Hello toads, today I want to connect back to Kerry’s prompt on compound nouns and a comment made by Hedge where she said she often created new ones by herself. So do I sometimes, and it's called a kenning.
This made me think of a prompt I ran a couple of years ago on kennings. According to wikipedia kenning is:
A kenning (Modern Icelandic pronunciation: [cʰɛnːiŋk]; derived from Old Norse) is a type of circumlocution, in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse and later Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon poetry.
So as a poetic device this is a complex word (usually a noun) that is used as trope or brief metaphor for poetic effects. This can be for a number of reasons: the imagery itself, the meter or the rhyme, to create a twist. Basically it’s a useful tool that we can add to our toolbox. Make your metaphors short and bouncy,
In English we usually use a hyphen between the words: (for instance whale-road for the sea) but in Germanic language the hyphen often disappears and the words are written together. Actually many existing compound nouns have been been created as a kenning, and at least in Scandinavian languages it is the alive to create new words. If you like to create compound verbs the same way I think it can be even more fun.
I wrote a poem for toads a long time ago for women’s day but I linked up late so very few of you read it I believe.
Unfortunately not like every day
Sweet moon-dancer
and the meal-creator
Our garden-friend,
and diamond-bearer,
lullaby-singer
honey-whisperer
Our decision-maker
and unpaid-laborer.
The butterfly-charmer
and home-defender.
Today it's women's day,
like every day should be
In this case I have used several different word combinations that I thought would describe a woman, and thereafter I made a list poem. That’s one way. You are free to use any word or concept and create as many kennings as you like.
The life-cycle of kennings follow the same concept as a metaphor. First a poet create his unique one, then it might become a cliche and finally it might be part of our vocabulary or toolbox of idioms.
So your challenge today.
- Create a couple of new compound nouns. let them be memorable by funny or lyrical, maybe even cryptic.
- Use these new compound nouns to create a poem on any topic you like. You might even want to write it on a challenge you have missed.
Link up your new poem (or poems), have fun and read what other poets might have done.