Definition of "kenning"

Touching the moſt remarkeable things of the Country and our proceeding from the 17 of Auguſt 1585. till the 18. of Iune 1586. we made Roanoack our habitation. The vtmoſt of our diſcouery Southward was Secotan as we eſteemed 80. leagues from Roanoacke. The paſſage from thence was thought a broad ſound within the maine, being without kenning of land, yet full of flats and ſhoulds that our Pinnaſſe could not paſſe, […]

1624, Richard Grenville, “Sir Richard Grenuills Voyage to Virginia, for Sir Walter Raleigh. 1585.”, in John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: […], London: […] I[ohn] D[awson] and I[ohn] H[aviland] for Michael Sparkes, book 1; reprinted in The Generall Historie of Virginia, [...] (Bibliotheca Americana), Cleveland, Oh.: The World Publishing Company, 1966, page 5

And becauſe in the beginning of my Trouble, when in the midſt of the Tempeſt, I had a kenning of the Harbour, which I hope now by your Majeſty's Favour I am entring into; I made a tender to your Majeſty of two Works, a Hiſtory of England, and a Digeſt of your Laws: as I have performed a Part of the one; ſo I have herewith ſent your Majeſty, by way of an Epiſtle, a New Offer of the other.

1733, Francis Bacon, “XXIX. To the King; Presenting the History of Henry VII. and a Proposal for a New Digest of the Laws of England.”, in Peter Shaw, compiler, The Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, and Lord High-Chancellor of England; Methodized, and Made English, from the Originals. With Occasional Notes, to Explain what is Obscure; and Shew how Far the Several Plans of the Author, for the Advancement of All the Parts of Knowledge, have been Executed to the Present Time. In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for J. J. and P. Knapton [et al.], supplement V (Select Letters upon Various Occasions: Relating to the Author’s Life and Writings), section II (Letters Relating to the Author’s Writings), page 504

"Saul of my pody, put you are wrang there, my friend," answered Robin, with composure; "it is your fat Englishmen that eat up our Scots cattle, puir things." / "I wish there was a summat to eat up their drovers," said another; "a plain Englishman canna make bread without a kenning of them."

1827, [Walter Scott], chapter XIV, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume I (The Two Drovers), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, pages 321–322

Scylley is a Kenning, that is to ſay about an xx. Miles from the very Weſteſte Point of Cornewaulle.

1711, John Leland, edited by Thomas Hearne, The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary. [...] Publish’d from the Original MS. in the Bodleian Library by Thomas Hearne M.A. To which is Added Antoninus’s Itinerary through Britain, with Various Readings and Dr. Robert Talbot’s Annotations upon It, volume III, Oxford: Printed at the Theater for the publisher, page 7

The obſcure text, of which the light is only to be ſeen by groping our way through "antres vaſt," and at times through "deſarts idle" of earth beneath, is frequently ſo highly elevated in the page, that it is barely entitled to [John] Milton's appellation of darkneſs viſible; and now and then it ſoars even above this, mounting (to uſe an old phraſe,) beyond a kenning.

1793 September, “Art. XII. The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare; Collated Verbatim with the Most Authentic Copies, and Revised: [...] By Edmund Malone. Crown 8vo. 10 Vols. about 600 Pages in each. The First Volume Divided into Two. 3l. 17s. Boards. Cadell, &c. 1790. [book review]”, in The Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal, Enlarged, volume XII, London: Printed for R[alph] Griffiths; and sold by T[homas] Becket, in Pall Mall, published 1794, footnote, page 56

If a person hires a ship and loads her or not entirely, and wishes to unload her, before she sets sail, he shall pay half the ship’s freight. But if the ship has sailed a kenning’s way seawards, he shall pay the shipmaster his full freight. [Footnote: kenning […] This phrase is applied in the Rutter of the Sea to signify the distance from one headland to another in sight. Vol. I., p. 115.]

1876, “Jus Maritimum Lubecense, in Usus Osterlingorum Descriptum, Anno 1299 = Code of Maritime Law, Drawn Up at Lubeck for the Use of the Osterlings, A.D. 1299”, in Travers Twiss, editor, Momenta Juridica. The Black Book of the Admiralty. Appendix.—Part IV. [...] Published by the Authority of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, under the Direction of the Master of the Rolls (Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores, or Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages), volume IV, London: Longman & Co., Paternoster Row; Trübner & Co., Ludgate Hill; [...], paragraph XVIII, page 369

His father was none so ill a man, though a kenning on the wrong side of the law, and no friend to my family, that I should waste my breath to be defending him!

1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Heather on Fire”, in Catriona, London, Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, page 111

The ſtreine or kenning of the egge.

1585, “Oui vmbilicus”, in Iohn Higins, transl., The Nomenclator, or Remembrancer of Adrianus Iunius, London: Ralph Newberie and Henrie Denham, page 54

[A]s we are all aware, the Skalds used all sorts of kennings from Jewels, Gold, Silver, &c., to betoken Women, &c. Gold is called "The Sea's Blink (Blik)", and so on, and a female is "Gold's Mistress", "The Goddess of the Golden Jewel", and so forth.

1867–1868, George Stephens, “Bracteates”, in The Old-Northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England, Now First Collected and Deciphered, volume II, London: John Russell Smith; Copenhagen: Michaelsen and Tillge; printed by H. H. Thiele, pages 509–510

I venture to say that a close study of the style of Piers Plowman would thoroughly dispose of alliteration as chief factor in the kenning-process.

1887 January, Francis B. Gummere, “Wilhelm Bode: Die Kenningar in der angelsächsen Dichtung. Mit Ausblicken auf andere Litteraturen. Darmstadt und Leipzig, 1886. [Strasburg Dissertation].”, in A. Marshall Elliott, editor, Modern Language Notes, volume II, number 1, Baltimore, Md.: [Johns Hopkins Press], column 36

If we now move to the second helmingr, Kock tries to unscramble the two kenningar […], but this is over-zealous, since there are ample parallels for such braiding of kenning elements. Finnbogi interprets the kenning 'ǫrbeiðanda bǫðvar jǫkla' contextually, to mean 'the one who provoked the warrior into drawing his sword' (Orkneyinga saga, 202).

2006, Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, Turnhout, Antwerp, Belgium: Brepols, page 149

The original also makes frequent use of the circumlocutory type of poetic expression known as the kenning, which consists (in its simplest form) of a base-word (always a noun, sometimes the second of the two elements in a compound word) accompanied by a determinant (either a noun in the genitive or, in the case of a compound-word kenning, the first of the compound's two elements).

2007, Andrew Wawn with Graham Johnson and John Walter, editors, Constructing Nations, Reconstructing Myth: Essays in Honour of T. A. Shippey (Making in the Middle Ages; 9), Turnhout, Antwerp, Belgium: Brepols, page 172

In the hall. One large table, with frame. 10s. ij cobbordes 8s. j fourme, j chaire, and j kenninge measure, 12d.

1585–1586 January 18, “LXIII. Testamentum Johannis Ogle. [63. Will of John Ogle.]”, in [William Greenwell], editor, Wills and Inventories from the Registry at Durham. Part II (The Publications of the Surtees Society; XXXVIII), Durham: Published for the Society by George Andrews, Durham; London: Whittaker and Co., 13 Ave Maria Lane; T. and W. Boone, 29 New Bond Street; Edinburgh: Blackwood and Sons, published 1860, page 132

He called one day at Mr. Hepple's, of Needless Hall, in a forlorn condition, seeking his seed (a present of corn given at seed-time). […] After this conversation, Mr. Hepple served him with a kenning of oats, which was a much greater quantity than he usually gave on such occasions.

1828, chapter XXX, in E. Mackenzie, editor, compiled by James Thompson, A New, Improved, and Authentic Life of James Allan, the Celebrated Northumberland Piper; Detailing His Surprising Adventures in Various Parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, including a Complete Description of the Manners and Customs of the Gipsy Tribes. Collected from Sources of Genuine Authority, by James Thompson, with Explanatory Notes by E. Mackenzie, [...], Newcastle upon Tyne: Printed and published by Mackenzie and Dent, St. Nicholas' Church-yard [...], page 460