Before delving into the use of Kennings in the Eddas, it would probably be useful to give a definition of what the Eddas are exactly. The following is from the Wikipedia page.
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Poetic Edda
Also known as Sæmundar Edda or the Elder Edda, this is a collection of Old Norse poems from the Icelandic medieval manuscript Codex Regius ("Royal Book"). Along with the Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most expansive source on Norse mythology. The first part of the Codex Regius preserves poems that narrate the creation and foretold destruction and rebirth of the Old Norse mythological world as well as individual myths about gods concerning Norse deities. The poems in the second part narrate legends about Norse heroes and heroines, such as Sigurd, Brynhildr and Gunnar.
The Codex Regius was written down in the 13th century but nothing was known of its whereabouts until 1643 when it came into the possession of Brynjólfur Sveinsson, then the Church of Iceland's Bishop of Skálholt. At that time, versions of the Prose Edda were well known in Iceland, but scholars speculated that there once was another Edda—an Elder Edda—which contained the pagan poems Snorri quotes in his book. When the Codex Regius was discovered, it seemed that this speculation had proven correct. Brynjólfur attributed the manuscript to Sæmundr the Learned, a larger-than-life 12th century Icelandic priest. While this attribution is rejected by modern scholars, the name Sæmundar Edda is still sometimes encountered.
Bishop Brynjólfur sent the Codex Regius as a present to King Christian IV of Denmark, hence the name Codex Regius. For centuries it was stored in the Royal Library in Copenhagen but in 1971 it was returned to Iceland.
Prose Edda
Sometimes referred to as the Younger Edda or Snorri's Edda is an Icelandic manual of poetics which also contains many mythological stories. Its purpose was to enable Icelandic poets and readers to understand the subtleties of alliterative verse, and to grasp the mythological allusions behind the many kennings that were used in skaldic poetry.
It was written by the Icelandic scholar and historian Snorri Sturluson around 1220. It survives in seven main manuscripts, written down from about 1300 to about 1600.
The Prose Edda consists of a Prologue and three separate books: Gylfaginning, concerning the creation and foretold destruction and rebirth of the Norse mythical world; Skáldskaparmál, a dialogue between Ægir, a Norse god connected with the sea, and Bragi, the skaldic god of poetry; and Háttatal, a demonstration of verse forms used in Norse mythology.
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Of special importance to us will be the Skáldskaparmál (link to entire text), the second book of the Prose Edda. Skaldskaparmal translates to "the language of poetry" and begins in a dialogue form, though that sort of peters out toward the end. As mentioned in the overview, the dialogue is between Aegir, god of the sea, and Bragi, god of poetry. Bragi at first tells some mythological stories, eventually landing on the myth of the origin of poetical inspiration. Following this, Bragi gives a comprehensive and systematic listing of kennings for various beings, deities, things, etc. The illustrative quotations involved in this section are not written by Sturluson, but are from the earlier Poetic Edda and other texts. The Skaldskaparmal then investigates other aspects of Old Norse poetry and mythology, even having a comprehensive index of sorts toward the end of every character, their various names, and also the different names that things and animals may be called or described as (periphrastic names, adjectives, names in reference to other beings, etc) . This could be used as a sort of kenning repository and generator. For instance, the following entry is made for BEAR: grizzly, mighty one, she-bear, elgvindr, dark-tooth, ice-wolf, haltered, bassi, growler, rough, greedy one, robber, lorek, mosni, forest-walker, cub, snarler, winter-survivor, greedy-tooth, yellow-bum, hooded one, shriveled gut. (Sturluson, 2001, p. 164)
Thus, a kenning that may be constructed for bear could be "dark-toothed robber" or "snarling winter-survivor". Of course, these could be and endlessly complex circumlocution. They might call the sea "earth of the fish." Next, they could replace the word "fish" by the kenning "snake of the fjord." Then, they might substitute for "fjord" the kenning "bench of the ship." The result was a strange, prolix thing: "earth of the snake of the bench of the ship"--which, of course, simply meant "sea." This same kind of self-referential jargon was at play with many kennings in reference to the gods and their deeds. One must have a working knowledge of the myths to understand many of the kennings. As Einar Haugen (1983) states in his essay "The Edda as Ritual": "The skalds demonstrate by their use of kennings with mystical content that they know many myths. But they do not tell them, they only allude to them" (p. 3) A prime example of this would be the kenning of "Sif's hair" standing in for gold, derived from the story of when Loki cut off Sif's hair. In order to amend his crime, Loki had the dwarf Dvalin make new hair for Sif, a wig of gold that grew like normal hair.
In the Skaldsparmal, the poetry god Bragi says "the third category of language is called kenning, and this category is constructed in this way, that we speak of Odin or Thor or Tyr or one of the Aesir or elves, is such a way that with each of those that I mention, I add a term for an attribute they possess or make mention of one or more of his deeds. But these things have now to be told to young poets who desire to learn the language of poetry and to furnish themselves with a wide vocabulary using traditional terms" (Sturluson, 2001, p. 64). The kenning is, in one practical sense, a learning tool. To know, understand and live the lessons contained within the mythological poems, one must put a great deal of time and effort into understanding each of the stories and the multitude of kennings that had been constructed.
H.R.E Davidson (1983), in his essay "Insults and Riddles in the Edda Poems", investigates an episode in which Bragi is challenged by a troll-woman who recites a verse to him. Her verse is made up of kennings for troll, while Bragi's verse is made up of kennings for skald (poet), and follows the same pattern. These kinds of tests of knowledge as a battle with life and death importance are allegorical for the mythological tradition being passed down and being the binding agent that held the culture together. Not only do these contest-poems of knowledge about genealogies, gods, events, kennings, etc, serve a practical purpose of making permanent record of different aspects of the mythology, but they also provided opportunity for commentary and addendum to old tales - thus keeping them relevant (pp. 32-33). The kennings themselves, as talked about earlier, may contain within themselves reference to several other stories or characters, they are rich with interconnectedness, so to speak. So, to understand what was happening, one must gain knowledge of these events/things, making the kennings a keen device for keeping tradition alive and regenerating.
The richest resource that we were able to find in terms of the functionality of kennings in the Eddas is Peter Hallberg, specifically his essay "Elements of Imagery in the Edda". In it, he explores this idea of the kenning as a sort of conduit that holds together the entirety of the Norse myths and sagas. To fully illustrate this concept, we will start from making a demarcation between what we can call "lower" and "higher" kennings, then move on to the role of these "higher" kennings in individual poems, and finally end at the lynchpinning role they play in the mythology at a whole.
To begin this process, let us investigate the two categories that Hallberg splits Norse kennings into. The first category is kennings that are simply paraphrases that may or may not include metaphor. For instance, calling the sun the "fair wheel" is a metaphorical paraphrase. However, the kind of kennings that "play an important part by widening the frame of reference" (1983, p. 49) are those which also function as allusions. As an example, the many kennings for Thor in the Hymiskviða "evoke a wealth of associations which complete the picture of the protagonist, giving a stronger impression of his status and importance (1983, p. 49).
The role that these "higher" or "proper" kennings play within individual poems can be illustrated by looking at the Völuspá of the Poetic Edda. This is, perhaps, the most well known work of Old Norse mythological poetry, as it contains both the creation myth and the Ragnarok myth (basically, the apocalypse of the gods in which Thor, Odin, etc, are killed). Here, kennings "appear not for their own sake, but are integrated into the total vision of the poem" and "are never confined to details but always refer to the central eschatological theme and its development" (Hallberg, 1983, p. 61). Fire is throughout the poem, and is sometimes referred to as "Surtr's relative". Surtr is a giant, ruler of the southern world of fire, and one of the main adversaries of the gods in the decisive battle. Later, we hear of him coming from the south with "the scourge of branches", another kenning for fire. The fact that during the Ragnarok the life-giving world-tree Yggdrasil will be burned to ash is alluded to via kennings for fire that translate to "horror of the birch", "sorry of the yew-tree", and "the ruin of the linden". The kennings here are all revolving around a main theme and feeding each-other, in a sense.
Finally, as we have spoken about earlier, the kennings function by "widening the frame of reference" for the mythology and culture as whole: "The kennings often presuppose a certain familiarity on the part of the listener/reader with the whole system and its basic principles" (Hallberg, 1983, p. 60). This constant interdependent self-referencing reinforces, evolves, and keeps relevant the entire belief system. Kennings could be considered one of the most important aspects of Norse literature in general for this role that they play, a sort of point of synthesis for the whole naturalistic, pagan worldview. Hallberg (1983) states it well when he says: "In the Poetic Edda we meet a world that is animated. Celestial bodies, sun and moon, but also man-made objects such as ships and swords, are invested with a life of their own. ... The image of man constantly draws on references to animal life. Man and his activities are compared to bears, eagles, hawks, horses, wolves, and so on. Thus the imagery of Eddic poetry in a way dissolves the strict limits between myth, nature, things, and man. It reflects a total, synthetic view of the world" (p. 84).
In Anglo-Saxon literature, this allusory function of kennings is non-existent; they are simply the periphrastic/metaphorical concoctions that Hallberg would put into the "lower" kenning category. As an example, the poem The Wanderer from the Exeter Book contains many kennings, all of that type: gold-lord, sea-lord, spirit-chest, treasure-chamber, etc. Kennings consisting of a genitive phrase occur too, but rarely. This makes sense, as kennings originated with the Scandinavians, the name kenning itself is an Old Icelandic term (Gardner, 1969, p. 109). As the practice spread / was brought to England, the more mystical-laden and culturally binding aspects of kennings most likely dropped off. However, the influence was great on Anglo-Saxon literature (Beowulf, which is influenced both by the style and the content of Norse myths, is the prime example). The practice is strongly felt all the way into our time, as well. Think of phrases such as "gas guzzler", "book worm", "tree hugger", "rug rat", "ankle biter", "motor mouth", "bean counter", etc. The Eddas themselves have had enormous influence on everything from literature (Lord of the Rings), opera (Wagner's Götterdämmerung), to modern blockbuster films (The Avengers, Thor).
-
Poetic Edda
Also known as Sæmundar Edda or the Elder Edda, this is a collection of Old Norse poems from the Icelandic medieval manuscript Codex Regius ("Royal Book"). Along with the Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most expansive source on Norse mythology. The first part of the Codex Regius preserves poems that narrate the creation and foretold destruction and rebirth of the Old Norse mythological world as well as individual myths about gods concerning Norse deities. The poems in the second part narrate legends about Norse heroes and heroines, such as Sigurd, Brynhildr and Gunnar.
The Codex Regius was written down in the 13th century but nothing was known of its whereabouts until 1643 when it came into the possession of Brynjólfur Sveinsson, then the Church of Iceland's Bishop of Skálholt. At that time, versions of the Prose Edda were well known in Iceland, but scholars speculated that there once was another Edda—an Elder Edda—which contained the pagan poems Snorri quotes in his book. When the Codex Regius was discovered, it seemed that this speculation had proven correct. Brynjólfur attributed the manuscript to Sæmundr the Learned, a larger-than-life 12th century Icelandic priest. While this attribution is rejected by modern scholars, the name Sæmundar Edda is still sometimes encountered.
Bishop Brynjólfur sent the Codex Regius as a present to King Christian IV of Denmark, hence the name Codex Regius. For centuries it was stored in the Royal Library in Copenhagen but in 1971 it was returned to Iceland.
Prose Edda
Sometimes referred to as the Younger Edda or Snorri's Edda is an Icelandic manual of poetics which also contains many mythological stories. Its purpose was to enable Icelandic poets and readers to understand the subtleties of alliterative verse, and to grasp the mythological allusions behind the many kennings that were used in skaldic poetry.
It was written by the Icelandic scholar and historian Snorri Sturluson around 1220. It survives in seven main manuscripts, written down from about 1300 to about 1600.
The Prose Edda consists of a Prologue and three separate books: Gylfaginning, concerning the creation and foretold destruction and rebirth of the Norse mythical world; Skáldskaparmál, a dialogue between Ægir, a Norse god connected with the sea, and Bragi, the skaldic god of poetry; and Háttatal, a demonstration of verse forms used in Norse mythology.
-
Of special importance to us will be the Skáldskaparmál (link to entire text), the second book of the Prose Edda. Skaldskaparmal translates to "the language of poetry" and begins in a dialogue form, though that sort of peters out toward the end. As mentioned in the overview, the dialogue is between Aegir, god of the sea, and Bragi, god of poetry. Bragi at first tells some mythological stories, eventually landing on the myth of the origin of poetical inspiration. Following this, Bragi gives a comprehensive and systematic listing of kennings for various beings, deities, things, etc. The illustrative quotations involved in this section are not written by Sturluson, but are from the earlier Poetic Edda and other texts. The Skaldskaparmal then investigates other aspects of Old Norse poetry and mythology, even having a comprehensive index of sorts toward the end of every character, their various names, and also the different names that things and animals may be called or described as (periphrastic names, adjectives, names in reference to other beings, etc) . This could be used as a sort of kenning repository and generator. For instance, the following entry is made for BEAR: grizzly, mighty one, she-bear, elgvindr, dark-tooth, ice-wolf, haltered, bassi, growler, rough, greedy one, robber, lorek, mosni, forest-walker, cub, snarler, winter-survivor, greedy-tooth, yellow-bum, hooded one, shriveled gut. (Sturluson, 2001, p. 164)
Thus, a kenning that may be constructed for bear could be "dark-toothed robber" or "snarling winter-survivor". Of course, these could be and endlessly complex circumlocution. They might call the sea "earth of the fish." Next, they could replace the word "fish" by the kenning "snake of the fjord." Then, they might substitute for "fjord" the kenning "bench of the ship." The result was a strange, prolix thing: "earth of the snake of the bench of the ship"--which, of course, simply meant "sea." This same kind of self-referential jargon was at play with many kennings in reference to the gods and their deeds. One must have a working knowledge of the myths to understand many of the kennings. As Einar Haugen (1983) states in his essay "The Edda as Ritual": "The skalds demonstrate by their use of kennings with mystical content that they know many myths. But they do not tell them, they only allude to them" (p. 3) A prime example of this would be the kenning of "Sif's hair" standing in for gold, derived from the story of when Loki cut off Sif's hair. In order to amend his crime, Loki had the dwarf Dvalin make new hair for Sif, a wig of gold that grew like normal hair.
In the Skaldsparmal, the poetry god Bragi says "the third category of language is called kenning, and this category is constructed in this way, that we speak of Odin or Thor or Tyr or one of the Aesir or elves, is such a way that with each of those that I mention, I add a term for an attribute they possess or make mention of one or more of his deeds. But these things have now to be told to young poets who desire to learn the language of poetry and to furnish themselves with a wide vocabulary using traditional terms" (Sturluson, 2001, p. 64). The kenning is, in one practical sense, a learning tool. To know, understand and live the lessons contained within the mythological poems, one must put a great deal of time and effort into understanding each of the stories and the multitude of kennings that had been constructed.
H.R.E Davidson (1983), in his essay "Insults and Riddles in the Edda Poems", investigates an episode in which Bragi is challenged by a troll-woman who recites a verse to him. Her verse is made up of kennings for troll, while Bragi's verse is made up of kennings for skald (poet), and follows the same pattern. These kinds of tests of knowledge as a battle with life and death importance are allegorical for the mythological tradition being passed down and being the binding agent that held the culture together. Not only do these contest-poems of knowledge about genealogies, gods, events, kennings, etc, serve a practical purpose of making permanent record of different aspects of the mythology, but they also provided opportunity for commentary and addendum to old tales - thus keeping them relevant (pp. 32-33). The kennings themselves, as talked about earlier, may contain within themselves reference to several other stories or characters, they are rich with interconnectedness, so to speak. So, to understand what was happening, one must gain knowledge of these events/things, making the kennings a keen device for keeping tradition alive and regenerating.
The richest resource that we were able to find in terms of the functionality of kennings in the Eddas is Peter Hallberg, specifically his essay "Elements of Imagery in the Edda". In it, he explores this idea of the kenning as a sort of conduit that holds together the entirety of the Norse myths and sagas. To fully illustrate this concept, we will start from making a demarcation between what we can call "lower" and "higher" kennings, then move on to the role of these "higher" kennings in individual poems, and finally end at the lynchpinning role they play in the mythology at a whole.
To begin this process, let us investigate the two categories that Hallberg splits Norse kennings into. The first category is kennings that are simply paraphrases that may or may not include metaphor. For instance, calling the sun the "fair wheel" is a metaphorical paraphrase. However, the kind of kennings that "play an important part by widening the frame of reference" (1983, p. 49) are those which also function as allusions. As an example, the many kennings for Thor in the Hymiskviða "evoke a wealth of associations which complete the picture of the protagonist, giving a stronger impression of his status and importance (1983, p. 49).
The role that these "higher" or "proper" kennings play within individual poems can be illustrated by looking at the Völuspá of the Poetic Edda. This is, perhaps, the most well known work of Old Norse mythological poetry, as it contains both the creation myth and the Ragnarok myth (basically, the apocalypse of the gods in which Thor, Odin, etc, are killed). Here, kennings "appear not for their own sake, but are integrated into the total vision of the poem" and "are never confined to details but always refer to the central eschatological theme and its development" (Hallberg, 1983, p. 61). Fire is throughout the poem, and is sometimes referred to as "Surtr's relative". Surtr is a giant, ruler of the southern world of fire, and one of the main adversaries of the gods in the decisive battle. Later, we hear of him coming from the south with "the scourge of branches", another kenning for fire. The fact that during the Ragnarok the life-giving world-tree Yggdrasil will be burned to ash is alluded to via kennings for fire that translate to "horror of the birch", "sorry of the yew-tree", and "the ruin of the linden". The kennings here are all revolving around a main theme and feeding each-other, in a sense.
Finally, as we have spoken about earlier, the kennings function by "widening the frame of reference" for the mythology and culture as whole: "The kennings often presuppose a certain familiarity on the part of the listener/reader with the whole system and its basic principles" (Hallberg, 1983, p. 60). This constant interdependent self-referencing reinforces, evolves, and keeps relevant the entire belief system. Kennings could be considered one of the most important aspects of Norse literature in general for this role that they play, a sort of point of synthesis for the whole naturalistic, pagan worldview. Hallberg (1983) states it well when he says: "In the Poetic Edda we meet a world that is animated. Celestial bodies, sun and moon, but also man-made objects such as ships and swords, are invested with a life of their own. ... The image of man constantly draws on references to animal life. Man and his activities are compared to bears, eagles, hawks, horses, wolves, and so on. Thus the imagery of Eddic poetry in a way dissolves the strict limits between myth, nature, things, and man. It reflects a total, synthetic view of the world" (p. 84).
In Anglo-Saxon literature, this allusory function of kennings is non-existent; they are simply the periphrastic/metaphorical concoctions that Hallberg would put into the "lower" kenning category. As an example, the poem The Wanderer from the Exeter Book contains many kennings, all of that type: gold-lord, sea-lord, spirit-chest, treasure-chamber, etc. Kennings consisting of a genitive phrase occur too, but rarely. This makes sense, as kennings originated with the Scandinavians, the name kenning itself is an Old Icelandic term (Gardner, 1969, p. 109). As the practice spread / was brought to England, the more mystical-laden and culturally binding aspects of kennings most likely dropped off. However, the influence was great on Anglo-Saxon literature (Beowulf, which is influenced both by the style and the content of Norse myths, is the prime example). The practice is strongly felt all the way into our time, as well. Think of phrases such as "gas guzzler", "book worm", "tree hugger", "rug rat", "ankle biter", "motor mouth", "bean counter", etc. The Eddas themselves have had enormous influence on everything from literature (Lord of the Rings), opera (Wagner's Götterdämmerung), to modern blockbuster films (The Avengers, Thor).