A. Poetic terminology
This is not currently part of the peer-reviewed material of the project. Do not cite as a research publication.
(For clarity, recommended terminology is underlined here; it will not, of course, be underlined in normal usage.)
• skaldic not scaldic
• eddic, not Eddic or Eddaic
‡ • Drápa, flokkr, kviða and vísa are used for longer skaldic forms, with appropriate Icelandic pls.
• stanza(s), not strophes, referring to full eight-line units of dróttkvætt, or the equivalent in other metres. When referring to particular stanzas, abbreviate as st., sts, e.g. st. 5, sts 5-8.
• helmingr or half-stanza for a four-line unit; couplet for two lines.
‡ • verse(s) can also be used to refer to an incomplete stanza; a mix of complete stanzas and isolated helmingar or couplets; or a generic term is required; abbreviate numbered verses as v. 5, vv. 5-8.
• line is the six-syllable unit in dróttkvætt or its counterpart in other metres.
‡ • The word kenning is treated as English, pl. kennings, but heiti, sannkenningar, viðkenningar are used, i.e. Icelandic pls. In parallel with the suggestion for kennings above, heiti for specific concepts can be referred to as battle-heiti or heiti for ‘battle’.
• battle-kennings or kennings for ‘battle’ in discussions of types of kenning.
• The components of kennings are base-word and determinant, e.g. ‘stave [base-word] of the sword [determinant] > WARRIOR’ or ‘sea[determinant]-flame[base-word] > GOLD’. The determinant is in the genitive case or is the first element of a compound. The person or thing denoted by the kenning is the referent, here WARRIOR or GOLD.
Kennings may be:
i) simple, as in the warrior- and gold-kennings above;
ii) tvíkennt ‘double kenning’, when the determinant is itself a kenning, e.g. ‘stave of the icicle of battle, where ‘icicle of battle’ is SWORD, and ‘stave of the sword’ is WARRIOR;
iii) rekit ‘extended, chased’, when a kenning forms the determinant to a further kenning which is determinant to yet another enclosing kenning, e.g. ‘stave of the icicle of the tumult of axes’, where ‘tumult of axes’ = BATTLE, ‘icicle of the tumult of axes’ = SWORD and ‘stave of the sword’ = WARRIOR.