Definition of "kennings" []

• Plural form of kenning. (noun)

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• "A similar use of periphrasis occurs in Anglo-Saxon kennings ( 'world-candle' for sun, 'battle-adders' for arrows)."
• "They engaged in close study of its measure and meter, its heavy use of poetic "kennings" - evocative euphemisms describing the sea as the "whale-road" and so forth - and its preoccupation with Anglo-Saxon alliteration."
• "The extra spacing between the bird-name and the "kennings", for instance, reflects the gulf between ornithological category and the elusive, living thing."