#  Kennings! 

 



**A kenning** is a characteristic rhetorical device of Old English poetry (and Old Norse). The typical kenning is a compound in which each element identifies an attribute through the figures of metaphor, synecdoche, and metonymy. It works by indirection. An Old English poem, for example, might call a sword a "battle-light" (*hilde-leoma*), because the polished steel gleams like a light (metaphor) and it is used for fighting (metonymy). Or it might call the human body a “bone-house” (*ban-hus*), where “bone” works by synecdoche and “house” by metaphor.

Before going further, be sure to review the tropes of [metaphor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor), [metonymy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy), and [synecdoche](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche). Pay special attention to the distinction between metonymy and synecdoche. More expansive treatments can be found in the [Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics](http://lms01.harvard.edu/F/9XYL4H4THNJP7LQQ1D9NEUS5BM4FEKEJPL5V3E5MBFVLXXGAMQ-05043?func=find-acc&acc_sequence=025214060).

Modern English has its share of kennings, especially if we expand the pool to include two-word phrases. For example, cigarettes have been called "coffin nails": "coffin" works by metonymy (lung cancer kills) and "nails" by metaphor (a cigarette resembles a nail in shape). Another example is "greasy spoon" for a downscale diner, where "greasy" connotes unhealthy fats and poor standards of cleanliness and "spoon" connotes eating. An argument can be made for “greasy” and “spoon” to work either as a synecdoche ***or*** a metonymy, and the exercise below asks you to make a case for one or the other. Whatever you decide, the important thing is to recognize that “greasy spoon” works by figural substitution. To put it another way, a literal reading of "greasy” and “spoon," whether as individual words or together as a phrase, does not indicate a place where people eat.

Not every clever phrase or compound is a kenning. "Pothole" would not make the list because even though "pot" is a metaphor, the hole is a hole. A sweatshop is a shop. A trophy wife is a wife. “Gridiron” meaning “football field” would not work because the compound as a whole is a metaphor, not its constituent parts. Same with “douchebag” or “scumbag” as an insult.