Volume 51, Issue 1

A casual examination of the skaldic corpus suggests that a very large proportion of kennings are unique, that is, the nouns that form a kenning are very unlikely to appear elsewhere as a kenning, even when grammatical variation is taken into account. This enormous productivity is due to the principle of variability and substitution in kennings. The phenomenon is discussed in Fidjestøl’s 1974 structural analysis of the kenning system and presented there as a reversal of the principle of linguistic economy. This paper investigates this phenomenon by quantitatively analysing the kenning corpus as recorded in the skaldic database, in order to identify matching kennings within the corpus. The results are broken down according to the complexity of the kennings in question and are then examined in relation to the structural framework of the kenning system. It is shown, firstly, that a relatively small number of kennings are repeated (10–12 % of kennings are repeated), but that there is a fairly high amount of repetition among simple kennings (at least 25 % of simple kennings are found elsewhere in the corpus), suggesting that the kenning system has quantitative similarities with other linguistic systems, albeit with a much higher level of variability.

This article provides an analysis of kennings for ‘raven’ and ‘eagle’, taking a closer look at the choice and meanings of base-words, their connection with determinants and the formation of kenning patterns. It investigates the role of kenning parts in establishing the meaning of the referent, also taking into consideration adjectives and adjectival elements of compounded base-words. The article is also a test case for how information can be drawn from a new kenning lexicon in form of an online-database. The database format offers various possibilities to structure the corpus of kennings, for instance allowing the article’s focus on details concerning the construction of kennings and the usage and combination of base-words and determinants.

The skaldic kenning is frequently described as ‘riddling’ or ‘riddle-like’. Valuable work has been done (e. g. Lindow1975) in establishing the structural, linguistic, and cognitive similarities between kennings and riddles, but this has usually been done in terms of the broad modern English sense(s) of the word ‘riddle’ or ‘riddling’. This paper, more specifically, explores the comparison by examining Old Norse riddles, namely items described as gátur in their textual setting, and Old Norse kennings, in the context of each other. In doing so it highlights Old Norse poetic techniques of play and of cognition, how ‘riddling’ strategies work in context, and how both riddles and kennings provide fresh ways of perceiving and understanding the world.

To shed light on questions pertaining to the similarities and differences between kennings in Old English and in the Poetic Edda, a survey is undertaken of the density of kenning use in the two corpora. The likeliest conclusion to be drawn from a comparison of findings is that the two poetic traditions are rather similar in regard to kenning use. In both traditions, kennings are notably simpler and less riddle-like than in skaldic poetry, though the Edda contains a few kennings of sufficient complexity to suggest skaldic influence. Although kennings, on average, occur more frequently in Old English, the incidence is broadly similar to that in the Poetic Edda. Kennings are not uncommonly explained by the use of variation (apposition) in Old English, but less commonly in the Edda , although the difference does not specifically suggest discrepant attitudes toward kenning use in the two traditions, since variation is rare in the Edda under all circumstances. Although the possibility of the influence of one tradition upon the other cannot be ruled out, the similarities, in the main, are probably best explained as the result of common inheritance. This explanation garners support from the number of instances in which more or less precise cognate kennings appear in the two bodies of literature.

There are several reasons why it is of great importance to include the kennings of the metrical runic inscriptions in thorough investigations of kennings, albeit their number is not particularly high. One reason for this is that there are Viking-Age metrical inscriptions with kennings attested from Eastern Scandinavia, and mostly in eddic metres. Further, some of these kennings belong to the oldest kennings we know at all from Scandinavia, e. g. the kennings of the Theoderic-stanza on the Swedish Rök stone are older than the work of Bragi Boddason. To make it easier for further research to include these kennings, this article gives a short overview of this material. It is worth considering the kennings of the metrical runic inscriptions, for they show a great variety and they are highly developed. Beside the use of tvíkennt and rekit kennings, they testify the knowledge of half-kennings and the poetic device of ofljóst in medieval Norway.

Icelandic poets in the 16 th and 17 th century had great interest in formal features such as rhyme, kennings, and periphrasis. Rímur poets made use of Eddic diction and imagery but the use of kennings was not limited to rímur ; it can also be found in other kinds of poetry. Baroque delight in periphrasis and metrical complexity ensured a favorable reception for the renewed interest in dróttkvætt measure, with its aurally intriguing rhymes and complex kennings. The paper discusses the use of kennings and the connection between kennings, riddles and metaphors and also between kennings and Eddic and classical myths.

The article explores whether reading Lene Ask’s documentary graphic novel Kjære Rikard (‘Dear Rikard’) may provide children and adults with training in, and an increased awareness of the importance of, emotional literacy and theory of mind. In order to investigate this question, the authors of the article conduct a close reading of Ask’s novel, using terminology from narratology, picture book and comics’ theory, and look for connections between the findings from the analyses and insights from reader-response theory and cognitive literary studies. The authors suggest that in combination, Ask’s fictive and documentarist drawings and the excerpts from the hand-written correspondence between young Rikard in Stavanger and his father, a missionary in Madagaskar in the 1890s, invite both children and adult readers to develop a keen sense of the value of emotional literacy and theory of mind.

In the article KYKA / 1984 is studied as a concrete experiment with the printed book as a medium and with the double-book-format. Karin Moe is in this text dealing with questions concerning the relationship between work and text, and between work, text and reader. The article is an exploration of the design and the composition of the book, and it also explores several kinds of transtextuality, which are establishing interconnections with other literary works and genres. Questions raised by Moe in KYKA / 1984 concerning language and gender are also examined. An important objective of the article is to uncover how and why an experimental and critical investigation is carried out in a book copying a well-known commercial format.