Kenning

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As a Kenning (Norse pronunciation: [cʰɛnːɪŋg], modern Icelandic pronunciation: [cʰɛnːiŋk] comes from . Old Norse kenna "mark" Pl. Kennings ) is in the old Germanic, especially the Old Icelandic alliteration seal ( Edda , Skalden ) the stylistic device of a poetic description ( paraphrase ) of simple terms. In contrast to the one-part Heiti , comparable to a metaphor , the Kenning is a multi-part pictorial description made up of simple words. Kenningar are mostly associated with Old Norse , later Icelandic and Old English poetry.

etymology

The word comes from the Old Norse verb "kenna" and means "to know, recognize, perceive, feel, show, teach". In English it still occurs in terms like "uncanny" with the meaning "unnatural, uncanny, supernatural". Old Norse "kenna", Swedish "känna", Danish "kende", Norwegian "kjenne or" kjenna "with the meaning" announce, recognize, know "corresponds to Old English" cennan ", Old Frisian" kenna "or" kanna ", old Saxon" ( ant) kennian ", Middle Dutch and Dutch" know ", Old High German" chennan ", Middle High German and New High German" know ", Gothic" kannjan "meaning" acquaint "from proto-European * kannjanan" (causative jan verb).

Building a kenning

A Kenning is basically divided into a basic word ( Stofnorð ) and a defining word ( Kenniorð ), whereby both parts may consist of more than one word. The basic word replaces the term to be paraphrased by a word that is only partially applicable (e.g. "tree" for "man"). Only the defining word (e.g. "fight") leads back to the original meaning of the term and at the same time emphasizes this property. So the man becomes a fighting tree .

Occurrence

The Kenningar of the Old Norse price songs appear artificial in their accumulation and the linguistic boldness of their comparisons to the uninitiated, but awakened a prior knowledge of myths and legends in the aristocratic audience . The Kenning do not use epic genres such as hero poetry and storytelling . It was taken over from West Germanic poetry, here mostly in connection with alliteration , and is partly still productive in the poetic language today.

To justify the Kenningar, Jorge Luis Borges wrote in an essay: “The symbol shoulder blade is strange; but no less strange is the arm of man. If you think of it as a pointless leg that pokes out the armholes of the vest and that frays into five toes of embarrassing length, you suddenly realize how fundamentally strange it is. The Kenningar dictate this astonishment to us; they make us astonish at the world. They can lead to that bright astonishment that is metaphysics' only honorary title, its reward and its source. "

Examples

  • "Lindwurmlager" for gold
  • "Thing [= assembly] of weapons" for combat
  • "Whale Road" for sea
  • "Wave horse" for ship
  • "Wound bee" for arrow
  • "Heavenly candle" for sun
  • "Schwanenstraße" for river or lake
  • "Beewolf" ( Beowulf ) for bear

Some of the examples listed by Borges in his essay Die Kenningar (translated by Karl August Horst and Gisbert Haefs, contained in the volume Wickedracht und Ewigkeit ):

First degree (just one word)

  • "Arch strength" for arm
  • "Brow moons" for eyes
  • "Lid stars" for eyes
  • "Forehead moons" for eyes
  • "Kinnbackenwald" for beard
  • "Sword water" for blood
  • "Lauchtrunkschenkin" for Bringer des Mets
  • "Dunstroß" for earth
  • "Temple Wolf" for fire
  • "Wooden horse" for gallows
  • "Bronze of Discord" for gold
  • "Shoulder cliff" for head
  • "Raven bliss" for warriors
  • "Fighting geese" for arrows
  • "Sword storm" for battle
  • "Pocket snow" for silver
  • "Wolf wheat" for a dead person
  • "Dew of grief" for tears
  • "Reefs of Words" for teeth

Second degree (formed from a simple basic word and a kenning)

  • "The wheat of the red-bodied swans" for corpse

Third degree (Kenningar can only be explained by the mythology of the time)

  • "The Perdition of the Dwarfs" for Sun

Modern examples

  • "Howler" for vacuum cleaners
  • "Bike" for bicycles
  • "Firewater" for strongly alcoholic beverages
  • "Fire chair" for motorcycle
  • "Fire horse" for steam locomotive

See also

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Kenning  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Footnotes

  1. ↑ https://www.dwds.de/wb/kennen#et-1 . Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  2. ^ A b c Franz Seewald: Skalden Sagas , Insel Verlag 1981