Kennings worksheet questions

On the worksheet you will be given short excerpts from a Beowulf translation and asked to identify both the kennings the common nouns they replace.

1- find two kennings in this passage

He sang who knew

tales of the early time of man,

how the Almighty made the earth,

fairest fields enfolded by water,

set, triumphant, sun and moon

for a light to lighten the land-dwellers,

2- find two kennings (swan-road won’t count)

This heard in his home Hygelac’s thane,

great among Geats, of Grendel’s doings.

He was the mightiest man of valor

in that same day of this our life,

stalwart and stately. A stout wave-walker

he bade make ready. Yon battle-king, said he,

far o’er the swan-road he fain would seek,

the noble monarch who needed men!

3- find two kennings that refer to Grendel

But the evil one ambushed old and young

death-shadow dark, and dogged them still,

lured, or lurked in the livelong night

of misty moorlands: men may say not

where the haunts of these Hell-Runes be.

Such heaping of horrors the hater of men,

lonely roamer, wrought unceasing,

harassings heavy.