I. Guidelines for translating kennings

i.       Kennings are to be translated fully, i.e. base-word and determinant translated, not reduced to the meaning of whole, e.g. '{stave of the sword}' not 'man', '{sea-flame}' not 'gold'. Kennings will be enclosed in curly brackets (braces) as in these examples. The brackets are designed to assist in the encoding of kennings for reference material, and will not appear in the published edition.

ii.      Where the determinant and base-word are compounded in the original they can normally be translated by a hyphenated compound in English (especially because they form simple kennings or, in tvíkennt or rekit, they form the embedded determinant), e.g. '{sea-flame} [GOLD]' or '{stave of {the icicle of {axe-tumult}}} [BATTLE > SWORD > WARRIOR]'. In cases of inverted kennings, it will be preferable to 'unpack' the compounds: see § viii. below.

iii.     # Where the base-word and determinant are not compounded, and the determinant is in gen. case, the formulation 'base-word of the determinant' ({flame of the sea}) should be used (not 'determinant's base-word' ({sea's flame}). See also >>3. Guidelines on Presentation for Submission B-II-3-a.

iv.     Translations will be accompanied, as already illustrated, by explanation of the referent(s) in capitals, enclosed in square brackets. Where a kenning forms the determinant of another, enclosing, kenning, it will be on the right of the enclosing kenning in the translation, but on the left in the explanation, with an arrowhead indicating that it becomes the determinant of the outer kenning: i.e. the explanation unpacks the kenning in reverse order, culminating in the overall meaning. Kennings will be enclosed within curly brackets (braces), with enclosing kennings having further brackets. Thus, for example: 

         a.      '{stave of the sword} [WARRIOR]'

         b.       '{stave of {the icicle of battle}} [SWORD > WARRIOR]'

         g.       '{stave of {the icicle of {the tumult of axes}}} [BATTLE > SWORD > WARRIOR]'

A more complex example where the kenning includes a heiti that needs explaining is: 

'{the steed of {the wife of {the Yggr <= Óðinn> of {the river-bone}}}} [ROCK > GIANT > GIANTESS > WOLF]'.

v.      # A single referent will explain each kenning ('stave of the sword [WARRIOR]').

vi.     In some cases the explanation in square brackets might seem pedantic, since the expression is 'only just' a kenning, e.g. jalmr geira '{clash of spears} [BATTLE]' or vargsteypir '{felon-destroyer} [JUST RULER]'.  It should be included, however, if only to signal the presence of a kenning.

vii.    Kennings for identifiable people.  Kennings for specific persons will be divided into the following three categories:

         A.  Typifying kennings

         B.  Antonomasia

         C.  Miscellaneous

References