Talk:Heiti

Norse history and culture Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Norse history and culture, a WikiProject related to all activities of the North Germanic peoples, both in Scandinavia and abroad, prior to the formation of the Kalmar Union in 1397. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.Norse history and cultureWikipedia:WikiProject Norse history and cultureTemplate:WikiProject Norse history and cultureNorse history and culture articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Someone with a better knowledge of Old Norse (or at least, Norse poetical terms) should explain the difference between a kent heiti and an ókent heiti. I dimly recall hearing those terms explained in a college course on Norse poetry, but can't remember the difference nowadays. ISNorden 22:53, 1 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

With nothing more than a vague promise, I think I can remedy the confusion while adding my own.

A heiti is a rarely used single word, almost exclusive to poetry, denoting such things as swords, horses, women and so on.
A kenning is a circumlocation which can be rather hard to understand, unless you are well versed in the story behind it.

I have never heard of a distiction being made between kennd or ókennd heiti.

Your professor of yore might have been referring to those heiti, where the etymology is known and those that are not. That is just speculation, of course. But the terms heiti and kenning have precisely one meaning each, as I can recall, and I think Snorri Sturluson agrees with me.

All the best Io 19:48, 17 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I thought heiti was a verb meaning to be "called" (jól heitir hestr, for example). Kenna means to know, as in recognize, something, and a kenning is thus another name by which you would recognize someone or something. They're usually compound words derived from aspects of the thing to be described's character or appearance, so a mammal might be called livebirther. LokiClock (talk) 17:30, 12 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]