Lately, I've been thinking about kennings

[conuly]

A kenning, to put this very simply, is a poetic substitution for a common word. They're quite popular in Norse poetry - instead of saying "gold" you might say "Sif's hair" (which was replaced with a magical wig of gold), instead of saying "sun" you might say "sky's jewel".

If you look at it right, kennings exist in Modern English as well - we refer to Superman as "the Man of Steel", and small children as "rugrats", and there's a whole host of highly offensive slurs that fit the bill as well. (If you don't look at it right, they don't exist in Modern English really, because we don't do much with them. But I like to think they do, so... yeah.)

I have spent a considerable amount of time amusing myself by writing out lists of kennings in Modern English (four eyes, skyscraper, Caped Crusader, pencil pusher...), but I will refrain from inflicting the entire list on you all. These lists are much more interesting to compose than to read anyway. Also, I'm hoping that if I don't pretend to be comprehensive, somebody will suggest a term that I've completely overlooked.

Comments

[lunadelcorvo]

Love this! I actually was thinking something similar when I last read Beowulf with a class. You HAVE to post the list!!!! Us language nerds need to give each other things to squee over! LOL

[conuly]

I can post a list, but it really will be small and incomplete and somebody is bound to pop up and go "That doesn't count" and I'll get snippy.

LOL, I probably *will* post a list soon anyway, I just am feeling random anxiety over it.

[lunadelcorvo]

LOL I get that... :)