What are Kennings?
Kennings are a niche form of poetry associated with the Nordic and Anglo-Saxon culture. They are fun, playful and form themselves into poems very easily. This makes them a popular choice of activity for schools, poets and historians. In short a kenning is a way of saying something without saying what it is. In Anglo-Saxon times this formed a game, a riddle to be worked out, or in Viking times it was a way to “talk over the heads’ of those who were not in the know. The know would consist of cult or popular cultural knowledge. In Starship Troopers they talk of dead colleagues having made a land deal. An opaque reference unless you know the saying “so and so has bought the farm”. That is of course a modern example, a truly Viking example would be to offer a thirsty man some poetry. Completely meaningless unless you know that poetry is the mead of Odin.
How do I write Kennings?
Anglo-Saxon kennings are slightly different but no less powerful. They consist of a verb and a noun which must be taken together in the interpretation along with a strong sense of reason and logic. You may call the cat a “mouse trap”, the moth “the night time flutterer”, or the mole “the tunnel burrower”. A good early kenning is “the iron shower”. This can fox children (a Viking kenning there because you need to know that in popular culture foxes are cunning) because they associate the words shower with the inside device for cleaning oneself but in this setting a shower refers to rain and when rain is as hard as iron it is hail.
Single kennings can be amusing but they come into their own when made into poems. This works best with either three, five or seven kennings about the same thing put into verse. One for the children to recite;
Red Pen user,
Maths giver,
Staff Room lounger.
Which is of course a teacher.