose.
Definition, Usage and a list of Kenning Examples in common speech and literature. A Kenning is derived from Norse and Anglo-Saxon poetry.
A kenning (Icelandic: [cʰɛnːiŋk]) is a figure of speech, a figuratively -phrased compound term that is used in place of a simple single-word noun. For instance, the Anglo-Saxon kenning "whale's road" (hron rade) means "sea", as does swanrād ("swan's road"). A kenning has two parts: a base-word (also known as a head-word) and a determinant.
What is an example of a kenning? An example of a kenning is “bookworm.” This phrase evokes the image of someone who wants to spend all their time reading. It is a combination of two unrelated words to form a new meaning.
