How does a kenning such as âwhale-pathâ describe the sea?
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figure of speech
Front cover of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women.
A kenning is a concise, figurative compound phrase used in Old Germanic, Old Norse, and Old English poetry to replace a common noun.12
The kenning "whale-path" describes the sea by using a metaphor that identifies the ocean as a route or thoroughfare for the creatures that inhabit it. By substituting the literal term "sea" with a descriptive compound, the poet evokes a specific imageâin this case, the vast, watery expanse serving as a road for whalesâto characterize the environment through its function and inhabitants. This rhetorical device relies on the audience's ability to perceive or "know" the intended meaning behind the allusion, a practice rooted in the Old Norse word kenna, meaning to perceive, know, or name.12