A kenning is generally a two-word, figurative substitution
used in place of a noun. Kennings are interesting because they are an example of the
ancient author and story-teller using figurative language before they realized exactly
what figurative language was. I tell my students that they are especially effective
because they encouraged the listener to figure out something on his own - kind of like
an easy riddle within the text that kept them interested and active in the story-telling
process. Some examples in the text are whale-road (line 10 - ocean), word-hoard (line
258 - vocabulary) war-board (line 438 - shield). As you can see, these require the
listener or reader to sort of figure out exactly what the compound word
references.
Alliteration is repetition of similar
consonant sounds. Again, similar to kennings, alliteration was used in this ancient text
before the author or listeners knew exactly what it was. They did, realize, however,
that it is pleasing to the ear to hear alliteration, which is important because Beowulf
was originally told aloud. Some examples are: "Whichever one death fells must deem it a
just judgment by God" (lines 440-441) and "He will carry me away as he goes to ground,
gorged and bloodied" (lines 446-447). Once these are identified, it's easy to see that
they create a more pleasing effect on the listener.
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