Year 4 create viking kennings

In Year 4, we have created our own kennings poems to describe Viking objects, such as swords and shields. This is particularly appropriate for our topic this term because kennings originate from Anglo- Saxon and Norse literature. In a kenning, an object is described in a two-word phrase, which is linked with a hyphen, such as ‘sword-deflector’ for a shield. The phrases create a set of clues for the reader.

We considered what our clues could be when we produced a series of kennings to create our own poems. We thought carefully about how to order our kennings and we soon realised that the most obvious clues were best left until last, in order to keep the reader thinking and engaged.

Below are some examples of the kennings that we created. Can you guess which Viking object each kenning is describing?

Skull-preserver

Body-protector

Blood-maker

Wave-roarer

Death-bringer