‘the grandson of Neithon’= Domnall Brecc.^21 One such circumlocution,
‘Grandson of the Waters’, became at least for Indo-Iranian theology, and
perhaps more widely, the proper name of a divinity.^22
In principle any appositional phrase or characteristic epithet attached to
a name or thing can become a kenning when used by itself, as happens with
divine epithets in Homer such as Γλαυκ;πι, ,Ιοχαιρα, ,Αμφιγυ ει,
,Εννοσγαιο. A specific type found in the Indo-European traditions is that
by which a god or hero is identified by reference to the famous adversary that
he killed. Thus in the Rigveda Vr
̇
trahán- ‘the slayer of Vr
̇tra’= Indra, while in
Avestan the cognate Vərəθraγna- is the god’s primary name; he became the
popular national deity of Armenia, Vahagn. Hermes in Homer is often called
Lργειφο ́ ντη, understood as ‘slayer of Argos’, though the original sense
may have been ‘dog-killer’. The name of Bellerophon (Βελλεροφο ́ ντη)
clearly means ‘slayer of Bellero-’, presumably an obsolete designation of the
Chimaera. In Beowulf 1968 ‘the slayer of Ongentheow’ identifies Hygelac. In
the Edda we find ‘the slayer of Beli’= Freyr, ‘sole slayer of the serpent’= Thor,
‘the slayer of Fafnir’ and ‘the slayer of Gothorm’= Sigurd, ‘the slayer of
Hogni’= Vilmund, ‘the slayer of Isung’= Hodbrodd.^23
In the Rigveda (10. 137. 7 = AV 4. 13. 7) dás ́as ́a ̄kha- ‘ten-branched’ is
employed as an epithet of the hands, and in the Ra ̄ma ̄yan
̇
a (6. 47. 54)
pañcas ́a ̄kha-‘five-branched’. In Hesiod (Op. 742) ‘the five-branched’
(πντοζο) appears as a kenning for ‘the hand’ in an injunction couched in
oracular style: ‘Do not from the five-branched, at the prosperous feast shared
with the gods, cut the sere from the green with gleaming iron’ (that is, do not
cut your nails). In Norse poetry we meet tiálgur‘branches’ for arms, handar
tiálgur‘hand-branches’ for fingers, and ilkvistir‘sole-twigs’ for toes.^24 It looks
as if we have here an ancient Indo-European metaphor capable of conversion
into a kenning.
In the Odyssey (4. 707–9) Penelope, on learning that her son has gone
away by ship, complains that he had no call to board ships, α θ’>λ: πποι |
α, νδρα ́ σι γνονται ‘which serve men as horses of the sea’. This seems a
strange conceit; but ‘sea-horse’, expressed with numerous different words for
‘sea’ and for ‘horse’, is a frequent kenning for ‘ship’ in Old English and Norse
(^21) Some of this material is collected by Vittoria Grazi in Poetry in the Scandinavian Middle
Ages (Seventh International Saga Conference, Spoleto 1990), 550–3.
(^22) Vedic Apa ̄ ́m nápa ̄t= Avestan Apa ̨m napå. We shall examine this god in Chapter 6.
(^23) Vo ̨luspá 53. 5; Hymiskviða 22. 3; Grípisspá 15. 8; Guðrúnarkviða B 7. 7; Oddrúnargrátr 8.
4; Helgakviða Hundingsbana A 20. 2.
(^24) Víkarsbálkr 4. 2, 24. 6 (Edd. min. 38 ff.); Sighvat, Óláfsdrápa 95 (CPB ii. 142); Atlamál 66. 2;
other medieval material is cited in West (1978), 339. Cf. H. Humbach, MSS 21 (1967), 27;
Schmitt (1967), 281 f.; Bader (1989), 106.
82 2. Phrase and Figure