Kenning Haiku

  1. Kenning haiku are so named because they are one of the most succinct types of Kennexions GameComposition?.
  2. Each kenning haiku must consist of five sections:
  1. The Introduction section briefly states which word is the basis for the kenning haiku, and any other material the composer deems relevant. Here is an example of a simple Introduction:
This kenning haiku explores the meaning of the word sea. It will use only medieval Norse kennings for its quotations.
  1. Each Term section must consist of the following subsections:
Here is an example of a simple Term section:
Term 1: sea
Now for sea-steeds' [ships'] trunks [warriors] there is eagles' flight over land in store [i.e., the birds of prey are gathering, a battle is taking place].
--Havard the halt, quoted in Skaldskaparmal by Snorri Sturluson, translated in Edda by Anthony Faulkes, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc, 1996
       ship    steed  
       ---- :: -----   
       sea     road
       ship  = sea-steed    
       sea   = ship-road    
       steed = road-ship    
       road  = steed-sea  
This is a classical Norse kenning, and one of the easiest to understand, because it is so concrete. In their poetry, the ancient Norse called their ships "sea-steeds", among many other names, much as the ancient Greeks referred to the ocean itself by the Homeric epithet "the wine-dark sea". It follows by way of analogy that if a ship is a sea-steed, then the sea is a ship-road. Two other kennings also follow ("steed = road-ship" and "road = steed-sea").
Important: A proper kenning analogy will always give four kennings. The rule to create a kenning is "across, then diagonal". For example, moving from "sea" across to "ship" and then diagonally to "road" yields "sea = ship-road". In this way, you can create new kennings from old ones, or even from regular metaphors in world culture, if you can fill in the missing terms, as we did here by filling in the term "road".
To visualise the sea as a ship road, imagine a moonlit midnight on the ocean. A modern steel battleship is crossing the Atlantic at high speed. Ahead of it, on the surface of the sea, appears the watery image of an asphalt road. The dots in the dotted line on the road speed toward the ship and vanish underneath it as the ship cuts into the road. Behind the ship, there is only its wake. The ship is chewing up the miles.
  1. There are three Term sections in a kenning haiku. The first Term section expands the initial word into a two-term kenning, and the remaining two Term sections expand each of the terms in that kenning into a two-term kenning. The fully-expanded result is a four-term kenning.
  2. The Conclusion section makes the Quotation subsection optional but mandates the others. In the Conclusion, the Equation fully expands the kenning, the Explication summarises it, and the Visualisation provides a mnemonic image for the entire piece.
  3. Multimedia presentations may be included as part of the Quotations, but are not necessary. Similarly, it is not necessary to provide graphics for the Visualisations. Hyperlinks to material (textual, graphical, or otherwise) available on the Web are encouraged, however.


For examples of valid kenning haiku, see the following pages:

Further information

As of Summer 2004, there is currently a KenningHaikuCompetition in progress.